A RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS

[12] I have not met with the particulars of this preaching.

[13] Meaning, as explained in Chinese, "a tree without knots;" the
/ficus Indica/. See Rhys Davids' note, Manual, p. 39, where he says
that a branch of one of these trees was taken from Buddha Gaya to
Anuradhapura in Ceylon in the middle of the third century B.C, and is
still growing there, the oldest historical tree in the world.

[14] See chap. xiii, note 11. I have not met with the account of this
presentation. See the long account of Prajapati in M. B., pp. 306-315.

[15] See chap. xx, note 10. The Srotapannas are the first class of
saints, who are not to be reborn in a lower sphere, but attain to
nirvana after having been reborn seven times consecutively as men or
devas. The Chinese editions state there were "1000" of the Sakya seed.
The general account is that they were 500, all maidens, who refused to
take their place in king Vaidurya's harem, and were in consequence
taken to a pond, and had their hands and feet cut off. There Buddha
came to them, had their wounds dressed, and preached to them the Law.
They died in the faith, and were reborn in the region of the four
Great Kings. Thence they came back and visited Buddha at Jetavana in
the night, and there they obtained the reward of Srotapanna. "The Life
of the Buddha," p. 121.

[16] See the account of this event in M. B., p. 150. The account of it
reminds me of the ploughing by the sovereign, which has been an
institution in China from the earliest times. But there we have no
magic and no extravagance.

[17] "The place of Liberation;" see chap. xiii, note 7.

[18] See the accounts of this event in M. B., pp. 145, 146; "The Life
of the Buddha," pp. 15, 16; and "Buddhist Birth Stories," p. 66.

[19] There is difficulty in construing the text of this last
statement. Mr. Beal had, no doubt inadvertently, omitted it in his
first translation. In his revised version he gives for it, I cannot
say happily, "As well as at the pool, the water of which came down
from above for washing (the child)."

[20] See chap. xvii, note 8. See also Davids' Manual, p. 45. The
latter says, that "to turn the wheel of the Law" means "to set rolling
the royal chariot wheel of a universal empire of truth and
righteousness;" but he admits that this is more grandiloquent than the
phraseology was in the ears of Buddhists. I prefer the words quoted
from Eitel in the note referred to. "They turned" is probably
equivalent to "They began to turn."

[21] Fa-hien does not say that he himself saw any of these white
elephants, nor does he speak of the lions as of any particular colour.
We shall find by-and-by, in a note further on, that, to make them
appear more terrible, they are spoken of as "black."



CHAPTER XXIII

RAMA, AND ITS TOPE.

East from Buddha's birthplace, and at a distance of five yojanas,
there is a kingdom called Rama.[1] The king of this country, having
obtained one portion of the relics of Buddha's body,[2] returned with
it and built over it a tope, named the Rama tope. By the side of it
there was a pool, and in the pool a dragon, which constantly kept
watch over (the tope), and presented offerings to it day and night.
When king Asoka came forth into the world, he wished to destroy the
eight topes (over the relics), and to build (instead of them) 84,000
topes.[3] After he had thrown down the seven (others), he wished next
to destroy this tope. But then the dragon showed itself, took the king
into its palace;[4] and when he had seen all the things provided for
offerings, it said to him, "If you are able with your offerings to
exceed these, you can destroy the tope, and take it all away. I will
not contend with you." The king, however, knew that such appliances
for offerings were not to be had anywhere in the world, and thereupon
returned (without carrying out his purpose).

(Afterwards), the ground all about became overgrown with vegetation,
and there was nobody to sprinkle and sweep (about the tope); but a
herd of elephants came regularly, which brought water with their
trunks to water the ground, and various kinds of flowers and incense,
which they presented at the tope. (Once) there came from one of the
kingdoms a devotee[5] to worship at the tope. When he encountered the
elephants he was greatly alarmed, and screened himself among the
trees; but when he saw them go through with the offerings in the most
proper manner, the thought filled him with great sadness--that there
should be no monastery here, (the inmates of which) might serve the
tope, but the elephants have to do the watering and sweeping.
Forthwith he gave up the great prohibitions (by which he was
bound),[6] and resumed the status of a Sramanera.[7] With his own
hands he cleared away the grass and trees, put the place in good
order, and made it pure and clean. By the power of his exhortations,
he prevailed on the king of the country to form a residence for monks;
and when that was done, he became head of the monastery. At the
present day there are monks residing in it. This event is of recent
occurrence; but in all the succession from that time till now, there
has always been a Sramanera head of the establishment.

NOTES

[1] Rama or Ramagrama, between Kapilavastu and Kusanagara.

[2] See the account of the eightfold division of the relics of
Buddha's body in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist
Suttas, pp. 133-136.

[3] The bones of the human body are supposed to consist of 84,000
atoms, and hence the legend of Asoka's wish to build 84,000 topes, one
over each atom of Sakyamuni's skeleton.

[4] Fa-hien, it appears to me, intended his readers to understand that
the naga-guardian had a palace of his own, inside or underneath the
pool or tank.

[5] It stands out on the narrative as a whole that we have not here
"some pilgrims," but one devotee.

[6] What the "great prohibitions" which the devotee now gave up were
we cannot tell. Being what he was, a monk of more than ordinary
ascetical habits, he may have undertaken peculiar and difficult vows.

[7] The Sramanera, or in Chinese Shamei. See chap. xvi, note 19.

CHAPTER XXIV

WHERE BUDDHA FINALLY RENOUNCED THE WORLD, AND WHERE HE DIED.

East from here four yojanas, there is the place where the heir-
apparent sent back Chandaka, with his white horse;[1] and there also a
tope was erected.

Four yojanas to the east from this, (the travellers) came to the
Charcoal tope,[2] where there is also a monastery.

Going on twelve yojanas, still to the east, they came to the city of
Kusanagara,[3] on the north of which, between two trees,[4] on the
bank of the Nairanjana[5] river, is the place where the World-honoured
one, with his head to the north, attained to pari-nirvana (and died).
There also are the places where Subhadra,[6] the last (of his
converts), attained to Wisdom (and became an Arhat); where in his
coffin of gold they made offerings to the World-honoured one for seven
days,[7] where the Vajrapani laid aside his golden club,[8] and where
the eight kings[9] divided the relics (of the burnt body):--at all
these places were built topes and monasteries, all of which are now
existing.

In the city the inhabitants are few and far between, comprising only
the families belonging to the (different) societies of monks.

Going from this to the south-east for twelve yojanas, they came to the
place where the Lichchhavis[10] wished to follow Buddha to (the place
of) his pari-nirvana, and where, when he would not listen to them and
they kept cleaving to him, unwilling to go away, he made to appear a
large and deep ditch which they could not cross over, and gave them
his alms-bowl, as a pledge of his regard, (thus) sending them back to
their families. There a stone pillar was erected with an account of
this event engraved upon it.

NOTES

[1] This was on the night when Sakyamuni finally left his palace and
family to fulfil the course to which he felt that he was called.
Chandaka, in Pali Channa, was the prince's charioteer, and in sympathy
with him. So also was the white horse Kanthaka (Kanthakanam Asvaraja),
which neighed his delight till the devas heard him. See M. B., pp.
158-161, and Davids' Manual, pp. 32, 33. According to "Buddhist Birth
Stories," p. 87, the noble horse never returned to the city, but died
of grief at being left by his master, to be reborn immediately in the
Trayastrimsas heaven as the deva Kanthaka!

[2] Beal and Giles call this the "Ashes" tope. I also would have
preferred to call it so; but the Chinese character is {.}, not {.}.
Remusat has "la tour des charbons." It was over the place of Buddha's
cremation.

[3] In Pali Kusinara. It got its name from the Kusa grass (the /poa
cynosuroides/); and its ruins are still extant, near Kusiah, 180 N.W.
from Patna; "about," says Davids, "120 miles N.N.E. of Benares, and 80
miles due east of Kapilavastu."

[4] The Sala tree, the /Shorea robusta/, which yields the famous teak
wood.

[5] Confounded, according to Eitel, even by Hsuan-chwang, with the
Hiranyavati, which flows past the city on the south.

[6] A Brahman of Benares, said to have been 120 years old, who came to
learn from Buddha the very night he died. Ananda would have repulsed
him; but Buddha ordered him to be introduced; and then putting aside
the ingenious but unimportant question which he propounded, preached
to him the Law. The Brahman was converted and attained at once to
Arhatship. Eitel says that he attained to nirvana a few moments before
Sakyamuni; but see the full account of him and his conversion in
"Buddhist Suttas," p. 103-110.

[7] Thus treating the dead Buddha as if he had been a Chakravartti
king. Hardy's M. B., p. 347, says:--"For the place of cremation, the
princes (of Kusinara) offered their own coronation-hall, which was
decorated with the utmost magnificence, and the body was deposited in
a golden sarcophagus." See the account of a cremation which Fa-hien
witnessed in Ceylon, chap. xxxix.

[8] The name Vajrapani is explained as "he who holds in his hand the
diamond club (or pestle=sceptre)," which is one of the many names of
Indra or Sakra. He therefore, that great protector of Buddhism, would
seem to be intended here; but the difficulty with me is that neither
in Hardy nor Rockhill, nor any other writer, have I met with any
manifestation of himself made by Indra on this occasion. The princes
of Kusanagara were called mallas, "strong or mighty heroes;" so also
were those of Pava and Vaisali; and a question arises whether the
language may not refer to some story which Fa-hien had heard,--
something which they did on this great occasion. Vajrapani is also
explained as meaning "the diamond mighty hero;" but the epithet of
"diamond" is not so applicable to them as to Indra. The clause may
hereafter obtain more elucidation.

[9] Of Kusanagara, Pava, Vaisali, and other kingdoms. Kings, princes,
brahmans,--each wanted the whole relic; but they agreed to an
eightfold division at the suggestion of the brahman Drona.

