Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms

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The country originally had no human inhabitants,(1) but was occupied
only by spirits and nagas, with which merchants of various countries
carried on a trade. When the trafficking was taking place, the
spirits did not show themselves. They simply set forth their precious
commodities, with labels of the price attached to them; while the
merchants made their purchases according to the price; and took the
things away.

Through the coming and going of the merchants (in this way), when they
went away, the people of (their) various countries heard how pleasant
the land was, and flocked to it in numbers till it became a great
nation. The (climate) is temperate and attractive, without any
difference of summer and winter. The vegetation is always luxuriant.
Cultivation proceeds whenever men think fit: there are no fixed
seasons for it.

When Buddha came to this country,(2) wishing to transform the wicked
nagas, by his supernatural power he planted one foot at the north of
the royal city, and the other on the top of a mountain,(3) the two
being fifteen yojanas apart. Over the footprint at the north of the
city the king built a large tope, 400 cubits high, grandly adorned
with gold and silver, and finished with a combination of all the
precious substances. By the side of the top he further built a
monastery, called the Abhayagiri,(4) where there are (now) five
thousand monks. There is in it a hall of Buddha, adorned with carved
and inlaid works of gold and silver, and rich in the seven precious
substances, in which there is an image (of Buddha) in green jade,
more than twenty cubits in height, glittering all over with those
substances, and having an appearance of solemn dignity which words
cannot express. In the palm of the right hand there is a priceless
pearl. Several years had now elapsed since Fa-hien left the land of
Han; the men with whom he had been in intercourse had all been of
regions strange to him; his eyes had not rested on an old and familiar
hill or river, plant or tree; his fellow-travellers, moreover, had
been separated from him, some by death, and others flowing off in
different directions; no face or shadow was now with him but his own,
and a constant sadness was in his heart. Suddenly (one day), when by
the side of this image of jade, he saw a merchant presenting as his
offering a fan of white silk;(5) and the tears of sorrow involuntarily
filled his eyes and fell down.

A former king of the country had sent to Central India and got a slip
of the patra tree,(6) which he planted by the side of the hall of
Buddha, where a tree grew up to the height of about 200 cubits. As it
bent on one side towards the south-east, the king, fearing it would
fall, propped it with a post eight or nine spans round. The tree began
to grow at the very heart of the prop, where it met (the trunk); (a
shoot) pierced through the post, and went down to the ground, where
it entered and formed roots, that rose (to the surface) and were about
four spans round. Although the post was split in the middle, the outer
portions kept hold (of the shoot), and people did not remove them.
Beneath the tree there has been built a vihara, in which there is an
image (of Buddha) seated, which the monks and commonalty reverence and
look up to without ever becoming wearied. In the city there has been
reared also the vihara of Buddha's tooth, on which, as well as on the
other, the seven precious substances have been employed.

The king practises the Brahmanical purifications, and the sincerity
of the faith and reverence of the population inside the city are also
great. Since the establishment of government in the kingdom there
has been no famine or scarcity, no revolution or disorder. In the
treasuries of the monkish communities there are many precious stones,
and the priceless manis. One of the kings (once) entered one of those
treasuries, and when he looked all round and saw the priceless pearls,
his covetous greed was excited, and he wished to take them to himself
by force. In three days, however, he came to himself, and immediately
went and bowed his head to the ground in the midst of the monks,
to show his repentance of the evil thought. As a sequel to this, he
informed the monks (of what had been in his mind), and desired them
to make a regulation that from that day forth the king should not be
allowed to enter the treasury and see (what it contained), and that no
bhikshu should enter it till after he had been in orders for a period
of full forty years.(7)

In the city there are many Vaisya elders and Sabaean(8) merchants,
whose houses are stately and beautiful. The lanes and passages are
kept in good order. At the heads of the four principal streets there
have been built preaching halls, where, on the eighth, fourteenth,
and fifteenth days of the month, they spread carpets, and set forth a
pulpit, while the monks and commonalty from all quarters come together
to hear the Law. The people say that in the kingdom there may be
altogether sixty thousand monks, who get their food from their common
stores. The king, besides, prepares elsewhere in the city a common
supply of food for five or six thousand more. When any want, they take
their great bowls, and go (to the place of distribution), and take as
much as the vessels will hold, all returning with them full.

