The
estimates of it are very different, and vary from four and a half or
five miles to seven, and sometimes more. See the subject exhaustively
treated in Davids' "Ceylon Coins and Measures," pp. 15-17.
[2] The present Hilda, west of Peshawur, and five miles south of
Jellalabad.
[3] "The vihara," says Hardy, "is the residence of a recluse or
priest;" and so Davids: - 'the clean little hut where the mendicant
lives." Our author, however, does not use the Indian name here, but
the Chinese characters which express its meaning - tsing shay, "a
pure dwelling." He uses the term occasionally, and evidently, in this
sense; more frequently it occurs in his narrative in connexion with
the Buddhist relic worship; and at first I translated it by "shrine"
and "shrine-house;" but I came to the conclusion, at last, to employ
always the Indian name. The first time I saw a shrine-house was, I
think, in a monastery near Foo-chow; - a small pyramidical structure,
about ten feet high, glittering as if with the precious substances,
but all, it seemed to me, of tinsel. It was in a large apartment of
the building, having many images in it. The monks said it was the most
precious thing in their possession, and that if they opened it, as I
begged them to do, there would be a convulsion that would destroy the
whole establishment. See E. H., p. 166. The name of the province of
Behar was given to it in consequence of its many viharas.
[4] According to the characters, "square, round, four inches." Hsuan-
chwang says it was twelve inches round.
[5] In Williams' Dictionary, under {.}, the characters, used here, are
employed in the phrase for "to degrade an officer," that is, "to
remove the token of his rank worn on the crown of his head;" but to
place a thing on the crown is a Buddhistic form of religious homage.
[6] The Vaisyas, or bourgeois caste of Hindu society, are described
here as "resident scholars."
[7] See Eitel's Handbook under the name vimoksha, which is explained
as "the act of self-liberation," and "the dwelling or state of
liberty." There are eight acts of liberating one's self from all
subjective and objective trammels, and as many states of liberty
(vimukti) resulting therefrom. They are eight degrees of self-
inanition, and apparently eight stages on the way to nirvana. The tope
in the text would be emblematic in some way of the general idea of the
mental progress conducting to the Buddhistic consummation of
existence.
[8] This incense would be in long "sticks," small and large, such as
are sold to-day throughout China, as you enter the temples.
[9] "The illuminating Buddha," the twenty-fourth predecessor of
Sakyamuni, and who, so long before, gave him the assurance that he
would by-and-by be Buddha.
![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
- At this place there are as many as a thousand
topes[14] of Arhans and Pratyeka Buddhas.[15]
NOTES
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