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.
