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
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Xi, p. xlvi) says that "Asoka's
coronation can be fixed with absolute certainty within a year or two
either way of 267 B.C."
[4] This also is a Jataka story; but Eitel thinks it may be a myth,
constructed from the story of the blinding of Dharma-vivardhana.
CHAPTER XI
TAKSHASILA. LEGENDS. THE FOUR GREAT TOPES.
Seven days' journey from this to the east brought the travellers to
the kingdom of Takshasila,[1] which means "the severed head" in the
language of China. Here, when Buddha was a Bodhisattva, he gave away
his head to a man;[2] and from this circumstance the kingdom got its
name.
Going on further for two days to the east, they came to the place
where the Bodhisattva threw down his body to feed a starving
tigress.[2] In these two places also large topes have been built, both
adorned with layers of all the precious substances. The kings,
ministers, and peoples of the kingdoms around vie with one another in
making offerings at them. The trains of those who come to scatter
flowers and light lamps at them never cease. The nations of those
quarters all those (and the other two mentioned before) "the four
great topes."
NOTES
[1] See Julien's "Methode pour dechiffrer et transcrire les Nomes
Sanscrits," p. 206. Eitel says, "The Taxila of the Greeks, the region
near Hoosun Abdaul in lat. 35d 48s N., lon. 72d 44s E. But this
identification, I am satisfied, is wrong.
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