[10] See chap. vi, note 5. It is there said that the prediction of
Maitreya's succession to the Buddhaship was made to him in the Tushita
heaven. Was there a repetition of it here in the Deer-park, or was a
prediction now given concerning something else?
[11] Nothing seems to be known of this naga but what we read here.
[12] Identified by some with Kusia, near Kurrah (lat. 25d 41s N., lon.
81d 27s E.); by others with Kosam on the Jumna, thirty miles above
Allahabad. See E. H., p. 55.
[13] Ghochira was the name of a Vaisya elder, or head, who presented a
garden and vihara to Buddha. Hardy (M. B., p. 356) quotes a statement
from a Singhalese authority that Sakyamuni resided here during the
ninth year of his Buddhaship.
[14] Dr. Davids thinks this may refer to the striking and beautiful
story of the conversion of the Yakkha Alavaka, as related in the
Uragavagga, Alavakasutta, pp. 29-31 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. x,
part ii).
CHAPTER XXXV
DAKSHINA, AND THE PIGEON MONASTERY.
South from this 200 yojanas, there is a country named Dakshina,[1]
where there is a monastery (dedicated to) the bygone Kasyapa Buddha,
and which has been hewn out from a large hill of rock. It consists in
all of five storeys; - the lowest, having the form of an elephant, with
500 apartments in the rock; the second, having the form of a lion,
with 400 apartments; the third, having the form of a horse, with 300
apartments; the fourth, having the form of an ox, with 200 apartments;
and the fifth, having the form of a pigeon, with 100 apartments. At
the very top there is a spring, the water of which, always in front of
the apartments in the rock, goes round among the rooms, now circling,
now curving, till in this way it arrives at the lowest storey, having
followed the shape of the structure, and flows out there at the door.
Everywhere in the apartments of the monks, the rock has been pierced
so as to form windows for the admission of light, so that they are all
bright, without any being left in darkness. At the four corners of the
(tiers of) apartments, the rock has been hewn so as to form steps for
ascending to the top (of each). The men of the present day, being of
small size, and going up step by step, manage to get to the top; but
in a former age, they did so at one step.[2] Because of this, the
monastery is called Paravata, that being the Indian name for a pigeon.
There are always Arhats residing in it.
The country about is (a tract of) uncultivated hillocks,[3] without
inhabitants. At a very long distance from the hill there are villages,
where the people all have bad and erroneous views, and do not know the
Sramanas of the Law of Buddha, Brahmanas, or (devotees of) any of the
other and different schools. The people of that country are constantly
seeing men on the wing, who come and enter this monastery. On one
occasion, when devotees of various countries came to perform their
worship at it, the people of those villages said to them, "Why do you
not fly? The devotees whom we have seen hereabouts all fly;" and the
strangers answered, on the spur of the moment, "Our wings are not yet
fully formed."
The kingdom of Dakshina is out of the way, and perilous to traverse.
There are difficulties in connexion with the roads; but those who know
how to manage such difficulties and wish to proceed should bring with
them money and various articles, and give them to the king. He will
then send men to escort them. These will (at different stages) pass
them over to others, who will show them the shortest routes. Fa-hien,
however, was after all unable to go there; but having received the
(above) accounts from men of the country, he has narrated them.
NOTES
[1] Said to be the ancient name of the Deccan. As to the various
marvels in the chapter, it must be borne in mind that our author, as
he tells us at the end, only gives them from hearsay. See "Buddhist
Records of the Western World," vol. ii, pp. 214, 215, where the
description, however, is very different.
[2] Compare the account of Buddha's great stride of fifteen yojanas in
Ceylon, as related in chapter xxxviii.
[3] See the same phrase in the Books of the Later Han dynasty, the
twenty-fourth Book of Biographies, p. 9b.
CHAPTER XXXVI
IN PATNA. FA-HIEN'S LABOURS IN TRANSCRIPTION OF MANUSCRIPTS, AND
INDIAN STUDIES FOR THREE YEARS.
From Varanasi (the travellers) went back east to Pataliputtra.
Fa-hien's original object had been to search for (copies of) the
Vinaya. In the various kingdoms of North India, however, he had found
one master transmitting orally (the rules) to another, but no written
copies which he could transcribe. He had therefore travelled far and
come on to Central India. Here, in the mahayana monastery,[1] he found
a copy of the Vinaya, containing the Mahasanghika[2] rules, - those
which were observed in the first Great Council, while Buddha was still
in the world. The original copy was handed down in the Jetavana
vihara. As to the other eighteen schools,[3] each one has the views
and decisions of its own masters. Those agree (with this) in the
general meaning, but they have small and trivial differences, as when
one opens and another shuts.[4] This copy (of the rules), however, is
the most complete, with the fullest explanations.[5]
He further got a transcript of the rules in six or seven thousand
gathas,[6] being the sarvastivadah[7] rules, - those which are observed
by the communities of monks in the land of Ts'in; which also have all
been handed down orally from master to master without being committed
to writing.
