Page 22 of 33
When king Asoka destroyed the seven topes, (intending) to make eighty-four thousand,(9) the first which he made was the great tope, more than three le to the south of this city. In front of this there is a footprint of Buddha, where a vihara has been built. The door of it faces the north, and on the south of it there is a stone pillar, fourteen or fifteen cubits in circumference, and more than thirty cubits high, on which there is an inscription, saying, "Asoka gave the jambudvipa to the general body of all the monks, and then redeemed it from them with money. This he did three times."(10) North from the tope 300 or 400 paces, king Asoka built the city of Ne-le.(11) In it there is a stone pillar, which also is more than thirty feet high, with a lion on the top of it. On the pillar there is an inscription recording the things which led to the building of Ne-le, with the number of the year, the day, and the month.
NOTES
(1) The modern Patna, lat. 25d 28s N., lon. 85d 15s E. The Sanskrit
name means "The city of flowers." It is the Indian Florence.
(2) See chap. x, note 3. Asoka transferred his court from Rajagriha
to Pataliputtra, and there, in the eighteenth year of his reign, he
convoked the third Great Synod,—according, at least, to southern
Buddhism. It must have been held a few years before B.C. 250; Eitel
says in 246.
(3) "The Vulture-hill;" so called because Mara, according to Buddhist
tradition, once assumed the form of a vulture on it to interrupt the
meditation of Ananda; or, more probably, because it was a resort of
vultures. It was near Rajagriha, the earlier capital of Asoka, so that
Fa-Hsien connects a legend of it with his account of Patna. It abounded
in caverns, and was famous as a resort of ascetics.
(4) A Brahman by cast, but a Buddhist in faith.
(5) So, by the help of Julien's "Methode," I transliterate the Chinese
characters {.} {.} {.} {.}. Beal gives Radhasvami, his Chinese text
having a {.} between {.} and {.}. I suppose the name was Radhasvami or
Radhasami.
(6) {.} {.}, the names of two kinds of schools, often occurring in
the Li Ki and Mencius. Why should there not have been schools in those
monasteries in India as there were in China? Fa-Hsien himself grew up
with other boys in a monastery, and no doubt had to "go to school."
And the next sentence shows us there might be schools for more
advanced students as well as for the Sramaneras.
(7) See chap. xvi, note 22. It is perhaps with reference to the famous
Bodhisattva that the Brahman here is said to be "also" named Manjusri.
(8) ? Cashmere cloth.
(9) See chap. xxiii, note 3.
(10) We wish that we had more particulars of this great transaction,
and that we knew what value in money Asoka set on the whole world. It
is to be observed that he gave it to the monks, and did not receive it
from them. Their right was from him, and he bought it back. He was the
only "Power" that was.
(11) We know nothing more of Ne-le. It could only have been a small
place; an outpost for the defence of Pataliputtra.
(The travellers) went on from this to the south-east for nine yojanas, and came to a small solitary rocky hill,(1) at the head or end of which(2) was an apartment of stone, facing the south,—the place where Buddha sat, when Sakra, Ruler of Devas, brought the deva-musician, Pancha-(sikha),(3) to give pleasure to him by playing on his lute. Sakra then asked Buddha about forty-two subjects, tracing (the questions) out with his finger one by one on the rock.(4) The prints of his tracing are still there; and here also there is a monastery.
A yojana south-west from this place brought them to the village of Nala,(5) where Sariputtra(6) was born, and to which also he returned, and attained here his pari-nirvana. Over the spot (where his body was burned) there was built a tope, which is still in existence.
Another yojana to the west brought them to New Rajagriha,(7)—the new city which was built by king Ajatasatru. There were two monasteries in it. Three hundred paces outside the west gate, king Ajatasatru, having obtained one portion of the relics of Buddha, built (over them) a tope, high, large, grand, and beautiful. Leaving the city by the south gate, and proceeding south four le, one enters a valley, and comes to a circular space formed by five hills, which stand all round it, and have the appearance of the suburban wall of a city. Here was the old city of king Bimbisara; from east to west about five or six le, and from north to south seven or eight. It was here that Sariputtra and Maudgalyayana first saw Upasena;(8) that the Nirgrantha(9) made a pit of fire and poisoned the rice, and then invited Buddha (to eat with him); that king Ajatasatru made a black elephant intoxicated with liquor, wishing him to injure Buddha;(10) and that at the north-east corner of the city in a (large) curving (space) Jivaka built a vihara in the garden of Ambapali,(11) and invited Buddha with his 1250 disciples to it, that he might there make his offerings to support them. (These places) are still there as of old, but inside the city all is emptiness and desolation; no man dwells in it.
NOTES
(1) Called by Hsuan-chwang Indra-sila-guha, or "The cavern of Indra."
It has been identified with a hill near the village of Giryek, on the
bank of the Panchana river, about thirty-six miles from Gaya. The
hill terminates in two peaks overhanging the river, and it is the more
northern and higher of these which Fa-Hsien had in mind. It bears an
oblong terrace covered with the ruins of several buildings, especially
of a vihara.
(2) This does not mean the top or summit of the hill, but its
"headland," where it ended at the river.
(3) See the account of this visit of Sakra in M. B., pp. 288-290.
It is from Hardy that we are able to complete here the name of the
musician, which appears in Fa-Hsien as only Pancha, or "Five." His harp
or lute, we are told, was "twelve miles long."
(4) Hardy (M. B., pp. 288, 289) makes the subjects only thirteen,
which are still to be found in one of the Sutras ("the Dik-Sanga,
in the Sakra-prasna Sutra"). Whether it was Sakra who wrote
his questions, or Buddha who wrote the answers, depends on the
punctuation. 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-Hsien 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-Hsien), 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.
