now is. He made a cleft, and went down into it, though the place where he entered would not (now) admit a man. Having gone down very far, there was a hole on one side, and there the complete body of Kasyapa (still) abides. Outside the hole (at which he entered) is the earth with which he had washed his hands1. If the people living thereabouts have a sore on their heads, they plaster on it some of the earth from this, and feel immediately easier 2. On this mountain, now as of old, there are Arhats abiding. Devotees of our Law from the various countries in that quarter go year by year to the mountain, and present offerings to Kasyapa; and to those whose hearts are strong in faith there come Arhats at night, and talk with them, discussing and explaining their doubts, and disappearing suddenly afterwards.

On this hill hazels grow luxuriantly; and there are many lions, tigers, and wolves, so that people should not travel incautiously.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

ON THE WAY BACK TO PATNA. VÂRÂŅASÎ, OR BENÂRES. ŚÂKYAMUNI'S FIRST DOINGS AFTER BECOMING BUDDHA.

FÂ-HIEN3 returned (from here) towards Pâțaliputtra1, keeping along the course of the Ganges and descending in the direction of the west.

seven miles south-east of Gayâ, and was the residence of Mahâkasyapa, who is said to be still living inside this mountain.' So Eitel says, p. 58; but this chapter does not say that Kasyapa is in the mountain alive, but that his body entire is in a recess or hole in it. Hardy (M. B., p. 97) says that after Kasyapa Buddha's body was burnt, the bones still remained in their usual position, presenting the appearance of a perfect skeleton. It is of him that the chapter speaks, and not of the famous disciple of Śâkyamuni, who also is called Mahâkasyapa. This will appear also on a comparison of Eitel's articles on Mahâkaśyapa' and 'Kasyapa Buddha.'

1 Was it a custom to wash the hands with earth,' as is often done with sand? 2 This I conceive to be the meaning here.

* Fâ-hien is here mentioned singly, as in the account of his visit to the cave on Gridhra-kuṭa. I think that Tâo-ching may have remained at Patna after their first visit to it.

See note 1, p. 77

After going ten yojanas he found a vihâra, named 'The Wilderness,’— a place where Buddha had dwelt, and where there are monks now.

Pursuing the same course, and going still to the west, he arrived, after twelve yojanas, at the city of Vârâṇasî1 in the kingdom of Kâśî. Rather more than ten le to the north-east of the city, he found the vihâra in the park of The ṛishi's Deer-wild.' In this park there formerly resided a Pratyeka Buddha3, with whom the deer were regularly in the habit of stopping for the night. When the World-honoured one was about to attain to perfect Wisdom, the devas sang in the sky,' The son of king Śuddhodana, having quitted his family and studied the Path (of Wisdom), will now in seven days become Buddha.' The Pratyeka Buddha heard their words, and immediately attained to nirvâņa; and hence this place was named 'The Park of the rishi's Deer-wild 5.' After the World-honoured one had attained to perfect Wisdom, men built the vihâra in it.

6

Buddha wished to convert Kauṇḍinya and his four companions; but

1 The city surrounded by rivers;' the modern Benâres, lat. 25° 23′ N., lon. 83° 5' E.

2 The rishi,' says Eitel, 'is a man whose bodily frame has undergone a certain transformation by dint of meditation and asceticism, so that he is, for an indefinite period, exempt from decrepitude, age, and death. As this period is. believed to extend far beyond the usual duration of human life, such persons are called, and popularly believed to be, immortals' Rishis are divided into various classes; and rishi-ism is spoken of as a seventh path of transrotation, and rishis are referred to as the seventh class of sentient beings. Tâoism, as well as Buddhism, has its Seen jin.

3 See note 2, p. 40.

♦ See note 4, p. 64.

5 For another legend about this park, and the identification with 'a fine wood' still existing, see note in Beal's first version, p. 135.

