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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[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.
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