[10] These "strong heroes" were the chiefs of Vaisali, a kingdom and
city, with an oligarchical constitution. They embraced Buddhism early,
and were noted for their peculiar attachment to Buddha. The second
synod was held at Vaisali, as related in the next chapter. The ruins
of the city still exist at Bassahar, north of Patna, the same, I
suppose, as Besarh, twenty miles north of Hajipur. See Beal's Revised
Version, p. lii.



CHAPTER XXV

VAISALI. THE TOPE CALLED "WEAPONS LAID DOWN."
THE COUNCIL OF VAISALI.

East from this city ten yojanas, (the travellers) came to the kingdom
of Vaisali. North of the city so named is a large forest, having in it
the double-galleried vihara[1] where Buddha dwelt, and the tope over
half the body of Ananda.[2] Inside the city the woman Ambapali[3]
built a vihara in honour of Buddha, which is now standing as it was at
first. Three le south of the city, on the west of the road, (is the)
garden (which) the same Ambapali presented to Buddha, in which he
might reside. When Buddha was about to attain to his pari-nirvana, as
he was quitting the city by the west gate, he turned round, and,
beholding the city on his right, said to them, "Here I have taken my
last walk."[4] Men subsequently built a tope at this spot.

Three le north-west of the city there is a tope called, "Bows and
weapons laid down." The reason why it got that name was this:--The
inferior wife of a king, whose country lay along the river Ganges,
brought forth from her womb a ball of flesh. The superior wife,
jealous of the other, said, "You have brought forth a thing of evil
omen," and immediately it was put into a box of wood and thrown into
the river. Farther down the stream another king was walking and
looking about, when he saw the wooden box (floating) in the water. (He
had it brought to him), opened it, and found a thousand little boys,
upright and complete, and each one different from the others. He took
them and had them brought up. They grew tall and large, and very
daring, and strong, crushing all opposition in every expedition which
they undertook. By and by they attacked the kingdom of their real
father, who became in consequence greatly distressed and sad. His
inferior wife asked what it was that made him so, and he replied,
"That king has a thousand sons, daring and strong beyond compare, and
he wishes with them to attack my kingdom; this is what makes me sad."
The wife said, "You need not be sad and sorrowful. Only make a high
gallery on the wall of the city on the east; and when the thieves
come, I shall be able to make them retire." The king did as she said;
and when the enemies came, she said to them from the tower, "You are
my sons; why are you acting so unnaturally and rebelliously?" They
replied, "If you do not believe me," she said, "look, all of you,
towards me, and open your mouths." She then pressed her breasts with
her two hands, and each sent forth 500 jets of milk, which fell into
the mouths of the thousand sons. The thieves (thus) knew that she was
their mother, and laid down their bows and weapons.[5] The two kings,
the fathers, thereupon fell into reflection, and both got to be
Pratyeka Buddhas.[6] The tope of the two Pratyeka Buddhas is still
existing.

In a subsequent age, when the World-honoured one had attained to
perfect Wisdom (and become Buddha), he said to is disciples, "This is
the place where I in a former age laid down my bow and weapons."[7] It
was thus that subsequently men got to know (the fact), and raised the
tope on this spot, which in this way received its name. The thousand
little boys were the thousand Buddhas of this Bhadra-kalpa.[8]

It was by the side of the "Weapons-laid-down" tope that Buddha, having
given up the idea of living longer, said to Ananda, "In three months
from this I will attain to pavi-nirvana;" and king Mara[9] had so
fascinated and stupefied Ananda, that he was not able to ask Buddha to
remain longer in this world.

Three or four le east from this place there is a tope (commemorating
the following occurrence):--A hundred years after the pari-nirvana
of Buddha, some Bhikshus of Vaisali went wrong in the matter of the
disciplinary rules in ten particulars, and appealed for their
justification to what they said were the words of Buddha. Hereupon the
Arhats and Bhikshus observant of the rules, to the number in all of
700 monks, examined afresh and collated the collection of disciplinary
books.[10] Subsequently men built at this place the tope (in
question), which is still existing.

NOTES

[1] It is difficult to tell what was the peculiar form of this vihara
from which it gets its name; something about the construction of its
door, or cupboards, or galleries.

[2] See the explanation of this in the next chapter.

[3] Ambapali, Amrapali, or Amradarika, "the guardian of the Amra
(probably the mango) tree," is famous in Buddhist annals. See the
account of her in M. B., pp. 456-8. She was a courtesan. She had been
in many narakas or hells, was 100,000 times a female beggar, and
10,000 times a prostitute; but maintaining perfect continence during
the period of Kasyapa Buddha, Sakyamuni's predecessor, she had been
born a devi, and finally appeared in earth under an Amra tree in
Vaisali. There again she fell into her old ways, and had a son by king
Bimbisara; but she was won over by Buddha to virtue and chastity,
renounced the world, and attained to the state of an Arhat. See the
earliest account of Ambapali's presentation of the garden in "Buddhist
Suttas," pp. 30-33, and the note there from Bishop Bigandet on pp. 33,
34.

[4] Beal gives, "In this place I have performed the last religious act
of my earthly career;" Giles, "This is the last place I shall visit;"
Remusat, "C'est un lieu ou je reviendrai bien longtemps apres ceci."
Perhaps the "walk" to which Buddha referred had been for meditation.

[5] See the account of this legend in the note in M. B., pp. 235, 236,
different, but not less absurd. The first part of Fa-hien's narrative
will have sent the thoughts of some of my readers to the exposure of
the infant Moses, as related in Exodus. [Certainly did.--JB.]

[6] See chap. xiii, note 14.

[7] Thus Sakyamuni had been one of the thousand little boys who
floated in the box in the Ganges. How long back the former age was we
cannot tell. I suppose the tope of the two fathers who became Pratyeka
Buddhas had been built like the one commemorating the laying down of
weapons after Buddha had told his disciples of the strange events in
the past.

[8] Bhadra-kalpa, "the Kalpa of worthies or sages." "This," says
Eitel, p. 22, "is a designation for a Kalpa of stability, so called
because 1000 Buddhas appear in the course of it. Our present period is
a Bhadra-kalpa, and four Buddhas have already appeared. It is to last
236 million years, but over 151 millions have already elapsed."

[9] "The king of demons." The name Mara is explained by "the
murderer," "the destroyer of virtue," and similar appellations. "He
is," says Eitel, "the personification of lust, the god of love, sin,
and death, the arch-enemy of goodness, residing in the heaven
Paranirmita Vasavartin on the top of the Kamadhatu. He assumes
different forms, especially monstrous ones, to tempt or frighten the
saints, or sends his daughters, or inspires wicked men like Devadatta
or the Nirgranthas to do his work. He is often represented with 100
arms, and riding on an elephant." The oldest form of the legend in
this paragraph is in "Buddhist Suttas," Sacred Books of the East, vol.
xi, pp. 41-55, where Buddha says that, if Ananda had asked him thrice,
he would have postponed his death.

[10] Or the Vinaya-pitaka. The meeting referred to was an important
one, and is generally spoken of as the second Great Council of the
Buddhist Church. See, on the formation of the Buddhist Canon, Hardy's
E. M., chap. xviii, and the last chapter of Davids' Manual, on the
History of the Order. The first Council was that held at Rajagriha,
shortly after Buddha's death, under the presidency of Kasyapa;--say
about B.C. 410. The second was that spoken of here;--say about B.C.
300. In Davids' Manual (p. 216) we find the ten points of discipline,
in which the heretics (I can use that term here) claimed at least
indulgence. Two meetings were held to consider and discuss them. At
the former the orthodox party barely succeeded in carrying their
condemnation of the laxer monks; and a second and larger meeting, of
which Fa-hien speaks, was held in consequence, and a more emphatic
condemnation passed. At the same time all the books and subjects of
discipline seem to have undergone a careful revision.

The Corean text is clearer than the Chinese as to those who composed
the Council,--the Arhats and orthodox monks. The leader among them was
a Yasas, or Yasada, or Yedsaputtra, who had been a disciple of Ananda,
and must therefore have been a very old man.



CHAPTER XXVI

REMARKABLE DEATH OF ANANDA.

Four yojanas on from this place to the east brought the travellers to
the confluence of the five rivers.[1] When Ananda was going from
Magadha[2] to Vaisali, wishing his pari-nirvana to take place (there),
the devas informed king Ajatasatru[3] of it, and the king immediately
pursued him, in his own grand carriage, with a body of soldiers, and
had reached the river. (On the other hand), the Lichchhavis of Vaisali
had heard that Amanda was coming (to their city), and they on their
part came to meet him. (In this way), they all arrived together at the
river, and Ananda considered that, if he went forward, king Ajatasatru
would be very angry, while, if he went back, the Lichchhavis would
resent his conduct. He thereupon in the very middle of the river burnt
his body in a fiery ecstasy of Samadhi,[4] and his pari-nirvana was
attained. He divided his body (also) into two, (leaving) the half of
it on each bank; so that each of the two kings got one half as a
(sacred) relic, and took it back (to his own capital), and there
raised a tope over it.

NOTES

[1] This spot does not appear to have been identified. It could not be
far from Patna.

[2] Magadha was for some time the headquarters of Buddhism; the holy
land, covered with viharas; a fact perpetuated, as has been observed
in a previous note, in the name of the present Behar, the southern
portion of which corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Magadha.

[3] In Singhalese, Ajasat. See the account of his conversion in M. B.,
pp. 321-326. He was the son of king Bimbisara, who was one of the
first royal converts to Buddhism. Ajasat murdered his father, or at
least wrought his death; and was at first opposed to Sakyamuni, and a
favourer of Devadatta. When converted, he became famous for his
liberality in almsgiving.

