At That Time The King,[5] Who Was A Sincere Believer In The Law Of Buddha And Wished To Build A New Vihara For The Monks, First Convoked A Great Assembly.

After giving the monks a meal of rice, and presenting his offerings (on the occasion), he selected a pair of first-rate oxen, the horns of which were grandly decorated with gold, silver, and the precious substances.

A golden plough had been provided, and the king himself turned up a furrow on the four sides of the ground within which the building was supposed to be. He then endowed the community of the monks with the population, fields, and houses, writing the grant on plates of metal, (to the effect) that from that time onwards, from generation to generation, no one should venture to annul or alter it.

In this country Fa-hien heard an Indian devotee, who was reciting a Sutra from the pulpit, say: - "Buddha's alms-bowl was at first in Vaisali, and now it is in Gandhara.[6] After so many hundred years' (he gave, when Fa-hien heard him, the exact number of years, but he has forgotten it), "it will go to Western Tukhara;[7] after so many hundred years, to Khoten; after so many hundred years, to Kharachar;[8] after so many hundred years, to the land of Han; after so many hundred years, it will come to Sinhala; and after so many hundred years, it will return to Central India. After that, it will ascend to the Tushita heaven; and when the Bodhisattva Maitreya sees it, he will say with a sigh, 'The alms-bowl of Sakyamuni Buddha is come;' and with all the devas he will present to it flowers and incense for seven days.

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