Note 2 — XVI. VIŚVAṆTARA.1

In long past times King Sarjarasin2 reigned in Vārāṇasī, over that great, rich, prosperous, blissful, and populous city. He took to wife the daughter of another king, and lived with her. She became with child, and after the lapse of eight or nine months, when the sun was high at midday, she gave birth to a very fine boy. When the boy’s birth-feast was held, and it was asked what name should be given to him, the ministers said: “O king, as the boy was born at the time when the sun [sūrya] is highest, let him be named Sūryanemi.” When he had received that name, he was entrusted to eight nurses, two for carrying, two for suckling, two for cleansing, and two for playing. These eight nurses nourished him with milk, curdled milk, butter, melted butter, butter-foam, and other excellent kinds of food, and he grew apace like a lotus in a pool. When he had grown up he learnt writing, reckoning, drawing, and hand-reckoning, and the arts and accomplishments which befitted a prince of the Kshatriya race, destined to be a king. King Sarjarasin’s first wife was named Dharmikā, and his prime minister, in whom the king placed the greatest confidence, Goshṭhila.