[4] Eitel has a long article (pp. 114, 115) on the meaning of Samadhi,
which is one of the seven sections of wisdom (bodhyanga). Hardy
defines it as meaning "perfect tranquillity;" Turnour, as "meditative
abstraction;" Burnouf, as "self-control;" and Edkins, as "ecstatic
reverie." "Samadhi," says Eitel, "signifies the highest pitch of
abstract, ecstatic meditation; a state of absolute indifference to all
influences from within or without; a state of torpor of both the
material and spiritual forces of vitality; a sort of terrestrial
nirvana, consistently culminating in total destruction of life." He
then quotes apparently the language of the text, "He consumed his body
by Agni (the fire of) Samadhi," and says it is "a common expression
for the effects of such ecstatic, ultra-mystic self-annihilation." All
this is simply "a darkening of counsel by words without knowledge."
Some facts concerning the death of Ananda are hidden beneath the
darkness of the phraseology, which it is impossible for us to
ascertain. By or in Samadhi he burns his body in the very middle of
the river, and then he divides the relic of the burnt body into two
parts (for so evidently Fa-hien intended his narration to be taken),
and leaves one half on each bank. The account of Ananda's death in
Nien-ch'ang's "History of Buddha and the Patriarchs" is much more
extravagant. Crowds of men and devas are brought together to witness
it. The body is divided into four parts. One is conveyed to the
Tushita heaven; a second, to the palace of a certain Naga king; a
third is given to Ajatasatru; and the fourth to the Lichchhavis. What
it all really means I cannot tell.



CHAPTER XXVII

PATALIPUTTRA OR PATNA, IN MAGADHA. KING ASOKA'S SPIRIT-BUILT
PALACE AND HALLS. THE BUDDHIST BRAHMAN, RADHA-SAMI.
DISPENSARIES AND HOSPITALS.

Having crossed the river, and descended south for a yojana, (the
travellers) came to the town of Pataliputtra,[1] in the kingdom of
Magadha, the city where king Asoka[2] ruled. The royal palace and
halls in the midst of the city, which exist now as of old, were all
made by spirits which he employed, and which piled up the stones,
reared the walls and gates, and executed the elegant carving and
inlaid sculpture-work,--in a way which no human hands of this world
could accomplish.

King Asoka had a younger brother who had attained to be an Arhat, and
resided on Gridhra-kuta[3] hill, finding his delight in solitude and
quiet. The king, who sincerely reverenced him, wished and begged him
(to come and live) in his family, where he could supply all his wants.
The other, however, through his delight in the stillness of the
mountain, was unwilling to accept the invitation, on which the king
said to him, "Only accept my invitation, and I will make a hill for
you inside the city." Accordingly, he provided the materials of a
feast, called to him the spirits, and announced to them, "To-morrow
you will all receive my invitation; but as there are no mats for you
to sit on, let each one bring (his own seat)." Next day the spirits
came, each one bringing with him a great rock, (like) a wall, four or
five paces square, (for a seat). When their sitting was over, the king
made them form a hill with the large stones piled on one another, and
also at the foot of the hill, with five large square stones, to make
an apartment, which might be more than thirty cubits long, twenty
cubits wide, and more than ten cubits high.

In this city there had resided a great Brahman,[4] named Radha-
sami,[5] a professor of the mahayana, of clear discernment and much
wisdom, who understood everything, living by himself in spotless
purity. The king of the country honoured and reverenced him, and
served him as his teacher. If he went to inquire for and greet him,
the king did not presume to sit down alongside of him; and if, in his
love and reverence, he took hold of his hand, as soon as he let it go,
the Brahman made haste to pour water on it and wash it. He might be
more than fifty years old, and all the kingdom looked up to him. By
means of this one man, the Law of Buddha was widely made known, and
the followers of other doctrines did not find it in their power to
persecute the body of monks in any way.

By the side of the tope of Asoka, there has been made a mahayana
monastery, very grand and beautiful; there is also a hinayana one; the
two together containing six or seven hundred monks. The rules of
demeanour and the scholastic arrangements[6] in them are worthy of
observation.

Shamans of the highest virtue from all quarters, and students,
inquirers wishing to find out truth and the grounds of it, all resort
to these monasteries. There also resides in this monastery a Brahman
teacher, whose name also is Manjusri,[7] whom the Shamans of greatest
virtue in the kingdom, and the mahayana Bhikshus honour and look up
to.

The cities and towns of this country are the greatest of all in the
Middle Kingdom. The inhabitants are rich and prosperous, and vie with
one another in the practice of benevolence and righteousness. Every
year on the eighth day of the second month they celebrate a procession
of images. They make a four-wheeled car, and on it erect a structure
of four storeys by means of bamboos tied together. This is supported
by a king-post, with poles and lances slanting from it, and is rather
more than twenty cubits high, having the shape of a tope. White and
silk-like cloth of hair[8] is wrapped all round it, which is then
painted in various colours. They make figures of devas, with gold,
silver, and lapis lazuli grandly blended and having silken streamers
and canopies hung out over them. On the four sides are niches, with a
Buddha seated in each, and a Bodhisattva standing in attendance on
him. There may be twenty cars, all grand and imposing, but each one
different from the others. On the day mentioned, the monks and laity
within the borders all come together; they have singers and skilful
musicians; they pay their devotion with flowers and incense. The
Brahmans come and invite the Buddhas to enter the city. These do so in
order, and remain two nights in it. All through the night they keep
lamps burning, have skilful music, and present offerings. This is the
practice in all the other kingdoms as well. The Heads of the Vaisya
families in them establish in the cities houses for dispensing charity
and medicines. All the poor and destitute in the country, orphans,
widowers, and childless men, maimed people and cripples, and all who
are diseased, go to those houses, and are provided with every kind of
help, and doctors examine their diseases. They get the food and
medicines which their cases require, and are made to feel at ease; and
when they are better, they go away of themselves.

When king Asoka destroyed the seven topes, (intending) to make eighty-
four thousand,[9] the first which he made was the great tope, more
than three le to the south of this city. In front of this there is a
footprint of Buddha, where a vihara has been built. The door of it
faces the north, and on the south of it there is a stone pillar,
fourteen or fifteen cubits in circumference, and more than thirty
cubits high, on which there is an inscription, saying, "Asoka gave the
jambudvipa to the general body of all the monks, and then redeemed it
from them with money. This he did three times."[10] North from the
tope 300 or 400 paces, king Asoka built the city of Ne-le.[11] In it
there is a stone pillar, which also is more than thirty feet high,
with a lion on the top of it. On the pillar there is an inscription
recording the things which led to the building of Ne-le, with the
number of the year, the day, and the month.

NOTES

[1] The modern Patna, lat. 25d 28s N., lon. 85d 15s E. The Sanskrit
name means "The city of flowers." It is the Indian Florence.

[2] See chap. x, note 3. Asoka transferred his court from Rajagriha to
Pataliputtra, and there, in the eighteenth year of his reign, he
convoked the third Great Synod,--according, at least, to southern
Buddhism. It must have been held a few years before B.C. 250; Eitel
says in 246.

[3] "The Vulture-hill;" so called because Mara, according to Buddhist
tradition, once assumed the form of a vulture on it to interrupt the
meditation of Ananda; or, more probably, because it was a resort of
vultures. It was near Rajagriha, the earlier capital of Asoka, so that
Fa-hien connects a legend of it with his account of Patna. It abounded
in caverns, and was famous as a resort of ascetics.

[4] A Brahman by cast, but a Buddhist in faith.

[5] So, by the help of Julien's "Methode," I transliterate the Chinese
characters {.} {.} {.} {.}. Beal gives Radhasvami, his Chinese text
having a {.} between {.} and {.}. I suppose the name was Radhasvami or
Radhasami.

[6] {.} {.}, the names of two kinds of schools, often occurring in the
Li Ki and Mencius. Why should there not have been schools in those
monasteries in India as there were in China? Fa-hien himself grew up
with other boys in a monastery, and no doubt had to "go to school."
And the next sentence shows us there might be schools for more
advanced students as well as for the Sramaneras.

[7] See chap. xvi, note 22. It is perhaps with reference to the famous
Bodhisattva that the Brahman here is said to be "also" named Manjusri.

[8] ? Cashmere cloth.

[9] See chap. xxiii, note 3.

[10] We wish that we had more particulars of this great transaction,
and that we knew what value in money Asoka set on the whole world. It
is to be observed that he gave it to the monks, and did not receive it
from them. Their right was from him, and he bought it back. He was the
only "Power" that was.

[11] We know nothing more of Ne-le. It could only have been a small
place; an outpost for the defence of Pataliputtra.



CHAPTER XXVIII

RAJAGRIHA, NEW AND OLD. LEGENDS AND INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH IT.

(The travellers) went on from this to the south-east for nine yojanas,
and came to a small solitary rocky hill,[1] at the head or end of
which[2] was an apartment of stone, facing the south,--the place where
Buddha sat, when Sakra, Ruler of Devas, brought the deva-musician,
Pancha-(sikha),[3] to give pleasure to him by playing on his lute.
Sakra then asked Buddha about forty-two subjects, tracing (the
questions) out with his finger one by one on the rock.[4] The prints
of his tracing are still there; and here also there is a monastery.

A yojana south-west from this place brought them to the village of
Nala,[5] where Sariputtra[6] was born, and to which also he returned,
and attained here his pari-nirvana. Over the spot (where his body was
burned) there was built a tope, which is still in existence.

Another yojana to the west brought them to New Rajagriha,[7]--the new
city which was built by king Ajatasatru. There were two monasteries in
it. Three hundred paces outside the west gate, king Ajatasatru, having
obtained one portion of the relics of Buddha, built (over them) a
tope, high, large, grand, and beautiful. Leaving the city by the south
gate, and proceeding south four le, one enters a valley, and comes to
a circular space formed by five hills, which stand all round it, and
have the appearance of the suburban wall of a city. Here was the old
city of king Bimbisara; from east to west about five or six le, and
from north to south seven or eight. It was here that Sariputtra and
Maudgalyayana first saw Upasena;[8] that the Nirgrantha[9] made a pit
of fire and poisoned the rice, and then invited Buddha (to eat with
him); that king Ajatasatru made a black elephant intoxicated with
liquor, wishing him to injure Buddha;[10] and that at the north-east
corner of the city in a (large) curving (space) Jivaka built a vihara
in the garden of Ambapali,[11] and invited Buddha with his 1250
disciples to it, that he might there make his offerings to support
them. (These places) are still there as of old, but inside the city
all is emptiness and desolation; no man dwells in it.

