Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c31.168

v2.c31.168

1. Maṅgala. The third of the twenty-four Buddhas. He was born sixteen asaṅkheyyas and one hundred thousand kappas ago in the Uttarama-dhura Park, in the city of Uttara, his father being a khattiya named Uttara and his mother Uttarā. It is said that from the day of her conception, an aura shed its rays night and day from her body, to a distance of eighty hands—hence his name. He surpassed other Buddhas in glory of body. In his last birth as a human being (corresponding to that of Vessantara in the case of Gotama) he lived with his family as an ascetic. A man-eating yakkha, named Kharadāṭhika, took from him his two children and ate them in his presence, "crunching them as though they were yams,” while the blood dripped from his mouth.¹ The Bodhisatta stood firm in his resolve and repented not of his gift to the yakkha, but registered a desire that in future births his body should emit light as bright as the blood which flowed down the yakkha’s face. In a previous birth, Maṅgala paid honour to the cetiya of a Buddha by wrapping his body in cloth drenched with oil, setting fire to it and walking round the cetiya throughout the night, carrying on his head a golden bowl filled with scented oil and lighted with one thousand wicks. Not a hair on his body suffered damage.