A Record Of Buddhistic Kingdoms - Being An Account By The Chinese Monk Fa-hien Of His Travels In India And Ceylon (a.d. 399-414) By James Legge
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LEGENDS OF BUDDHA'S BIRTH,
AND OTHER INCIDENTS IN CONNEXION WITH IT.
Less than a yojana to the east from this brought them to the city of
Kapilavastu;[1] but in it there was neither king nor people. All was
mound and desolation. Of inhabitants there were only some monks and a
score or two of families of the common people. At the spot where stood
the old palace of king Suddhodana[2] there have been made images of
the prince (his eldest son) and his mother;[3] and at the places where
that son appeared mounted on a white elephant when he entered his
mother's womb,[4] and where he turned his carriage round on seeing the
sick man after he had gone out of the city by the eastern gate,[5]
topes have been erected. The places (were also pointed out)[6] where
(the rishi) A-e[7] inspected the marks (of Buddhaship on the body) of
the heir-apparent (when an infant); where, when he was in company with
Nanda and others, on the elephant being struck down and drawn to one
side, he tossed it away;[8] where he shot an arrow to the south-east,
and it went a distance of thirty le, then entering the ground and
making a spring to come forth, which men subsequently fashioned into a
well from which travellers might drink;[9] where, after he had
attained to Wisdom, Buddha returned and saw the king, his father;[10]
where five hundred Sakyas quitted their families and did reverence to
Upali[11] while the earth shook and moved in six different ways; where
Buddha preached his Law to the devas, and the four deva kings and
others kept the four doors (of the hall), so that (even) the king, his
father, could not enter;[12] where Buddha sat under a nyagrodha tree,
which is still standing,[13] with his face to the east, and (his aunt)
Maja-prajapati presented him with a Sanghali;[14] and (where) king
Vaidurya slew the seed of Sakya, and they all in dying became
Srotapannas.[15] A tope was erected at this last place, which is still
existing.
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