NOTES

[1] Called by Hsuan-chwang Indra-sila-guha, or "The cavern of Indra."
It has been identified with a hill near the village of Giryek, on the
bank of the Panchana river, about thirty-six miles from Gaya. The hill
terminates in two peaks overhanging the river, and it is the more
northern and higher of these which Fa-hien had in mind. It bears an
oblong terrace covered with the ruins of several buildings, especially
of a vihara.

[2] This does not mean the top or summit of the hill, but its
"headland," where it ended at the river.

[3] See the account of this visit of Sakra in M. B., pp. 288-290. It
is from Hardy that we are able to complete here the name of the
musician, which appears in Fa-hien as only Pancha, or "Five." His harp
or lute, we are told, was "twelve miles long."

[4] Hardy (M. B., pp. 288, 289) makes the subjects only thirteen,
which are still to be found in one of the Sutras ("the Dik-Sanga, in
the Sakra-prasna Sutra"). Whether it was Sakra who wrote his
questions, or Buddha who wrote the answers, depends on the
punctuation. It seems better to make Sakra the writer.

[5] Or Nalanda; identified with the present Baragong. A grand
monastery was subsequently built at it, famous by the residence for
five years of Hsuan-chwang.

[6] See chap. xvi, note 11. There is some doubt as to the statement
that Nala was his birthplace.

[7] The city of "Royal Palaces;" "the residence of the Magadha kings
from Bimbisara to Asoka, the first metropolis of Buddhism, at the foot
of the Gridhrakuta mountains. Here the first synod assembled within a
year after Sakyamuni's death. Its ruins are still extant at the
village of Rajghir, sixteen miles S.W. of Behar, and form an object of
pilgrimage to the Jains (E. H., p. 100)." It is called New Rajagriha
to distinguish it from Kusagarapura, a few miles from it, the old
residence of the kings. Eitel says it was built by Bimbisara, while
Fa-hien ascribes it to Ajatasatru. I suppose the son finished what the
father had begun.

[8] One of the five first followers of Sakyamuni. He is also called
Asvajit; in Pali Assaji; but Asvajit seems to be a military title=
"Master or trainer of horses." The two more famous disciples met him,
not to lead him, but to be directed by him, to Buddha. See Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xiii, Vinaya Texts, pp. 144-147.

[9] One of the six Tirthyas (Tirthakas="erroneous teachers;" M. B.,
pp. 290-292, but I have not found the particulars of the attempts on
Buddha's life referred to by Fa-hien), or Brahmanical opponents of
Buddha. He was an ascetic, one of the Jnati clan, and is therefore
called Nirgranthajnati. He taught a system of fatalism, condemned the
use of clothes, and thought he could subdue all passions by fasting.
He had a body of followers, who called themselves by his name (Eitel,
pp. 84, 85), and were the forerunners of the Jains.

[10] The king was moved to this by Devadatta. Of course the elephant
disappointed them, and did homage to Sakyamuni. See Sacred Books of
the East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, p. 247.

[11] See chap. xxv, note 3. Jivaka was Ambapali's son by king
Bimbisara, and devoted himself to the practice of medicine. See the
account of him in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xvii, Vinaya
Texts, pp. 171-194.



CHAPTER XXIX

GRIDHRA-KUTA HILL, AND LEGENDS. FA-HIEN PASSES A NIGHT ON IT.
HIS REFLECTIONS.

Entering the valley, and keeping along the mountains on the south-
east, after ascending fifteen le, (the travellers) came to mount
Gridhra-kuta.[1] Three le before you reach the top, there is a cavern
in the rocks, facing the south, in which Buddha sat in meditation.
Thirty paces to the north-west there is another, where Ananda was
sitting in meditation, when the deva Mara Pisuna,[2] having assumed
the form of a large vulture, took his place in front of the cavern,
and frightened the disciple. Then Buddha, by his mysterious,
supernatural power, made a cleft in the rock, introduced his hand, and
stroked Ananda's shoulder, so that his fear immediately passed away.
The footprints of the bird and the cleft for (Buddha's) hand are still
there, and hence comes the name of "The Hill of the Vulture Cavern."

In front of the cavern there are the places where the four Buddhas
sat. There are caverns also of the Arhats, one where each sat and
meditated, amounting to several hundred in all. At the place where in
front of his rocky apartment Buddha was walking from east to west (in
meditation), and Devadatta, from among the beetling cliffs on the
north of the mountain, threw a rock across, and hurt Buddha's toes,[3]
the rock is still there.[4]

The hall where Buddha preached his Law has been destroyed, and only
the foundations of the brick walls remain. On this hill the peak is
beautifully green, and rises grandly up; it is the highest of all the
five hills. In the New City Fa-hien bought incense-(sticks), flowers,
oil and lamps, and hired two bhikshus, long resident (at the place),
to carry them (to the peak). When he himself got to it, he made his
offerings with the flowers and incense, and lighted the lamps when the
darkness began to come on. He felt melancholy, but restrained his
tears and said, "Here Buddha delivered the Surangama (Sutra).[5] I,
Fa-hien, was born when I could not meet with Buddha; and now I only
see the footprints which he has left, and the place where he lived,
and nothing more." With this, in front of the rock cavern, he chanted
the Surangama Sutra, remained there over the night, and then returned
towards the New City.[6]

NOTES

[1] See chap. xxviii, note 1.

[2] See chap. xxv, note 9. Pisuna is a name given to Mara, and
signifies "sinful lust."

[3] See M. B., p. 320. Hardy says that Devadatta's attempt was "by the
help of a machine;" but the oldest account in the Sacred Books of the
East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, p. 245, agrees with what Fa-hien implies
that he threw the rock with his own arm.

[4] And, as described by Hsuan-chwang, fourteen or fifteen cubits
high, and thirty paces round.

[5] See Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio's "Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of
the Buddhist Tripitaka," Sutra Pitaka, Nos. 399, 446. It was the
former of these that came on this occasion to the thoughts and memory
of Fa-hien.

[6] In a note (p. lx) to his revised version of our author, Mr. Beal
says, "There is a full account of this perilous visit of Fa-hien, and
how he was attacked by tigers, in the 'History of the High Priests.'"
But "the high priests" merely means distinguished monks, "eminent
monks," as Mr. Nanjio exactly renders the adjectival character. Nor
was Fa-hien "attacked by tigers" on the peak. No "tigers" appear in
the Memoir. "Two black lions" indeed crouched before him for a time
this night, "licking their lips and waving their tails;" but their
appearance was to "try," and not to attack him; and when they saw him
resolute, they "drooped their heads, put down their tails, and
prostrated themselves before him." This of course is not an historical
account, but a legendary tribute to his bold perseverance.

CHAPTER XXX

THE SRATAPARNA CAVE, OR CAVE OF THE FIRST COUNCIL. LEGENDS.
SUICIDE OF A BHIKSHU.

Out from the old city, after walking over 300 paces, on the west of
the road, (the travellers) found the Karanda Bamboo garden,[1] where
the (old) vihara is still in existence, with a company of monks, who
keep (the ground about it) swept and watered.

North of the vihara two or three le there was the Smasanam, which name
means in Chinese "the field of graves into which the dead are
thrown."[2]

As they kept along the mountain on the south, and went west for 300
paces, they found a dwelling among the rocks, named the Pippala
cave,[3] in which Buddha regularly sat in meditation after taking his
(midday) meal.

Going on still to the west for five or six le, on the north of the
hill, in the shade, they found the cavern called Srataparna,[4] the
place where, after the nirvana[5] of Buddha, 500 Arhats collected the
Sutras. When they brought the Sutras forth, three lofty seats[6] had
been prepared and grandly ornamented. Sariputtra occupied the one on
the left, and Maudgalyayana that on the right. Of the number of five
hundred one was wanting. Mahakasyapa was president (on the middle
seat). Amanda was then outside the door, and could not get in.[7] At
the place there was (subsequently) raised a tope, which is still
existing.

Along (the sides of) the hill, there are also a very great many cells
among the rocks, where the various Arhans sat and meditated. As you
leave the old city on the north, and go down east for three le, there
is the rock dwelling of Devadatta, and at a distance of fifty paces
from it there is a large, square, black rock. Formerly there was a
bhikshu, who, as he walked backwards and forwards upon it, thought
with himself:--"This body[8] is impermanent, a thing of bitterness and
vanity,[9] and which cannot be looked on as pure.[10] I am weary of
this body, and troubled by it as an evil." With this he grasped a
knife, and was about to kill himself. But he thought again:--"The
World-honoured one laid down a prohibition against one's killing
himself."[11] Further it occurred to him:--"Yes, he did; but I now
only wish to kill three poisonous thieves."[12] Immediately with the
knife he cut his throat. With the first gash into the flesh he
attained the state of a Srotapanna;[13] when he had gone half through,
he attained to be an Anagamin;[14] and when he had cut right through,
he was an Arhat, and attained to pari-nirvana;[15] (and died).

NOTES

[1] Karanda Venuvana; a park presented to Buddha by king Bimbisara,
who also built a vihara in it. See the account of the transaction in
M. B., p. 194. The place was called Karanda, from a creature so named,
which awoke the king just as a snake was about to bite him, and thus
saved his life. In Hardy the creature appears as a squirrel, but Eitel
says that the Karanda is a bird of sweet voice, resembling a magpie,
but herding in flocks; the /cuculus melanoleucus/. See "Buddhist Birth
Stories," p. 118.

[2] The language here is rather contemptuous, as if our author had no
sympathy with any other mode of disposing of the dead, but by his own
Buddhistic method of cremation.

[3] The Chinese characters used for the name of this cavern serve also
to name the pippala (peepul) tree, the /ficus religiosa/. They make us
think that there was such a tree overshadowing the cave; but Fa-hien
would hardly have neglected to mention such a circumstance.

