" Buddha, it is said, {.}
converted this demon, which Chinese character Beal rendered at first
by "in one of his incarnations;" and in his revised version he has
"himself." The difference between Fa-hien's usage of {.} and {.}
throughout his narrative is quite marked. {.} always refers to the
doings of Sakyamuni; {.}, "formerly," is often used of him and others
in the sense of "in a former age or birth."
[20] See Hardy, M. B., p. 194: - "As a token of the giving over of the
garden, the king poured water upon the hands of Buddha; and from this
time it became one of the principal residences of the sage."
[21] This would seem to be absurd; but the writer evidently intended
to convey the idea that there was something mysterious about the
number of the topes.
[22] This seems to be the meaning. The bodies of the monks are all
burned. Hardy's E. M., pp. 322-324.
CHAPTER XVIII
KANYAKUBJA, OR CANOUGE. BUDDHA'S PREACHING.
Fa-hien stayed at the Dragon vihara till after the summer retreat,[1]
and then, travelling to the south-east for seven yojanas, he arrived
at the city of Kanyakubja,[2] lying along the Ganges.[3] There are two
monasteries in it, the inmates of which are students of the hinayana.
At a distance from the city of six or seven le, on the west, on the
northern bank of the Ganges, is a place where Buddha preached the Law
to his disciples. It has been handed down that his subjects of
discourse were such as "The bitterness and vanity (of life) as
impermanent and uncertain," and that "The body is as a bubble or foam
on the water." At this spot a tope was erected, and still exists.
Having crossed the Ganges, and gone south for three yojanas, (the
travellers) arrived at a village named A-le,[4] containing places
where Buddha preached the Law, where he sat, and where he walked, at
all of which topes have been built.
NOTES
[1] We are now, probably, in 405.
[2] Canouge, the latitude and longitude of which have been given in a
previous note. The Sanskrit name means "the city of humpbacked
maidens;" with reference to the legend of the hundred daughters of
king Brahma-datta, who were made deformed by the curse of the rishi
Maha-vriksha, whose overtures they had refused. E. H., p. 51.
[3] Ganga, explained by "Blessed water," and "Come from heaven to
earth."
[4] This village (the Chinese editions read "forest") has hardly been
clearly identified.
CHAPTER XIX
SHA-CHE. LEGEND OF BUDDHA'S DANTA-KASHTHA.
Going on from this to the south-east for three yojanas, they came to
the great kingdom of Sha-che.[1] As you go out of the city of Sha-che
by the southern gate, on the east of the road (is the place) where
Buddha, after he had chewed his willow branch,[2] stuck it in the
ground, when it forthwith grew up seven cubits, (at which height it
remained) neither increasing nor diminishing. The Brahmans with their
contrary doctrines[3] became angry and jealous. Sometimes they cut the
tree down, sometimes they plucked it up, and cast it to a distance,
but it grew again on the same spot as at first. Here also is the place
where the four Buddhas walked and sat, and at which a tope was built
that is still existing.
NOTES
[1] Sha-che should probably be Sha-khe, making Cunningham's
identification of the name with the present Saket still more likely.
The change of {.} into {.} is slight; and, indeed, the Khang-hsi
dictionary thinks the two characters should be but one and the same.
[2] This was, no doubt, what was called the danta-kashtha, or "dental
wood," mostly a bit of the /ficus Indicus/ or banyan tree, which the
monk chews every morning to cleanse his teeth, and for the purpose of
health generally. The Chinese, not having the banyan, have used, or at
least Fa-hien used, Yang ({.}, the general name for the willow)
instead of it.
[3] Are two classes of opponents, or only one, intended here, so that
we should read "all the unbelievers and Brahmans," or "heretics and
Brahmans?" I think the Brahmans were also "the unbelievers" and
"heretics," having {.} {.}, views and ways outside of, and opposed to,
Buddha's.
CHAPTER XX
KOSALA AND SRAVASTI. THE JETAVANA VIHARA AND OTHER MEMORIALS AND
LEGENDS OF BUDDHA. SYMPATHY OF THE MONKS WITH THE PILGRIMS.
Going on from this to the south, for eight yojanas, (the travellers)
came to the city of Sravasti[1] in the kingdom of Kosala,[2] in which
the inhabitants were few and far between, amounting in all (only) to a
few more than two hundred families; the city where king Prasenajit[3]
ruled, and the place of the old vihara of Maha-prajapti;[4] of the
well and walls of (the house of) the (Vaisya) head Sudatta;[5] and
where the Angulimalya[6] became an Arhat, and his body was
(afterwards) burned on his attaining to pari-nirvana. At all these
places topes were subsequently erected, which are still existing in
the city. The Brahmans, with their contrary doctrine, became full of
hatred and envy in their hearts, and wished to destroy them, but there
came from the heavens such a storm of crashing thunder and flashing
lightning that they were not able in the end to effect their purpose.
As you go out from the city by the south gate, and 1,200 paces from
it, the (Vaisya) head Sudatta built a vihara, facing the south; and
when the door was open, on each side of it there was a stone pillar,
with the figure of a wheel on the top of that on the left, and the
figure of an ox on the top of that on the right.
![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
- Otherwise, the meaning would be
a small medusa.
[19] The reading here seems to me a great improvement on that - Page 24](../images/travel.jpg)
