Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.106

c8.106

Among the opulent and gentle youth of that age, it was indispensable to the comfort of a style of life in keeping with their dignity, to have three palaces, which were constructed to be occupied by turns corresponding to the changes of winter, summer, and rains. Tradition states that the coming Buddha passed his early years in three such palaces, a life the background of which was the same scenery, the wonderful splendour of which then surrounded, and, still unchanged, now surrounds, the habitations of Indian nobles; shady gardens with lotus-pools on which the gently waving, gay-coloured lotus-flowers gleam like floating flower beds, and in the evening diffuse their fragrance afar, and outside the town the pleasure grounds to which the walks or elephant-rides lead, where rest and solitude await the comer, far from the bustle of the town, beneath the shade of tall and thick foliaged mango, pipal and sál-trees.