• A prince of Magadha and a maternal uncle of Śâkyamuni, who gave him the name of Ajñâta, meaning automat; and hence he often appears as Ajñâta Kaunḍinya. He and his four friends had followed Śâkyamuni into the Uruvilvâ desert, sympathising with him in the austerities he endured, and hoping that they would issue in his Buddhaship. They were not aware that that issue had come; which may show us that all the accounts in the thirty-first chapter

they, (being aware of his intention), said to one another, 'This Śramaņa Gotama1 for six years continued in the practice of painful austerities, eating daily (only) a single hemp-seed, and one grain of rice, without attaining to the Path (of Wisdom); how much less will he do so now that he has entered (again) among men, and is giving the reins to (the indulgence of) his body, his speech, and his thoughts! What has he to do with the Path (of Wisdom)? To-day, when he comes to us, let us be on our guard not to speak with him.' At the places where the five men all rose up, and respectfully saluted (Buddha), when he came to them; where, sixty paces north from this, he sat with his face to the east, and first turned the wheel of the Law, converting Kauṇḍinya and the four others; where,

are merely descriptions, by means of external imagery, of what had taken place internally. The kingdom of nirvâna had come without observation. These friends knew it not; and they were offended by what they considered Śâkyamuni's failure, and the course he was now pursuing. See the account of their conversion in M. B., p. 186.

1 This is the only instance in Fâ-hien's text where the Bodhisattva or Buddha is called by the surname 'Gotama.' For the most part our traveller uses Buddha as a proper name, though it properly means 'The Enlightened.' He uses also the combinations Śâkya Buddha,''The Buddha of the Sâkya tribe,' and 'Śâkyamuni,''The Śâkya sage.' This last is the most common designation of the Buddha in China, and to my mind best combines the characteristics of a descriptive and a proper name. Among other Buddhistic peoples 'Gotama' and 'Gotama Buddha' are the more frequent designations. It is not easy to account for the rise of the surname Gotama in the Śâkya family, as Oldenberg acknowledges. He says that 'the Śâkyas, in accordance with the custom of Indian noble families, had borrowed it from one of the ancient Vedic bard families.' Dr. Davids (Buddhism,' p. 27) says: The family name was certainly Gautama,' adding in a note, 'It is a curious fact that Gautama is still the family name of the Rajput chiefs of Nagara, the village which has been identified with Kapilavastu.' Dr. Eitel says that 'Gautama was the sacerdotal name of the Śâkya family, which counted the ancient rishi Gautama among its ancestors.' When we proceed, however, to endeavour to trace the connexion of that Brahmanical rishi with the Sâkya house, by means of 1323, 1468, 1469, and other historical works in Nanjio's Catalogue, we soon find that Indian histories have no surer foundation than the shifting sand;-see E. H., on the name Śâkya, pp. 108, 109. We must be content for the present simply to accept Gotama

as one of the surnames of the Buddha with whom we have to do.

twenty paces further to the north, he delivered his prophecy concerning Maitreya1; and where, at a distance of fifty paces to the south, the dragon Elâpattra2 asked him, 'When shall I get free from this nâga body?'—at all these places topes were reared, and are still existing. In (the park) there are two monasteries, in both of which there are monks residing.

When you go north-west from the vihâra of the Deer-wild park for thirteen yojanas, there is a kingdom named Kausâmbî 3. Its vihâra is named Ghochiravana-a place where Buddha formerly resided. Now, as of old, there is a company of monks there, most of whom are students of the hînayâna.

East from (this), when you have travelled eight yojanas, is the place where Buddha converted the evil demon. There, and where he walked (in meditation) and sat at the place which was his regular abode, there have been topes erected. There is also a monastery, which may contain more than a hundred monks.

CHAPTER XXXV.

DAKSHINA, AND THE PIGEON MONASTERY.

SOUTH from this 200 yojanas, there is a country named Dakshiņa®, where there is a monastery (dedicated to) the bygone Kasyapa Buddha,

1 See note 3, p. 25. 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? 2 Nothing seems to be known of this nâga but what we read here.

4

" Identified by some with Kusia, near Kurrah (lat. 25° 41′ N., lon. 81° 27′E.); by others with Kosam on the Jumna, thirty miles above Allahabad. See E. H., p. 55. Ghochira was the name of a Vaisya elder, or head, who presented a garden and vihâra to Buddha. Hardy (M. B., p. 356) quotes a statement from a Singhalese authority that Śâkyamuni resided here during the ninth year of his Buddhaship.

5 Dr. Davids thinks this may refer to the striking and beautiful story of the conversion of the Yakkha Âlavaka, as related in the Uragavagga, Âlavakasutta, pp. 29-31 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. x, part ii).

Said to be the ancient name for 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.

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 step1. 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, 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 Śramaņas of the Law of Buddha, Brâhmaņas, 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

1

Compare the account of Buddha's great stride of fifteen yojanas in Ceylon, as related in chapter xxxviii.

2 See the same phrase in the Books of the Later Han dynasty, the twentyfourth Book of Biographies, p. 9 b.