[4] A very great place in the annals of Buddhism. The Council in the
Srataparna cave did not come together fortuitously, but appears to
have been convoked by the older members to settle the rules and
doctrines of the order. The cave was prepared for the occasion by king
Ajatasatru. From the expression about the "bringing forth of the
King," it would seem that the Sutras or some of them had been already
committed to writing. May not the meaning of King {.} here be extended
to the Vinaya rules, as well as the Sutras, and mean "the standards"
of the system generally? See Davids' Manual, chapter ix, and Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, pp. 370-385.

[5] So in the text, evidently for pari-nirvana.

[6] Instead of "high" seats, the Chinese texts have "vacant." The
character for "prepared" denotes "spread;"--they were carpeted;
perhaps, both cushioned and carpeted, being rugs spread on the ground,
raised higher than the other places for seats.

[7] Did they not contrive to let him in, with some cachinnation, even
in so august an assembly, that so important a member should have been
shut out?

[8] "The life of this body" would, I think, fairly express the idea of
the bhikshu.

[9] See the account of Buddha's preaching in chapter xviii.

[10] The sentiment of this clause is not easily caught.

[11] See E. M., p. 152:--"Buddha made a law forbidding the monks to
commit suicide. He prohibited any one from discoursing on the miseries
of life in such a manner as to cause desperation." See also M. B., pp.
464, 465.

[12] Beal says:--"Evil desire; hatred; ignorance."

[13] See chap. xx, note 10.

[14] The Anagamin belong to the third degree of Buddhistic saintship,
the third class of Aryas, who are no more liable to be reborn as men,
but are to be born once more as devas, when they will forthwith become
Arhats, and attain to nirvana. E. H., pp. 8, 9.

[15] Our author expresses no opinion of his own on the act of this
bhikshu. Must it not have been a good act, when it was attended, in
the very act of performance, by such blessed consequences? But if
Buddhism had not something better to show than what appears here, it
would not attract the interest which it now does. The bhikshu was
evidently rather out of his mind; and the verdict of a coroner's
inquest of this nineteenth century would have pronounced that he
killed himself "in a fit of insanity."



CHAPTER XXXI

  GAYA. SAKYAMUNI'S ATTAINING TO THE BUDDHASHIP; AND OTHER LEGENDS.

From this place, after travelling to the west for four yojanas, (the
pilgrims) came to the city of Gaya;[1] but inside the city all was
emptiness and desolation. Going on again to the south for twenty le,
they arrived at the place where the Bodhisattva for six years
practised with himself painful austerities. All around was forest.

Three le west from here they came to the place where, when Buddha had
gone into the water to bathe, a deva bent down the branch of a tree,
by means of which he succeeded in getting out of the pool.[2]

Two le north from this was the place where the Gramika girls presented
to Buddha the rice-gruel made with milk;[3] and two le north from this
(again) was the place where, seated on a rock under a great tree, and
facing the east, he ate (the gruel). The tree and the rock are there
at the present day. The rock may be six cubits in breadth and length,
and rather more than two cubits in height. In Central India the cold
and heat are so equally tempered that trees will live in it for
several thousand and even for ten thousand years.

Half a yojana from this place to the north-east there was a cavern in
the rocks, into which the Bodhisattva entered, and sat cross-legged
with his face to the west. (As he did so), he said to himself, "If I
am to attain to perfect wisdom (and become Buddha), let there be a
supernatural attestation of it." On the wall of the rock there
appeared immediately the shadow of a Buddha, rather more than three
feet in length, which is still bright at the present day. At this
moment heaven and earth were greatly moved, and devas in the air spoke
plainly, "This is not the place where any Buddha of the past, or he
that is to come, has attained, or will attain, to perfect Wisdom. Less
than half a yojana from this to the south-west will bring you to the
patra[4] tree, where all past Buddhas have attained, and all to come
must attain, to perfect Wisdom." When they had spoken these words,
they immediately led the way forwards to the place, singing as they
did so. As they thus went away, the Bodhisattva arose and walked
(after them). At a distance of thirty paces from the tree, a deva gave
him the grass of lucky omen,[5] which he received and went on. After
(he had proceeded) fifteen paces, 500 green birds came flying towards
him, went round him thrice, and disappeared. The Bodhisattva went
forward to the patra tree, placed the kusa grass at the foot of it,
and sat down with his face to the east. Then king Mara sent three
beautiful young ladies, who came from the north, to tempt him, while
he himself came from the south to do the same. The Bodhisattva put his
toes down on the ground, and the demon soldiers retired and dispersed,
and the three young ladies were changed into old (grand-)mothers.[6]

At the place mentioned above of the six years' painful austerities,
and at all these other places, men subsequently reared topes and set
up images, which all exist at the present day.

Where Buddha, after attaining to perfect wisdom, for seven days
contemplated the tree, and experienced the joy of vimukti;[7] where,
under the patra tree, he walked backwards and forwards from west to
east for seven days; where the devas made a hall appear, composed of
the seven precious substances, and presented offerings to him for
seven days; where the blind dragon Muchilinda[8] encircled him for
seven days; where he sat under the nyagrodha tree, on a square rock,
with his face to the east, and Brahma-deva[9] came and made his
request to him; where the four deva kings brought to him their alms-
bowls;[10] where the 500 merchants[11] presented to him the roasted
flour and honey; and where he converted the brothers Kasyapa and their
thousand disciples;[12]--at all these places topes were reared.

At the place where Buddha attained to perfect Wisdom, there are three
monasteries, in all of which there are monks residing. The families of
their people around supply the societies of these monks with an
abundant sufficiency of what they require, so that there is no lack or
stint.[13] The disciplinary rules are strictly observed by them. The
laws regulating their demeanour in sitting, rising, and entering when
the others are assembled, are those which have been practised by all
the saints since Buddha was in the world down to the present day. The
places of the four great topes have been fixed, and handed down
without break, since Buddha attained to nirvana. Those four great
topes are those at the places where Buddha was born; where he attained
to Wisdom; where he (began to) move the wheel of his Law; and where he
attained to pari-nirvana.

NOTES

[1] Gaya, a city of Magadha, was north-west of the present Gayah (lat.
24d 47s N., lon. 85d 1s E). It was here that Sakyamuni lived for seven
years, after quitting his family, until he attained to Buddhaship. The
place is still frequented by pilgrims. E. H., p. 41.

[2] This is told so as to make us think that he was in danger of being
drowned; but this does not appear in the only other account of the
incident I have met with,--in "The Life of the Buddha," p. 31. And he
was not yet Buddha, though he is here called so; unless indeed the
narrative is confused, and the incidents do not follow in the order of
time.

[3] An incident similar to this is told, with many additions, in
Hardy's M. B., pp. 166-168; "The Life of the Buddha," p. 30; and the
"Buddhist Birth Stories," pp. 91, 92; but the name of the ministering
girl or girls is different. I take Gramika from a note in Beal's
revised version; it seems to me a happy solution of the difficulty
caused by the {.} {.} of Fa-hien.

[4] Called "the tree of leaves," and "the tree of reflection;" a palm
tree, the /borassus flabellifera/, described as a tree which never
loses its leaves. It is often confounded with the pippala. E. H., p.
92.

[5] The kusa grass, mentioned in a previous note.

[6] See the account of this contest with Mara in M. B., pp. 171-179,
and "Buddhist Birth Stories," pp. 96-101.

[7] See chap. xiii, note 7.

[8] Called also Maha, or the Great Muchilinda. Eitel says: "A naga
king, the tutelary deity of a lake near which Sakyamuni once sat for
seven days absorbed in meditation, whilst the king guarded him." The
account (p. 35) in "The Life of the Buddha" is:--"Buddha went to where
lived the naga king Muchilinda, and he, wishing to preserve him from
the sun and rain, wrapped his body seven times round him, and spread
out his hood over his head; and there he remained seven days in
thought." So also the Nidana Katha, in "Buddhist Birth Stories," p.
109.

[9] This was Brahma himself, though "king" is omitted. What he
requested of the Buddha was that he would begin the preaching of his
Law. Nidana Katha, p. 111.

[10] See chap. xii, note 10.

[11] The other accounts mention only two; but in M. B., p. 182, and
the Nidana Katha, p. 110, these two have 500 well-laden waggons with
them.

[12] These must not be confounded with Mahakasyapa of chap. xvi, note
17. They were three brothers, Uruvilva, Gaya, and Nadi-Kasyapa, up to
this time holders of "erroneous" views, having 500, 300, and 200
disciples respectively. They became distinguished followers of
Sakyamuni; and are--each of them--to become Buddha by-and-by. See the
Nidana Katha, pp. 114, 115.

[13] This seems to be the meaning; but I do not wonder that some
understand the sentence of the benevolence of the monkish population
to the travellers.



CHAPTER XXXII

LEGEND OF KING ASOKA IN A FORMER BIRTH, AND HIS NARAKA.

When king Asoka, in a former birth,[1] was a little boy and played on
the road, he met Kasyapa Buddha walking. (The stranger) begged food,
and the boy pleasantly took a handful of earth and gave it to him. The
Buddha took the earth, and returned it to the ground on which he was
walking; but because of this (the boy) received the recompense of
becoming a king of the iron wheel,[2] to rule over Jambudvipa. (Once)
when he was making a judicial tour of inspection through Jambudvipa,
he saw, between the iron circuit of the two hills, a naraka[3] for the
punishment of wicked men. Having thereupon asked his ministers what
sort of a thing it was, they replied, "It belongs to Yama,[4] king of
demons, for punishing wicked people." The king thought within himself:
--"(Even) the king of demons is able to make a naraka in which to deal
with wicked men; why should not I, who am the lord of men, make a
naraka in which to deal with wicked men?" He forthwith asked his
ministers who could make for him a naraka and preside over the
punishment of wicked people in it. They replied that it was only a man
of extreme wickedness who could make it; and the king thereupon sent
officers to seek everywhere for (such) a bad man; and they saw by the
side of a pond a man tall and strong, with a black countenance, yellow
hair, and green eyes, hooking up the fish with his feet, while he
called to him birds and beasts, and, when they came, then shot and
killed them, so that not one escaped. Having got this man, they took
him to the king, who secretly charged him, "You must make a square
enclosure with high walls. Plant in it all kinds of flowers and
fruits; make good ponds in it for bathing; make it grand and imposing
in every way, so that men shall look to it with thirsting desire; make
its gates strong and sure; and when any one enters, instantly seize
him and punish him as a sinner, not allowing him to get out. Even if I
should enter, punish me as a sinner in the same way, and do not let me
go. I now appoint you master of that naraka."

