[Footnote 726:  Six Manvantaras of the present Kalpa have elapsed and we are in the seventh.]

[Footnote 727:  We are in the Kali or worst age of the present mahayuga.  The Kali lasts 432,000 years and began 3102 B.C.

In their number and in many other points of cosmography the various accounts differ greatly.  The account given above is taken from the Vishnu Purana, book II. but the details in it are not entirely consistent.]

[Footnote 728:  The detailed formulation of this cosmography was naturally gradual but its chief features are known to the Nikayas.  Dig.  Nik.  XIV. 17 and 30 seem to imply the theory of spheres.  For Heavens, see Maj.  Nik. 49, Dig.  Nik.  XI. 68-79 and for Hells Sut.  Nip.  III. 10, Maj.  Nik. 129.  See too De la Vallee Poussin’s article, Cosmology Buddhist, in E.R.E.]

[Footnote 729:  See for the Asuras Sam.  Nik.  I. xi. 1.]

[Footnote 730:  See a Tibetan representation in Waddell’s Buddhism of Tibet, p. 79.]

[Footnote 731:  The question of whether the universe is infinite in space or not is according to the Pitakas one of those problems which cannot be answered.]

[Footnote 732:  Dig.  Nik.  XXVII.]

[Footnote 733:  Maro papima.  See especially Windisch, Mara and Buddha, 1895, and Sam.  Nik.  I. iv.]

[Footnote 734:  We sometimes hear of Maras in the plural.  Like Brahma he is sometimes a personality, sometimes the type of a class of gods.  We also hear that he has obtained his present exalted though not virtuous post by his liberality in former births.  Thus, like Sakka and other Buddhist Devas, Mara is really an office held by successive occupants.  He is said to be worshipped by some Tibetan sects.  It is possible that the legends about Mara and his daughters and about Krishna and the Gopis may have a common origin for Mara is called Kanha (the Prakrit equivalent of Krishna) in Sutta-Nipata, 439.]

[Footnote 735:  Ang.  Nik.  III. 35.]

[Footnote 736:  This seems to be the correct doctrine, though it is hard to understand how the popular idea of continual torture is compatible with the performance of good deeds.  The Katha-vatthu, XIII. 2, states that a man in purgatory can do good.  See too Ang.  Nik. 1. 19.]

[Footnote 737:  But even the language of the Pitakas is not always quite correct on this point, for it represents evil-doers as falling down straight into hell.]

[Footnote 738:  Khud.  Path. 7.  In this poem, the word Peta (Sk.  Preta) seems to be used as equivalent to departed spirits, not necessarily implying that they are undergoing punishment.  In the Questions of Milinda (IV. 8. 29) the practice of making offerings on behalf of the dead is countenanced, and it is explained exactly what classes of dead profit by them.  On the other hand the Katha-vatthu states that the dead do not benefit by gifts given in this world, but two sects, the Rajagirika and Siddhattika, are said by the commentary to hold the contrary view.]