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.
