hinayâna. When stranger bhikshus1 arrive at one of them, their wants are supplied for three days, after which they are told to find a resting-place for themselves.

There is a tradition that when Buddha came to North India, he came at once to this country, and that here he left a print of his foot, which is long or short according to the ideas of the beholder (on the subject). It exists, and the same thing is true about it, at the present day. Here also are still to be seen the rock on which he dried his clothes, and the place where he converted the wicked dragon2. The rock is fourteen cubits high, and more than twenty broad, with one side of it smooth. Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and Tâo-ching went on ahead towards (the place of) Buddha's shadow in the country of Nâgara 3; but Fâ-hien and the others remained in Woo-chang, and kept the summer retreat. That over, they descended south, and arrived in the country of Soo-ho-to 5.

1 Bhikshu is the name for a monk as 'living by alms,' a mendicant. All bhikshus call themselves Śramans. Sometimes the two names are used together by our author.

2

Nâga is the Sanskrit name for the Chinese lung or dragon; often meaning a snake, especially the boa. 'Chinese Buddhists,' says Eitel, p. 79, when speaking of nâgas as boa spirits, always represent them as enemies of mankind, but when viewing them as deities of rivers, lakes, or oceans, they describe them as piously inclined.' The dragon, however, is in China the symbol of the Sovereign and Sage, a use of it unknown in Buddhism, according to which all nâgas need to be converted in order to obtain a higher phase of being. The use of the character too (), as here, in the sense of 'to convert,' is entirely Buddhistic. The six pâramitâs are the six virtues which carry men across ()the great sea of life and death, as the sphere of transmigration to nirvana. With regard to the particular conversion here, Eitel (p. 11) says the Nâga's name was Apatâla, the guardian deity of the Subhavastu river, and that he was converted by Sâkyamuni shortly before the death of the latter.

In Chinese Na-k'eeh, an ancient kingdom and city on the southern bank of the Cabul river, about thirty miles west of Jellalabad.

We would seem now to be in 403.

Soo-ho-to has not been clearly identified. Beal says that later Buddhist writers include it in Udyâna. It must have been between the Indus and the Swat. I suppose it was what we now call Swastene.

CHAPTER IX.

SOO-HO-TO. LEGEND OF BUDDHA.

IN that country also Buddhism is flourishing. There is in it the place where Śakra2, Ruler of Devas, in a former age3, tried the Bodhisattva, by producing a hawk (in pursuit of a) dove, when (the Bodhi

1 Buddhism stands for the two Chinese characters, the Law of Buddha,' and to that rendering of the phrase, which is of frequent occurrence, I will in general adhere. Buddhism is not an adequate rendering of them any more than Christianity would be of τὸ εὐαγγέλιον Χριστοῦ. The Fa or Law is the equivalent of dharma comprehending all in the first Basket of the Buddhist teaching,—as Dr. Davids says (Hibbert Lectures, p. 44), 'its ethics and philosophy, and its system of self-culture;' with the theory of karma, it seems to me, especially underlying it. It has been pointed out (Cunningham's 'Bhilsa Topes,' p. 102) that dharma is the keystone of all king Priyadarsi or Aśoka's edicts. The whole of them are dedicated to the attainment of one object, 'the advancement of dharma, or of the Law of Buddha.' His native Chinese afforded no better character than

法 or Law, by which our author could express concisely his idea of the Buddhistic system, as 'a law of life,' a directory or system of Rules, by which men could attain to the consummation of their being.

2 Śakra is a common name for the Brahmanic Indra, adopted by Buddhism into the circle of its own great adherents;-it has been said, 'because of his popularity.' He is generally styled, as here, T'een Tî, 'God or Ruler of Devas.' He is now the representative of the secular power, the valiant protector of the Buddhist body, but is looked upon as inferior to Śâkyamuni, and every Buddhist saint. He appears several times in Fâ-hien's narrative. E. H., pp. 108 and 46.

The Chinese character is, formerly,' and is often, as in the first sentence of the narrative, simply equivalent to that adverb. At other times it means, as here, 'in a former age,' some pre-existent state in the time of a former birth. The incident related is 'a Jâtaka story.'

4

• It occurs at once to a translator to render the characters

by 'changed

himself to.' Such is often their meaning in the sequel, but their use in chapter xxiv

sattva) cut off a piece of his own flesh, and (with it) ransomed the dove. After Buddha had attained to perfect wisdom1, and in travelling about with his disciples (arrived at this spot), he informed them that this was the place where he ransomed the dove with a piece of his own flesh. In this way the people of the country became aware of the fact, and on the spot reared a tope, adorned with layers2 of gold and silver plates.

CHAPTER X.

GANDHARA. LEGENDS OF BUDDHA.

THE travellers, going downwards from this towards the east, in five days came to the country of Gandhâra, the place where Dharma-vivardhana, the son of Aśoka", ruled. When Buddha was a Bodhisattva, he gave his eyes also for another man here; and at the spot they have

may be considered as a crucial test of the meaning which I have given to them here.

