Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c14.906

v1.c14.906

The isi Asita (or Kāḷadevala), meditating in the Himālaya, learns from the Tāvatimsa gods of the birth of the Buddha, visits Suddhodana the same day and sees the boy, whom they both worship. Asita weeps for sorrow that he will not live to see the boy's Buddhahood, but he instructs his nephew Nālaka (v.l. Naradatta) to prepare himself for that great day.⁷ On the fifth day after the birth is the ceremony of name-giving. One hundred and eight brahmins are invited to the festival at the palace; eight of them—Rāma, Dhaja, Lakkhana, Mantī, Koṇḍañña, Bhoja, Suyāma and Sudatta—are interpreters of bodily marks, and all except Koṇḍañña prophesy two possibilities for the boy; but Koṇḍañña, the youngest, says, quite decisively, that he will be a Buddha. The name given to the boy at this ceremony is not actually mentioned, but from other passages it is inferred that it was Siddhattha (q.v.).