Note 5 — Chapter VI · ON TOWARDS NORTH INDIA. DARADA. IMAGE OF MAITREYA BODHISATTVA.

(5) Maitreya (Spence Hardy, Maitri), often styled Ajita, “the Invincible,” was a Bodhisattva, the principal one, indeed, of Sâkyamuni’s retinue, but is not counted among the ordinary (historical) disciples, nor is anything told of his antecedents. It was in the Tushita heaven that Sâkyamuni met him and appointed him as his successor, to appear as Buddha after the lapse of 5000 years. Maitreya is therefore the expected Messiah of the Buddhists, residing at present in Tushita, and, according to the account of him in Eitel (H., p. 70), “already controlling the propagation of the Buddhistic faith.” The name means “gentleness” or “kindness;” and this will be the character of his dispensation.