Note 8 — Chapter XXXIV · ON THE WAY BACK TO PATNA. VARANASI, OR BENARES. SAKYAMUNI’S FIRST DOINGS AFTER BECOMING BUDDHA.

(8) A prince of Magadha and a maternal uncle of Sâkyamuni, who gave him the name of Ajnata, meaning automat; and hence he often appears as Ajnata Kaundinya. He and his four friends had followed Sâkyamuni into the Uruvilva desert, sympathising with him in the austerities he endured, and hoping that they would issue in his Buddhaship. They were not aware that that issue had come; which may show us that all the accounts in the thirty-first chapter are merely descriptions, by means of external imagery, of what had taken place internally. The kingdom of nirvâna had come without observation. These friends knew it not; and they were offended by what they considered Sâkyamuni’s failure, and the course he was now pursuing. See the account of their conversion in M. B., p. 186.