Soon after this a bhikshu, pursuing his regular course of begging his
food, entered the gate (of the place). When the lictors of the naraka
saw him, they were about to subject him to their tortures; but he,
frightened, begged them to allow him a moment in which to eat his
midday meal. Immediately after, there came in another man, whom they
thrust into a mortar and pounded till a red froth overflowed. As the
bhikshu looked on, there came to him the thought of the impermanence,
the painful suffering and insanity of this body, and how it is but as
a bubble and as foam; and instantly he attained to Arhatship.
Immediately after, the lictors seized him, and threw him into a
caldron of boiling water. There was a look of joyful satisfaction,
however, in the bhikshu's countenance. The fire was extinguished, and
the water became cold. In the middle (of the caldron) there rose up a
lotus flower, with the bhikshu seated on it. The lictors at once went
and reported to the king that there was a marvellous occurrence in the
naraka, and wished him to go and see it; but the king said, "I
formerly made such an agreement that now I dare not go (to the
place)." The lictors said, "This is not a small matter. Your majesty
ought to go quickly. Let your former agreement be altered." The king
thereupon followed them, and entered (the naraka), when the bhikshu
preached the Law to him, and he believed, and was made free.[5]
Forthwith he demolished the naraka, and repented of all the evil which
he had formerly done. From this time he believed in and honoured the
Three Precious Ones, and constantly went to a patra tree, repenting
under it, with self-reproach, of his errors, and accepting the eight
rules of abstinence.[6]

The queen asked where the king was constantly going to, and the
ministers replied that he was constantly to be seen under (such and
such) a patra tree. She watched for a time when the king was not
there, and then sent men to cut the tree down. When the king came, and
saw what had been done, he swooned away with sorrow, and fell to the
ground. His ministers sprinkled water on his face, and after a
considerable time he revived. He then built all round (the stump) with
bricks, and poured a hundred pitchers of cows' milk on the roots; and
as he lay with his four limbs spread out on the ground, he took this
oath, "If the tree do not live, I will never rise from this." When he
had uttered this oath, the tree immediately began to grow from the
roots, and it has continued to grow till now, when it is nearly 100
cubits in height.

NOTES

[1] Here is an instance of {.} used, as was pointed out in chap. ix,
note 3, for a former age; and not merely a former time. Perhaps "a
former birth" is the best translation. The Corean reading of Kasyapa
Buddha is certainly preferable to the Chinese "Sakya Buddha."

[2] See chap. xvii, note 8.

[3] I prefer to retain the Sanskrit term here, instead of translating
the Chinese text by "Earth's prison {.} {.}," or "a prison in the
earth;" the name for which has been adopted generally by Christian
missionaries in China for gehenna and hell.

[4] Eitel (p. 173) says:--"Yama was originally the Aryan god of the
dead, living in a heaven above the world, the regent of the south; but
Brahmanism transferred his abode to hell. Both views have been
retained by Buddhism." The Yama of the text is the "regent of the
narakas, residing south of Jambudvipa, outside the Chakravalas (the
double circuit of mountains above), in a palace built of brass and
iron. He has a sister who controls all the female culprits, as he
exclusively deals with the male sex. Three times, however, in every
twenty-four hours, a demon pours boiling copper into Yama's mouth, and
squeezes it down his throat, causing him unspeakable pain." Such,
however, is the wonderful "transrotation of births," that when Yama's
sins have been expiated, he is to be reborn as Buddha, under the name
of "The Universal King."

[5] Or, "was loosed;" from the bonds, I suppose, of his various
illusions.

[6] I have not met with this particular numerical category.



CHAPTER XXXIII

MOUNT GURUPADA, WHERE KASYAPA BUDDHA'S ENTIRE SKELETON IS.

(The travellers), going on from this three le to the south, came to a
mountain named Gurupada,[1] inside which Mahakasyapa even now is. He
made a cleft, and went down into it, though the place where he entered
would not (now) admit a man. Having gone down very far, there was a
hole on one side, and there the complete body of Kasyapa (still)
abides. Outside the hole (at which he entered) is the earth with which
he had washed his hands.[2] If the people living thereabouts have a
sore on their heads, they plaster on it some of the earth from this,
and feel immediately easier.[3] On this mountain, now as of old, there
are Arhats abiding. Devotees of our Law from the various countries in
that quarter go year by year to the mountain, and present offerings to
Kasyapa; and to those whose hearts are strong in faith there come
Arhats at night, and talk with them, discussing and explaining their
doubts, and disappearing suddenly afterwards.

On this hill hazels grow luxuriously; and there are many lions,
tigers, and wolves, so that people should not travel incautiously.

NOTES

[1] "Fowl's-foot hill," "with three peaks, resembling the foot of a
chicken. It lies seven miles south-east of Gaya, and was the residence
of Mahakasyapa, who is said to be still living inside this mountain."
So Eitel says, p. 58; but this chapter does not say that Kasyapa is in
the mountain alive, but that his body entire is in a recess or hole in
it. Hardy (M. B., p. 97) says that after Kasyapa Buddha's body was
burnt, the bones still remained in their usual position, presenting
the appearance of a perfect skeleton. It is of him that the chapter
speaks, and not of the famous disciple of Sakyamuni, who also is
called Mahakasyapa. This will appear also on a comparison of Eitel's
articles on "Mahakasyapa" and "Kasyapa Buddha."

[2] Was it a custom to wash the hands with "earth," as is often done
with sand?

[3] This I conceive to be the meaning here.

CHAPTER XXXIV

ON THE WAY BACK TO PATNA. VARANASI, OR BENARES. SAKYAMUNI'S
FIRST DOINGS AFTER BECOMING BUDDHA.

Fa-hien[1] returned (from here) towards Pataliputtra,[2] keeping along
the course of the Ganges and descending in the direction of the west.
After going ten yojanas he found a vihara, named "The Wilderness,"--a
place where Buddha had dwelt, and where there are monks now.

Pursuing the same course, and going still to the west, he arrived,
after twelve yojanas, at the city of Varanasi[3] in the kingdom of
Kasi. Rather more than ten le to the north-east of the city, he found
the vihara in the park of "The rishi's Deer-wild."[4] In this park
there formerly resided a Pratyeka Buddha,[5] with whom the deer were
regularly in the habit of stopping for the night. When the World-
honoured one was about to attain to perfect Wisdom, the devas sang in
the sky, "The son of king Suddhodana, having quitted his family and
studied the Path (of Wisdom),[6] will now in seven days become
Buddha." The Pratyeka Buddha heard their words, and immediately
attained to nirvana; and hence this place was named "The Park of the
rishi's Deer-wild."[7] After the World-honoured one had attained to
perfect Wisdom, men build the vihara in it.

Buddha wished to convert Kaundinya[8] and his four companions; but
they, (being aware of his intention), said to one another, "This
Sramana Gotama[9] for six years continued in the practice of painful
austerities, eating daily (only) a single hemp-seed, and one grain of
rice, without attaining to the Path (of Wisdom); how much less will he
do so now that he has entered (again) among men, and is giving the
reins to (the indulgence of) his body, his speech, and his thoughts!
What has he to do with the Path (of Wisdom)? To-day, when he comes to
us, let us be on our guard not to speak with him." At the places where
the five men all rose up, and respectfully saluted (Buddha), when he
came to them; where, sixty paces north from this, he sat with his face
to the east, and first turned the wheel of the Law, converting
Kaundinya and the four others; where, twenty paces further to the
north, he delivered his prophecy concerning Maitreya;[10] and where,
at a distance of fifty paces to the south, the dragon Elapattra[11]
asked him, "When shall I get free from this naga body?"--at all these
places topes were reared, and are still existing. In (the park) there
are two monasteries, in both of which there are monks residing.

When you go north-west from the vihara of the Deer-wild park for
thirteen yojanas, there is a kingdom named Kausambi.[12] Its vihara is
named Ghochiravana[13]--a place where Buddha formerly resided. Now, as
of old, there is a company of monks there, most of whom are students
of the hinayana.

East from (this), when you have travelled eight yojanas, is the place
where Buddha converted[14] the evil demon. There, and where he walked
(in meditation) and sat at the place which was his regular abode,
there have been topes erected. There is also a monastery, which may
contain more than a hundred monks.

NOTES

[1] Fa-hien is here mentioned singly, as in the account of his visit
to the cave on Gridhra-kuta. I think that Tao-ching may have remained
at Patna after their first visit to it.

[2] See chap. xxvii, note 1.

[3] "The city surrounded by rivers;" the modern Benares, lat. 25d 23s
N., lon. 83d 5s E.

[4] "The rishi," says Eitel, "is a man whose bodily frame has
undergone a certain transformation by dint of meditation and ascetism,
so that he is, for an indefinite period, exempt from decrepitude, age,
and death. As this period is believed to extend far beyond the usual
duration of human life, such persons are called, and popularly
believed to be, immortals." Rishis are divided into various classes;
and rishi-ism is spoken of as a seventh part of transrotation, and
rishis are referred to as the seventh class of sentient beings.
Taoism, as well as Buddhism, has its Seen jin.

[5] See chap. xiii, note 15.

[6] See chap. xxii, note 2.

[7] For another legend about this park, and the identification of "a
fine wood" still existing, see note in Beal's first version, p. 135.

[8] A prince of Magadha and a maternal uncle of Sakyamuni, who gave
him the name of Ajnata, meaning automat; and hence he often appears as
Ajnata Kaundinya. He and his four friends had followed Sakyamuni 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 nirvana had come without observation. These friends knew it not;
and they were offended by what they considered Sakyamuni's failure,
and the course he was now pursuing. See the account of their
conversion in M. B., p. 186.

