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There is a monastery, containing perhaps 600 or 700 monks, in which there is a place where a Pratyeka Buddha used to take his food. The nirvana ground (where he was burned(22) after death) is as large as a carriage wheel; and while grass grows all around, on this spot there is none. The ground also where he dried his clothes produces no grass, but the impression of them, where they lay on it, continues to the present day.
NOTES
(1) The name is still remaining in Samkassam, a village forty-five
miles northwest of Canouge, lat. 27d 3s N., lon. 79d 50s E.
(2) The heaven of Indra or Sakya, meaning "the heaven of thirty-three
classes," a name which has been explained both historically and
mythologically. "The description of it," says Eitel, p. 148, "tallies
in all respects with the Svarga of Brahmanic mythology. It is situated
between the four peaks of the Meru, and consists of thirty-two cities
of devas, eight one each of the four corners of the mountain. Indra's
capital of Bellevue is in the centre. There he is enthroned, with a
thousand heads and a thousand eyes, and four arms grasping the vajra,
with his wife and 119,000 concubines. There he receives the monthly
reports of the four Maharajas, concerning the progress of good and
evil in the world," &c. &c.
(3) Buddha's mother, Maya and Mahamaya, the mater immaculata of the
Buddhists, died seven days after his birth. Eitel says, "Reborn in
Tushita, she was visited there by her son and converted." The Tushita
heaven was a more likely place to find her than the Trayastrimsas;
but was the former a part of the latter? Hardy gives a long account
of Buddha's visit to the Trayastrimsas (M. B., pp. 298-302), which he
calls Tawutisa, and speaks of his mother (Matru) in it, who had now
become a deva by the changing of her sex.
(4) Compare the account of the Arhat's conveyance of the artist to
the Tushita heaven in chap. v. The first expression here is more
comprehensive.
(5) Anuruddha was a first cousin of Sakyamuni, being the son of his
uncle Amritodana. He is often mentioned in the account we have of
Buddha's last moments. His special gift was the divyachakshus or
"heavenly eye," the first of the six abhijnas or "supernatural
talents," the faculty of comprehending in one instantaneous view, or
by intuition, all beings in all worlds. "He could see," says Hardy,
M. B., p. 232, "all things in 100,000 sakvalas as plainly as a mustard
seed held in the hand."
(6) Eitel gives the name Utpala with the same Chinese phonetisation as
in the text, but not as the name of any bhikshuni. The Sanskrit word,
however, is explained by "blue lotus flowers;" and Hsuan-chwang calls
her the nun "Lotus-flower colour ({.} {.} {.});"—the same as Hardy's
Upulwan and Uppalawarna.
(7) Perhaps we should read here "to see Buddha," and then ascribe the
transformation to the nun herself. It depends on the punctuation which
view we adopt; and in the structure of the passage, there is nothing
to indicate that the stop should be made before or after "Buddha."
And the one view is as reasonable, or rather as unreasonable, as the
other.
(8) "A holy king who turns the wheel;" that is, the military conqueror
and monarch of the whole or part of a universe. "The symbol," says
Eitel (p. 142) "of such a king is the chakra or wheel, for when he
ascends the throne, a chakra falls from heaven, indicating by its
material (gold, silver, copper, or iron) the extent and character of
his reign. The office, however, of the highest Chakravartti, who hurls
his wheel among his enemies, is inferior to the peaceful mission of
a Buddha, who meekly turns the wheel of the Law, and conquers every
universe by his teaching."
(9) This was Brahma, the first person of the Brahmanical Trimurti,
adopted by Buddhism, but placed in an inferior position, and surpassed
by every Buddhist saint who attains to bodhi.
(10) A common name for the earth below, where, on digging, water is
found.
(11) The height is given as thirty chow, the chow being the distance
from the elbow to the finger-tip, which is variously estimated.
(12) A note of Mr. Beal says on this:—"General Cunningham, who
visited the spot (1862), found a pillar, evidently of the age of
Asoka, with a well-carved elephant on the top, which, however, was
minus trunk and tail. He supposes this to be the pillar seen by
Fa-Hsien, who mistook the top of it for a lion. It is possible such a
mistake may have been made, as in the account of one of the pillars at
Sravasti, Fa-Hsien says an ox formed the capital, whilst Hsuan-chwang
calls it an elephant (P. 19, Arch. Survey)."
(13) That is, in niches on the sides. The pillar or column must have
been square.
(14) Equivalent to "all through."
(15) Has always been translated "heretical teachers;" but I eschew the
terms heresy and heretical. The parties would not be Buddhists of
any creed or school, but Brahmans or of some other false doctrine, as
Fa-Hsien deemed it. The Chinese term means "outside" or "foreign;"—in
Pali, anna-titthiya,="those belonging to another school."
(16) These three predecessors of Sakyamuni were the three Buddhas
of the present or Maha-bhadra Kalpa, of which he was the fourth,
and Maitreya is to be the fifth and last. They were: (1) Krakuchanda
(Pali, Kakusanda), "he who readily solves all doubts;" a scion of the
Kasyapa family. Human life reached in his time 40,000 years, and so
many persons were converted by him. (2) Kanakamuni (Pali, Konagamana),
"body radiant with the colour of pure gold;" of the same family.
Human life reached in his time 30,000 years, and so many persons were
converted by him. (3) Kasyapa (Pali, Kassapa), "swallower of light."
Human life reached in his time 20,000 years, and so many persons were
converted by him. See Eitel, under the several names; Hardy's M. B.,
pp. 95-97; and Davids' "Buddhist Birth Stories," p. 51.
(17) That is, walked in meditation. Such places are called Chankramana
(Pali, Chankama); promenades or corridors connected with a monastery,
made sometimes with costly stones, for the purpose of peripatetic
meditation. The "sitting" would be not because of weariness or for
rest, but for meditation. E. H., p. 144.
(18) The character in my Corean copy is {.}, which must be a mistake
for the {.} of the Chinese editions. Otherwise, the meaning would be
"a small medusa."
(19) The reading here seems to me a great improvement on that of the
Chinese editions, which means "Fire Limit." 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-Hsien'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.
