Asita.-Often called the Buddhist Simeon, though the comparison is not quite correct. He was a sage and the chaplain of Sīhahanu, father of Suddhodana. He was the teacher of the Suddhodana, and later his chaplain. He came morning and evening to see the king, Suddhodana, who showed him as great respect as he had while yet his pupil; this, we are told, is a characteristic of Sākiyan kings.
With the king's leave, Asita renounced the world and lived in the king's pleasance. In due course he developed various iddhi powers. Thenceforward he would often spend the day in the deva worlds. Once, while in Tāvatimsa, he saw the whole city decked with splendour and the gods engaged in great rejoicing. On inquiry he learnt that Siddhattha Gotama, destined to become the Buddha, had been born. Immediately he went to Suddhodana's home and asked to see the babe. From the auspicious marks on its body he knew that it would become the Enlightened One and was greatly overjoyed, but realising that he himself would, by then, be born in an Arūpa world and would not therefore be able to hear the Buddha preach, he wept and was sad. Having reassured the king regarding the babe's future, Asita sought his sister's son, Nalaka, and ordained him that he might be ready to benefit by the Buddha's teaching when the time came. Later Asita was born in the Arūpa world (Sn., pp.131-36; SnA.ii.483ff.; J.i.54f).
According to Buddhaghosa (SnA.ii.483), Asita was so-called because of his dark complexion. He also had a second name, Kanha Devala (SnA.ii.487). Other names for him were Kanha Siri (Sn.v.689), Siri Kanha (SnA.487) and Kāla Devala (J.i.54).
He is evidently to be distinguished from Asita Devala, also called Kāla Devala.
The Lalita Vistara has two versions of Asita's prophecy, one in prose and one in verse, which, in their chief details, differ but slightly from the Pāli version. In the former his nephew is called Naradatta, and Asita himself is represented as being a great sage dwelling in the Himālaya but unknown to Suddhodana.
Here is evidently a confusion of his story with that of Asita Devala. In the Mahāvastu version (ii.30f) he is spoken of as the son of a brahmin of Ujjeni, and he lives in a hermitage in the Vindhyā mountains. It is noteworthy that in the Jātaka version he is called, not an isi, but a tāpasa, an ascetic practising austerities. And there we are told that when the king brought the boy, the future Buddha, and prepared to make him do reverence to the ascetic, the babe's feet turned up and placed themselves on the ascetic's head. For there is no one fit to be reverenced by a Bodhisatta, and had they put the babe's head at the feet of the ascetic, the ascetic's head would have split into seven pieces.
The tāpasa could see forty kappas into the past and forty kappas into the future. J.i.54-5. See Thomas, op. cit., pp. 38 ff., on the growth of the Asita legend.
Asita.-A Pacceka Buddha, mentioned in a list of Pacceka Buddhas (M.iii.70; ApA.i.107).
Asita.-A garland-maker in the time of Sikhī Buddha. While taking a garland to the palace, he saw the Buddha and offered it to him. As a result, twenty-five kappas ago he became a king named Dvebhāra. In the present age he was known as Sukatāveliya Thera (Ap.i.217).
Asita
Teacher and later chaplain to the Buddha's father, Śuddhodana. When the Buddha was born, Asita made a prophesy about the child's destiny based on the auspicious marks on its body (see dvātriṃśadvara-lakṣaṇa; anuvyañjana; mahāpuruṣa). He rejoiced in the birth of a future Buddha but was saddened by the realization that he would not be alive to hear his teachings. Because of his great prowess in meditation he was reborn in an immaterial (ārūpya) dimension after death.
asita : [(na + sita) adj.] black. (nt.) 1. food; 2. a sickle. (pp. of asati or asnāti:) eaten.
Asita1 [Sk. aśita, pp. of *asati, Sk. aśnāti] having eaten, eating; (nt.) that which is eaten or enjoyed, food M i.57; A iii.30, 32 (˚pīta -- khāyita etc.); PvA 25 (id.); J vi.555 ˚(āsana having enjoyed one's food, satisfied). Cp. āsita1.
Asita2 (adj.) [a + sita pp. of *śri, Sk. aśrita] not clinging to, unattached, independent, free (from wrong desires) D ii.261 (˚âtiga); M i.386; Th 1, 38, 1242 (see Mrs Rh. D. in Brethren 404 note 2); J ii.247; It 97; Sn 251, 519, 593, 686 (Asitavhaya, called the Asita i.e. the Unattached; cp. SnA 487), 698 (id.), 717, 957, 1065 (cp. Nd2 111 & nissaya).
Asita3 (adj.) [Sk. asita; Idg. *ās, cp. Lat. āreo to be dry, i. e. burnt up; Gr. a)/zw to dry; orig. meaning burnt, hence of burnt, i. e. black colour (of ashes)] black -- blue, black M ii.180 (˚vyābhangī); A iii.5 (id.); Th 2, 480 (= indanīla ThA 286); J iii.419 (˚âpangin black -- eyed); v. 302; Dāvs i.45.
Asita4 (m. nt.) [fr. asi] a sickle J iii.129; v 46.
asita: I. pp. 吃 II. pp. 未依靠 III. a.
asita 1
á-sita mfn. unbound TS. vii ŚBr. xiv
asita 2
ásita mf(ā
• Ved. ásiknī)n. (sita, 'white', appears to have been formed from this word, which is probably original, and not a compound of a and sita
• cf. asura and sura), dark-coloured, black RV. &c
• m. the planet Saturn VarBṛS
• a poisonous animal (said to be a kind of mouse) L
• N. of the lord of darkness and magic AV. ŚBr. ĀśvŚr
• of a descendant of Kaśyapa (composer of RV. ix, 5-24), named also Devala ṛānukr. or Asita Devala ṃBh. ḥariv.
• N. of a man (with the patron. Vārshagaṇa) ŚBr. xiv
• of a son of Bharata R
• of a Ṛishi Buddh
• of a mountain MBh. iii, 8364 Kathās
• (ás), m. a black snake AV
• a Mantra (saving from snakes) MBh. i, 2188
• (ā), f. a girl attending in the women's apartments (whose hair is not whitened by age) L
• the indigo plant L
• N. of an Apsaras MBh. i, 4819 Hariv. 12472
• (ásiknī), f. 'the dark one', the night RV. iv, 17, 15 ; x, 3, 1
• a girl attending in the women's apartments L
• N. of a wife of Daksha Hariv
• N. of the river Akesines (afterwards called Candra-bhāgā) in the Pañjāb RV. viii, 20, 25 and (asiknī́) x, 75, 5
nag po
[translation-san] {LCh,C} kṛṣṇa
[translation-san] {LCh} kāla
[translation-san] {LCh} asita
[translation-eng] {Hopkins} black
[translation-eng] {C} dark
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