[9] This is the only instance in Fa-hien's text where the Bodhisattva
or Buddha is called by the surname "Gotama." For the most part our
traveller uses Buddha as a proper name, though it properly means "The
Enlightened." He uses also the combinations "Sakya Buddha,"="The
Buddha of the Sakya tribe," and "Sakyamuni,"="The Sakya sage." This
last is the most common designation of the Buddha in China, and to my
mind best combines the characteristics of a descriptive and a proper
name. Among other Buddhistic peoples "Gotama" and "Gotama Buddha" are
the more frequent designations. It is not easy to account for the rise
of the surname Gotama in the Sakya family, as Oldenberg acknowledges.
He says that "the Sakyas, in accordance with the custom of Indian
noble families, had borrowed it from one of the ancient Vedic bard
families." Dr. Davids ("Buddhism," p. 27) says: "The family name was
certainly Gautama," adding in a note, "It is a curious fact that
Gautama is still the family name of the Rajput chiefs of Nagara, the
village which has been identified with Kapilavastu." Dr. Eitel says
that "Gautama was the sacerdotal name of the Sakya family, which
counted the ancient rishi Gautama among its ancestors." When we
proceed, however, to endeavour to trace the connexion of that
Brahmanical rishi with the Sakya house, by means of 1323, 1468, 1469,
and other historical works in Nanjio's Catalogue, we soon find that
Indian histories have no surer foundation than the shifting sand;--see
E. H., on the name Sakya, pp. 108, 109. We must be content for the
present simply to accept Gotama as one of the surnames of the Buddha
with whom we have to do.

[10] See chap. vi, note 5. It is there said that the prediction of
Maitreya's succession to the Buddhaship was made to him in the Tushita
heaven. Was there a repetition of it here in the Deer-park, or was a
prediction now given concerning something else?

[11] Nothing seems to be known of this naga but what we read here.

[12] Identified by some with Kusia, near Kurrah (lat. 25d 41s N., lon.
81d 27s E.); by others with Kosam on the Jumna, thirty miles above
Allahabad. See E. H., p. 55.

[13] Ghochira was the name of a Vaisya elder, or head, who presented a
garden and vihara to Buddha. Hardy (M. B., p. 356) quotes a statement
from a Singhalese authority that Sakyamuni resided here during the
ninth year of his Buddhaship.

[14] Dr. Davids thinks this may refer to the striking and beautiful
story of the conversion of the Yakkha Alavaka, as related in the
Uragavagga, Alavakasutta, pp. 29-31 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. x,
part ii).



CHAPTER XXXV

DAKSHINA, AND THE PIGEON MONASTERY.

South from this 200 yojanas, there is a country named Dakshina,[1]
where there is a monastery (dedicated to) the bygone Kasyapa Buddha,
and which has been hewn out from a large hill of rock. It consists in
all of five storeys;--the lowest, having the form of an elephant, with
500 apartments in the rock; the second, having the form of a lion,
with 400 apartments; the third, having the form of a horse, with 300
apartments; the fourth, having the form of an ox, with 200 apartments;
and the fifth, having the form of a pigeon, with 100 apartments. At
the very top there is a spring, the water of which, always in front of
the apartments in the rock, goes round among the rooms, now circling,
now curving, till in this way it arrives at the lowest storey, having
followed the shape of the structure, and flows out there at the door.
Everywhere in the apartments of the monks, the rock has been pierced
so as to form windows for the admission of light, so that they are all
bright, without any being left in darkness. At the four corners of the
(tiers of) apartments, the rock has been hewn so as to form steps for
ascending to the top (of each). The men of the present day, being of
small size, and going up step by step, manage to get to the top; but
in a former age, they did so at one step.[2] Because of this, the
monastery is called Paravata, that being the Indian name for a pigeon.
There are always Arhats residing in it.

The country about is (a tract of) uncultivated hillocks,[3] without
inhabitants. At a very long distance from the hill there are villages,
where the people all have bad and erroneous views, and do not know the
Sramanas of the Law of Buddha, Brahmanas, or (devotees of) any of the
other and different schools. The people of that country are constantly
seeing men on the wing, who come and enter this monastery. On one
occasion, when devotees of various countries came to perform their
worship at it, the people of those villages said to them, "Why do you
not fly? The devotees whom we have seen hereabouts all fly;" and the
strangers answered, on the spur of the moment, "Our wings are not yet
fully formed."

The kingdom of Dakshina is out of the way, and perilous to traverse.
There are difficulties in connexion with the roads; but those who know
how to manage such difficulties and wish to proceed should bring with
them money and various articles, and give them to the king. He will
then send men to escort them. These will (at different stages) pass
them over to others, who will show them the shortest routes. Fa-hien,
however, was after all unable to go there; but having received the
(above) accounts from men of the country, he has narrated them.

NOTES

[1] Said to be the ancient name of the Deccan. As to the various
marvels in the chapter, it must be borne in mind that our author, as
he tells us at the end, only gives them from hearsay. See "Buddhist
Records of the Western World," vol. ii, pp. 214, 215, where the
description, however, is very different.

[2] Compare the account of Buddha's great stride of fifteen yojanas in
Ceylon, as related in chapter xxxviii.

[3] See the same phrase in the Books of the Later Han dynasty, the
twenty-fourth Book of Biographies, p. 9b.

CHAPTER XXXVI

IN PATNA. FA-HIEN'S LABOURS IN TRANSCRIPTION OF MANUSCRIPTS, AND
INDIAN STUDIES FOR THREE YEARS.

From Varanasi (the travellers) went back east to Pataliputtra.
Fa-hien's original object had been to search for (copies of) the
Vinaya. In the various kingdoms of North India, however, he had found
one master transmitting orally (the rules) to another, but no written
copies which he could transcribe. He had therefore travelled far and
come on to Central India. Here, in the mahayana monastery,[1] he found
a copy of the Vinaya, containing the Mahasanghika[2] rules,--those
which were observed in the first Great Council, while Buddha was still
in the world. The original copy was handed down in the Jetavana
vihara. As to the other eighteen schools,[3] each one has the views
and decisions of its own masters. Those agree (with this) in the
general meaning, but they have small and trivial differences, as when
one opens and another shuts.[4] This copy (of the rules), however, is
the most complete, with the fullest explanations.[5]

He further got a transcript of the rules in six or seven thousand
gathas,[6] being the sarvastivadah[7] rules,--those which are observed
by the communities of monks in the land of Ts'in; which also have all
been handed down orally from master to master without being committed
to writing. In the community here, moreover, we got the Samyuktabhi-
dharma-hridaya-(sastra),[8] containing about six or seven thousand
gathas; he also got a Sutra of 2500 gathas; one chapter of the
Parinir-vana-vaipulya Sutra,[9] of about 5000 gathas; and the Mahasan-
ghikah Abhidharma.

In consequence (of this success in his quest) Fa-hien stayed here for
three years, learning Sanskrit books and the Sanskrit speech, and
writing out the Vinaya rules. When Tao-ching arrived in the Central
Kingdom, and saw the rules observed by the Sramanas, and the dignified
demeanour in their societies which he remarked under all occurring
circumstances, he sadly called to mind in what a mutilated and
imperfect condition the rules were among the monkish communities in
the land of Ts'in, and made the following aspiration:--"From this time
forth till I come to the state of Buddha, let me not be born in a
frontier land."[10] He remained accordingly (in India), and did not
return (to the land of Han). Fa-hien, however, whose original purpose
had been to secure the introduction of the complete Vinaya rules into
the land of Han, returned there alone.

NOTES

[1] Mentioned before in chapter xxvii.

[2] Mahasanghikah simply means "the Great Assembly," that is, of
monks. When was this first assembly in the time of Sakyamuni held? It
does not appear that the rules observed at it were written down at the
time. The document found by Fa-hien would be a record of those rules;
or rather a copy of that record. We must suppose that the original
record had disappeared from the Jetavana vihara, or Fa-hien would
probably have spoken of it when he was there, and copied it, if he had
been allowed to do so.

[3] The eighteen pu {.}. Four times in this chapter the character
called pu occurs, and in the first and two last instances it can only
have the meaning, often belonging to it, of "copy." The second
instance, however, is different. How should there be eighteen copies,
all different from the original, and from one another, in minor
matters? We are compelled to translate--"the eighteen schools," an
expression well known in all Buddhist writings. See Rhys Davids'
Manual, p. 218, and the authorities there quoted.

[4] This is equivalent to the "binding" and "loosing," "opening" and
"shutting," which found their way into the New Testament, and the
Christian Church, from the schools of the Jewish Rabbins.

[5] It was afterwards translated by Fa-hien into Chinese. See Nanjio's
Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka, columns 400 and 401, and Nos. 1119
and 1150, columns 247 and 253.

[6] A gatha is a stanza, generally consisting, it has seemed to me, of
a few, commonly of two, lines somewhat metrically arranged; but I do
not know that its length is strictly defined.

[7] "A branch," says Eitel, "of the great vaibhashika school,
asserting the reality of all visible phenomena, and claiming the
authority of Rahula."

[8] See Nanjio's Catalogue, No. 1287. He does not mention it in his
account of Fa-hien, who, he says, translated the Samyukta-pitaka
Sutra.

[9] Probably Nanjio's Catalogue, No. 120; at any rate, connected with
it.

[10] This then would be the consummation of the Sramana's being,--to
get to be Buddha, the Buddha of his time in his Kalpa; and Tao-ching
thought that he could attain to this consummation by a succession of
births; and was likely to attain to it sooner by living only in India.
If all this was not in his mind, he yet felt that each of his
successive lives would be happier, if lived in India.



CHAPTER XXXVII

TO CHAMPA AND TAMALIPTI. STAY AND LABOURS THERE FOR THREE YEARS.
TAKES SHIP TO SINGHALA, OR CEYLON.

