218 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
respectfully on one side. And when he was so seated, Pokkharasadi said to him.
- ‘Well, Ambattha! Did you see the Blessed One?’
‘Yes, Sir, we saw him.’
‘Well! is the Venerable Gotama so, as the reputation about him I told you of declares, and not otherwise. Is he such a one, or is he not?’
‘He is so, Sir, as his reputation declares, and not otherwise. Such is he, not different. And he is endowed with the thirty-two signs of a great man, with all of them, not only with some.’
‘And did you have any talk, Ambattha, with the Samana Gotama?’
‘Yes. Sir, I had.’
‘And how did the talk go?’
Then Ambattha told the Brahman Pokkharasadi all the talk that he had with the Blessed One.
- When he had thus spoken, Pokkharasadi said to him: ‘Oh. you wiseacre! Oh! you dullard! Oh! you expert, forsooth, in our threefold Vedic Lore! A man, they say, who should carry out his business thus, must, on the disolution of the body, after death, be reborn into some dismal state of misery and woe. What could the very points you pressed in your insolent words lead up to, if not to the very disclosures the venerable Gotama made? What a wiseacre, what a dullard; what an expert, forsooth, in our threefold Vedic lore !’ And angry and displeased, he struck out with his foot, and rolled Ambattha over. And he wanted, there and then, himself to go and call on the Blessed One.
I. But the Brahmanas there spake thus to Pokkharasadi: ‘It is much too late. Sir, today to go to call on the Samana Gotama. The venerable Pokkharasadi can do so tomorrow.
So Pokkharasadi had sweet food, both hard and soft, made ready at his own house, and taken on wagons, by the light of blazing torches, out to Ukkattha. And he himself went on to the Ikkhanankala Wood, driving in his chariot as far as the road was practicable for vehicles, and then going on, on foot, to where the Blessed One was. And when he had exchanged with the Blessed One the greetings and compliments of politeness and courtesy, he took his seat on one side, and said to the Blessed One:
- ‘Has our pupil, Gotama, the young Brahman Ambattha, been here?’
‘Yes, Brahman, he has.’
‘And did you, Gotama. have any talk with him? [’]
‘Yes, Brahman, I had. [’]