1 That is, had become Buddha, or completed his course (成道).

2 This seems to be the contribution of (or), to the force of the binomial, which is continually occurring.

Eitel says an ancient kingdom, corresponding to the region about Dheri and Banjour.' But see note I on next page.

⚫ Dharma-vivardhana is the name in Sanskrit, represented by the Fâ Yî of the text.

Aśoka is here mentioned for the first time;-the Constantine of the Buddhist society, and famous for the number of vihâras and topes which he erected. He was the grandson of Chandragupta (i. q. Sandracottus), a rude adventurer, who at one time was a refugee in the camp of Alexander the Great; and within about twenty years afterwards drove the Greeks out of India, having defeated Seleucus, the Greek ruler of the Indus provinces. He had by that time made himself king of Magadha. His grandson was converted to Buddhism by the bold and patient demeanour of an Arhat whom he had ordered to be buried alive, and became a most zealous supporter of the new faith. Dr. Rhys Davids (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, p. xlvi) says that 'Aśoka's coronation can be fixed with absolute certainty within a year or two either way of 267 B.C.'

This also is a Jâtaka story; but Eitel thinks it may be a myth, constructed from the story of the blinding of Dharma-vivardhana.

also reared a large tope, adorned with layers of gold and silver plates. The people of the country were mostly students of the hînayâna.

CHAPTER XI.

TAKSHASILÂ. LEGENDS. THE FOUR GREAT TOPES.

SEVEN days' journey from this to the east brought the travellers to the kingdom of Takshaśilâ1, which means 'the severed head' in the language of China. Here, when Buddha was a Bodhisattva, he gave away his head to a man2; 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 tigress2. 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 call those (and the other two mentioned before) the four great topes.'

6

1 See Julien's Méthode pour déchiffrer et transcrire les Noms Sanscrits,' p. 206. Eitel says, 'The Taxila of the Greeks, the region near Hoosun Abdaul in lat. 35° 48′ N., lon. 72° 44′ E. But this identification, I am satisfied, is wrong. Cunningham, indeed, takes credit ('Ancient Geography of India,' pp. 108, 109) for determining this to be the site of Arrian's Taxila,-in the upper Punjâb, still existing in the ruins of Shahdheri, between the Indus and Hydaspes (the modern Jhelum). So far he may be correct; but the Takshasilâ of Fâ-hien was on the other, or western side of the Indus; and between the river and Gandhâra. It took him, indeed, seven days travelling eastwards to reach it; but we do not know what stoppages he may have made on the way. We must be wary in reckoning distances from his specifications of days.

2 Two Jâtaka stories. See the account of the latter in Spence Hardy's 'Manual of Buddhism,' pp. 91, 92. It took place when Buddha had been born as a Brahman in the village of Daliddi; and from the merit of the act, he was next born in a devaloka.

CHAPTER XII.

PURUSHAPURA, OR PESHÂWUR. PROPHECY ABOUT KING KANISHKA AND HIS TOPE. BUDDHA'S ALMS-BOWL. DEATH OF HWUY-YING.

GOING Southwards from Gândhâra, (the travellers) in four days. arrived at the kingdom of Purushapura1. Formerly, when Buddha was travelling in this country with his disciples, he said to Ânanda2, 'After my pari-nirvâņa3, there will be a king named Kanishka1, who shall on this spot build a tope.' This Kanishka was afterwards born into the world; and (once), when he had gone forth to look about him,

1 The modern Peshâwur, lat. 34° 8′ N., lon. 71° 30′ E.

2 A first cousin of Śâkyamuni, and born at the moment when he attained to Buddhaship. Under Buddha's teaching, Ânanda became an Arhat, and is famous for his strong and accurate memory; and he played an important part at the first council for the formation of the Buddhist canon. The friendship between. Śâkyamuni and Ananda was very close and tender; and it is impossible to read much of what the dying Buddha said to him and of him, as related in the Mahâpari-nirvâna Sûtra, without being moved almost to tears. Ânanda is to reappear on earth as Buddha in another Kalpa. See E. H., p. 9, and the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi.

3 On his attaining to nirvâna, Śâkyamuni became the Buddha, and had no longer to mourn his being within the circle of transmigration, and could rejoice in an absolute freedom from passion, and a perfect purity. Still he continued to live on for forty-five years, till he attained to pari-nirvâna, and had done with all the life of sense and society, and had no more exercise of thought. He died; but whether he absolutely and entirely ceased to be, in any sense of the word being, it would be difficult to say. Probably he himself would not and could not have spoken definitely on the point. Se far as our use of language is concerned, apart from any assured faith in and hope of immortality, his pari-nirvâna was his death.

* Kanishka appeared, and began to reign, early in our first century, about A.D. 10. He was the last of three brothers, whose original seat was in Yüeh-she, immediately mentioned, or Tukhâra. Converted by the sudden appearance of a saint, he became a zealous Buddhist, and patronised the system as liberally as Aśoka had done. The finest topes in the north-west of India are ascribed to him; he was certainly a great man and a magnificent sovereign.

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