It seems better to make Sakra the writer.
[5] Or Nalanda; identified with the present Baragong. A grand
monastery was subsequently built at it, famous by the residence for
five years of Hsuan-chwang.
[6] See chap. xvi, note 11. There is some doubt as to the statement
that Nala was his birthplace.
[7] The city of "Royal Palaces;" "the residence of the Magadha kings
from Bimbisara to Asoka, the first metropolis of Buddhism, at the foot
of the Gridhrakuta mountains. Here the first synod assembled within a
year after Sakyamuni's death. Its ruins are still extant at the
village of Rajghir, sixteen miles S.W. of Behar, and form an object of
pilgrimage to the Jains (E. H., p. 100)." It is called New Rajagriha
to distinguish it from Kusagarapura, a few miles from it, the old
residence of the kings. Eitel says it was built by Bimbisara, while
Fa-hien ascribes it to Ajatasatru. I suppose the son finished what the
father had begun.
[8] One of the five first followers of Sakyamuni. He is also called
Asvajit; in Pali Assaji; but Asvajit seems to be a military title=
"Master or trainer of horses." The two more famous disciples met him,
not to lead him, but to be directed by him, to Buddha. See Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xiii, Vinaya Texts, pp. 144-147.
[9] One of the six Tirthyas (Tirthakas="erroneous teachers;" M. B.,
pp. 290-292, but I have not found the particulars of the attempts on
Buddha's life referred to by Fa-hien), or Brahmanical opponents of
Buddha. He was an ascetic, one of the Jnati clan, and is therefore
called Nirgranthajnati. He taught a system of fatalism, condemned the
use of clothes, and thought he could subdue all passions by fasting.
He had a body of followers, who called themselves by his name (Eitel,
pp. 84, 85), and were the forerunners of the Jains.
[10] The king was moved to this by Devadatta. Of course the elephant
disappointed them, and did homage to Sakyamuni. See Sacred Books of
the East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, p. 247.
[11] See chap. xxv, note 3. Jivaka was Ambapali's son by king
Bimbisara, and devoted himself to the practice of medicine. See the
account of him in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xvii, Vinaya
Texts, pp. 171-194.
CHAPTER XXIX
GRIDHRA-KUTA HILL, AND LEGENDS. FA-HIEN PASSES A NIGHT ON IT.
HIS REFLECTIONS.
Entering the valley, and keeping along the mountains on the south-
east, after ascending fifteen le, (the travellers) came to mount
Gridhra-kuta.[1] Three le before you reach the top, there is a cavern
in the rocks, facing the south, in which Buddha sat in meditation.
Thirty paces to the north-west there is another, where Ananda was
sitting in meditation, when the deva Mara Pisuna,[2] having assumed
the form of a large vulture, took his place in front of the cavern,
and frightened the disciple. Then Buddha, by his mysterious,
supernatural power, made a cleft in the rock, introduced his hand, and
stroked Ananda's shoulder, so that his fear immediately passed away.
The footprints of the bird and the cleft for (Buddha's) hand are still
there, and hence comes the name of "The Hill of the Vulture Cavern."
In front of the cavern there are the places where the four Buddhas
sat. There are caverns also of the Arhats, one where each sat and
meditated, amounting to several hundred in all. At the place where in
front of his rocky apartment Buddha was walking from east to west (in
meditation), and Devadatta, from among the beetling cliffs on the
north of the mountain, threw a rock across, and hurt Buddha's toes,[3]
the rock is still there.[4]
The hall where Buddha preached his Law has been destroyed, and only
the foundations of the brick walls remain. On this hill the peak is
beautifully green, and rises grandly up; it is the highest of all the
five hills. In the New City Fa-hien bought incense-(sticks), flowers,
oil and lamps, and hired two bhikshus, long resident (at the place),
to carry them (to the peak). When he himself got to it, he made his
offerings with the flowers and incense, and lighted the lamps when the
darkness began to come on. He felt melancholy, but restrained his
tears and said, "Here Buddha delivered the Surangama (Sutra).[5] I,
Fa-hien, was born when I could not meet with Buddha; and now I only
see the footprints which he has left, and the place where he lived,
and nothing more." With this, in front of the rock cavern, he chanted
the Surangama Sutra, remained there over the night, and then returned
towards the New City.[6]
NOTES
[1] See chap. xxviii, note 1.
[2] See chap. xxv, note 9. Pisuna is a name given to Mara, and
signifies "sinful lust."
[3] See M. B., p. 320. Hardy says that Devadatta's attempt was "by the
help of a machine;" but the oldest account in the Sacred Books of the
East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, p. 245, agrees with what Fa-hien implies
that he threw the rock with his own arm.
[4] And, as described by Hsuan-chwang, fourteen or fifteen cubits
high, and thirty paces round.
[5] See Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio's "Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of
the Buddhist Tripitaka," Sutra Pitaka, Nos. 399, 446. It was the
former of these that came on this occasion to the thoughts and memory
of Fa-hien.
[6] In a note (p. lx) to his revised version of our author, Mr. Beal
says, "There is a full account of this perilous visit of Fa-hien, and
how he was attacked by tigers, in the 'History of the High Priests.'"
But "the high priests" merely means distinguished monks, "eminent
monks," as Mr. Nanjio exactly renders the adjectival character.