Following the course of the Ganges, and descending eastwards for
eighteen yojanas, he found on the southern bank the great kingdom of
Champa,[1] with topes reared at the places where Buddha walked in
meditation by his vihara, and where he and the three Buddhas, his
predecessors, sat. There were monks residing at them all. Continuing
his journey east for nearly fifty yojanas, he came to the country of
Tamalipti,[2] (the capital of which is) a seaport. In the country
there are twenty-two monasteries, at all of which there are monks
residing. The Law of Buddha is also flourishing in it. Here Fa-hien
stayed two years, writing out his Sutras,[3] and drawing pictures of
images.

After this he embarked in a large merchant-vessel, and went floating
over the sea to the south-west. It was the beginning of winter, and
the wind was favourable; and, after fourteen days, sailing day and
night, they came to the country of Singhala.[4] The people said that
it was distant (from Tamalipti) about 700 yojanas.

The kingdom is on a large island, extending from east to west fifty
yojanas, and from north to south thirty. Left and right from it there
are as many as 100 small islands, distant from one another ten,
twenty, or even 200 le; but all subject to the large island. Most of
them produce pearls and precious stones of various kinds; there is one
which produces the pure and brilliant pearl,[5]--an island which would
form a square of about ten le. The king employs men to watch and
protect it, and requires three out of every ten such pearls, which the
collectors find.

NOTES

[1] Probably the modern Champanagur, three miles west of Baglipoor,
lat. 25d 14s N., lon. 56d 55s E.

[2] Then the principal emporium for the trade with Ceylon and China;
the modern Tam-look, lat. 22d 17s N., lon. 88d 2s E.; near the mouth
of the Hoogly.

[3] Perhaps Ching {.} is used here for any portions of the Tripitaka
which he had obtained.

[4] "The Kingdom of the Lion," Ceylon. Singhala was the name of a
merchant adventurer from India, to whom the founding of the kingdom
was ascribed. His father was named Singha, "the Lion," which became
the name of the country;--Singhala, or Singha-Kingdom, "the Country of
the Lion."

[5] Called the mani pearl or bead. Mani is explained as meaning "free
from stain," "bright and growing purer." It is a symbol of Buddha and
of his Law. The most valuable rosaries are made of manis.



CHAPTER XXXVIII

AT CEYLON. RISE OF THE KINGDOM. FEATS OF BUDDHA. TOPES AND
MONASTERIES. STATUE OF BUDDHA IN JADE. BO TREE.
FESTIVAL OF BUDDHA'S TOOTH.

The country originally had no human inhabitants,[1] but was occupied
only by spirits and nagas, with which merchants of various countries
carried on a trade. When the trafficking was taking place, the spirits
did not show themselves. They simply set forth their precious
commodities, with labels of the price attached to them; while the
merchants made their purchases according to the price; and took the
things away.

Through the coming and going of the merchants (in this way), when they
went away, the people of (their) various countries heard how pleasant
the land was, and flocked to it in numbers till it became a great
nation. The (climate) is temperate and attractive, without any
difference of summer and winter. The vegetation is always luxuriant.
Cultivation proceeds whenever men think fit: there are no fixed
seasons for it.

When Buddha came to this country,[2] wishing to transform the wicked
nagas, by his supernatural power he planted one foot at the north of
the royal city, and the other on the top of a mountain,[3] the two
being fifteen yojanas apart. Over the footprint at the north of the
city the king built a large tope, 400 cubits high, grandly adorned
with gold and silver, and finished with a combination of all the
precious substances. By the side of the top he further built a
monastery, called the Abhayagiri,[4] where there are (now) five
thousand monks. There is in it a hall of Buddha, adorned with carved
and inlaid works of gold and silver, and rich in the seven precious
substances, in which there is an image (of Buddha) in green jade, more
than twenty cubits in height, glittering all over with those
substances, and having an appearance of solemn dignity which words
cannot express. In the palm of the right hand there is a priceless
pearl. Several years had now elapsed since Fa-hien left the land of
Han; the men with whom he had been in intercourse had all been of
regions strange to him; his eyes had not rested on an old and familiar
hill or river, plant or tree; his fellow-travellers, moreover, had
been separated from him, some by death, and others flowing off in
different directions; no face or shadow was now with him but his own,
and a constant sadness was in his heart. Suddenly (one day), when by
the side of this image of jade, he saw a merchant presenting as his
offering a fan of white silk;[5] and the tears of sorrow involuntarily
filled his eyes and fell down.

A former king of the country had sent to Central India and got a slip
of the patra tree,[6] which he planted by the side of the hall of
Buddha, where a tree grew up to the height of about 200 cubits. As it
bent on one side towards the south-east, the king, fearing it would
fall, propped it with a post eight or nine spans round. The tree began
to grow at the very heart of the prop, where it met (the trunk); (a
shoot) pierced through the post, and went down to the ground, where it
entered and formed roots, that rose (to the surface) and were about
four spans round. Although the post was split in the middle, the outer
portions kept hold (of the shoot), and people did not remove them.
Beneath the tree there has been built a vihara, in which there is an
image (of Buddha) seated, which the monks and commonalty reverence and
look up to without ever becoming wearied. In the city there has been
reared also the vihara of Buddha's tooth, on which, as well as on the
other, the seven precious substances have been employed.

The king practises the Brahmanical purifications, and the sincerity of
the faith and reverence of the population inside the city are also
great. Since the establishment of government in the kingdom there has
been no famine or scarcity, no revolution or disorder. In the
treasuries of the monkish communities there are many precious stones,
and the priceless manis. One of the kings (once) entered one of those
treasuries, and when he looked all round and saw the priceless pearls,
his covetous greed was excited, and he wished to take them to himself
by force. In three days, however, he came to himself, and immediately
went and bowed his head to the ground in the midst of the monks, to
show his repentance of the evil thought. As a sequel to this, he
informed the monks (of what had been in his mind), and desired them to
make a regulation that from that day forth the king should not be
allowed to enter the treasury and see (what it contained), and that no
bhikshu should enter it till after he had been in orders for a period
of full forty years.[7]

In the city there are many Vaisya elders and Sabaean[8] merchants,
whose houses are stately and beautiful. The lanes and passages are
kept in good order. At the heads of the four principal streets there
have been built preaching halls, where, on the eighth, fourteenth, and
fifteenth days of the month, they spread carpets, and set forth a
pulpit, while the monks and commonalty from all quarters come together
to hear the Law. The people say that in the kingdom there may be
altogether sixty thousand monks, who get their food from their common
stores. The king, besides, prepares elsewhere in the city a common
supply of food for five or six thousand more. When any want, they take
their great bowls, and go (to the place of distribution), and take as
much as the vessels will hold, all returning with them full.

The tooth of Buddha is always brought forth in the middle of the third
month. Ten days beforehand the king grandly caparisons a large
elephant, on which he mounts a man who can speak distinctly, and is
dressed in royal robes, to beat a large drum, and make the following
proclamation:--"The Bodhisattva, during three Asankhyeya-kalpas,[9]
manifested his activity, and did not spare his own life. He gave up
kingdom, city, wife, and son; he plucked out his eyes and gave them to
another;[10] he cut off a piece of his own flesh to ransom the life of
a dove;[10] he cut off his head and gave it as an alms;[11] he gave
his body to feed a starving tigress;[11] he grudged not his marrow and
his brains. In many such ways as these did he undergo pain for the
sake of all living. And so it was, that, having become Buddha, he
continued in the world for forty-five years, preaching his Law,
teaching and transforming, so that those who had no rest found rest,
and the unconverted were converted. When his connexion with the living
was completed,[12] he attained to pari-nirvana (and died). Since that
event, for 1497 years, the light of the world has gone out,[13] and
all living beings have had long-continued sadness. Behold! ten days
after this, Buddha's tooth will be brought forth, and taken to the
Abhayagiri-vihara. Let all and each, whether monks or laics, who wish
to amass merit for themselves, make the roads smooth and in good
condition, grandly adorn the lanes and by-ways, and provide abundant
store of flowers and incense to be used as offerings to it."

When this proclamation is over, the king exhibits, so as to line both
sides of the road, the five hundred different bodily forms in which
the Bodhisattva has in the course of his history appeared:--here as
Sudana,[14] there as Sama;[15] now as the king of elephants;[16] and
then as a stag or a horse.[16] All these figures are brightly coloured
and grandly executed, looking as if they were alive. After this the
tooth of Buddha is brought forth, and is carried along in the middle
of the road. Everywhere on the way offerings are presented to it, and
thus it arrives at the hall of Buddha in the Abhayagiri-vihara. There
monks and laics are collected in crowds. They burn incense, light
lamps, and perform all the prescribed services, day and night without
ceasing, till ninety days have been completed, when (the tooth) is
returned to the vihara within the city. On fast-days the door of that
vihara is opened, and the forms of ceremonial reverence are observed
according to the rules.

Forty le to the east of the Abhayagiri-vihara there is a hill, with a
vihara on it, called the Chaitya,[17] where there may be 2000 monks.
Among them there is a Sramana of great virtue, named Dharma-gupta,[18]
honoured and looked up to by all the kingdom. He has lived for more
than forty years in an apartment of stone, constantly showing such
gentleness of heart, that he has brought snakes and rats to stop
together in the same room, without doing one another any harm.

NOTES

[1] It is desirable to translate {.} {.}, for which "inhabitants" or
"people" is elsewhere sufficient, here by "human inhabitants."
According to other accounts Singhala was originally occupied by
Rakshasas or Rakshas, "demons who devour men," and "beings to be
feared," monstrous cannibals or anthropophagi, the terror of the
shipwrecked mariner. Our author's "spirits" {.} {.} were of a gentler
type. His dragons or nagas have come before us again and again.

[2] That Sakyamuni ever visited Ceylon is to me more than doubtful.
Hardy, in M. B., pp. 207-213, has brought together the legends of
three visits,--in the first, fifth, and eighth years of his
Buddhaship. It is plain, however, from Fa-hien's narrative, that in
the beginning of our fifth century, Buddhism prevailed throughout the
island. Davids in the last chapter of his "Buddhism" ascribes its
introduction to one of Asoka's missions, after the Council of Patna,
under his son Mahinda, when Tissa, "the de