The tooth of Buddha is always brought forth in the middle of the
third month. Ten days beforehand the king grandly caparisons a large
elephant, on which he mounts a man who can speak distinctly, and is
dressed in royal robes, to beat a large drum, and make the following
proclamation:--"The Bodhisattva, during three Asankhyeya-kalpas,(9)
manifested his activity, and did not spare his own life. He gave up
kingdom, city, wife, and son; he plucked out his eyes and gave them to
another;(10) he cut off a piece of his own flesh to ransom the life
of a dove;(10) he cut off his head and gave it as an alms;(11) he gave
his body to feed a starving tigress;(11) he grudged not his marrow
and his brains. In many such ways as these did he undergo pain for
the sake of all living. And so it was, that, having become Buddha,
he continued in the world for forty-five years, preaching his Law,
teaching and transforming, so that those who had no rest found rest,
and the unconverted were converted. When his connexion with the living
was completed,(12) he attained to pari-nirvana (and died). Since that
event, for 1497 years, the light of the world has gone out,(13) and
all living beings have had long-continued sadness. Behold! ten days
after this, Buddha's tooth will be brought forth, and taken to the
Abhayagiri-vihara. Let all and each, whether monks or laics, who
wish to amass merit for themselves, make the roads smooth and in good
condition, grandly adorn the lanes and by-ways, and provide abundant
store of flowers and incense to be used as offerings to it."

When this proclamation is over, the king exhibits, so as to line both
sides of the road, the five hundred different bodily forms in which
the Bodhisattva has in the course of his history appeared:--here as
Sudana,(14) there as Sama;(15) now as the king of elephants;(16) and
then as a stag or a horse.(16) All these figures are brightly coloured
and grandly executed, looking as if they were alive. After this the
tooth of Buddha is brought forth, and is carried along in the middle
of the road. Everywhere on the way offerings are presented to it, and
thus it arrives at the hall of Buddha in the Abhayagiri-vihara. There
monks and laics are collected in crowds. They burn incense, light
lamps, and perform all the prescribed services, day and night without
ceasing, till ninety days have been completed, when (the tooth) is
returned to the vihara within the city. On fast-days the door of that
vihara is opened, and the forms of ceremonial reverence are observed
according to the rules.

Forty le to the east of the Abhayagiri-vihara there is a hill, with a
vihara on it, called the Chaitya,(17) where there may be 2000 monks.
Among them there is a Sramana of great virtue, named Dharma-gupta,(18)
honoured and looked up to by all the kingdom. He has lived for more
than forty years in an apartment of stone, constantly showing such
gentleness of heart, that he has brought snakes and rats to stop
together in the same room, without doing one another any harm.

NOTES

(1) It is desirable to translate {.} {.}, for which "inhabitants"
or "people" is elsewhere sufficient, here by "human inhabitants."
According to other accounts Singhala was originally occupied by
Rakshasas or Rakshas, "demons who devour men," and "beings to be
feared," monstrous cannibals or anthropophagi, the terror of the
shipwrecked mariner. Our author's "spirits" {.} {.} were of a gentler
type. His dragons or nagas have come before us again and again.

(2) That Sakyamuni ever visited Ceylon is to me more than doubtful.
Hardy, in M. B., pp. 207-213, has brought together the legends
of three visits,--in the first, fifth, and eighth years of his
Buddhaship. It is plain, however, from Fa-hien's narrative, that in
the beginning of our fifth century, Buddhism prevailed throughout
the island. Davids in the last chapter of his "Buddhism" ascribes its
introduction to one of Asoka's missions, after the Council of Patna,
under his son Mahinda, when Tissa, "the delight of the gods," was king
(B.C. 250-230).

(3) This would be what is known as "Adam's peak," having, according
to Hardy (pp. 211, 212, notes), the three names of Selesumano,
Samastakuta, and Samanila. "There is an indentation on the top of it,"
a superficial hollow, 5 feet 3 3_4 inches long, and about 2 1_2 feet
wide. The Hindus regard it as the footprint of Siva; the Mohameddans,
as that of Adam; and the Buddhists, as in the text,--as having been
made by Buddha.

(4) Meaning "The Fearless Hill." There is still the Abhayagiri tope,
the highest in Ceylon, according to Davids, 250 feet in height, and
built about B.C. 90, by Watta Gamini, in whose reign, about 160
years after the Council of Patna, and 330 years after the death
of Sakyamuni, the Tripitaka was first reduced to writing in
Ceylon;--"Buddhism," p. 234.

(5) We naturally suppose that the merchant-offerer was a Chinese, as
indeed the Chinese texts say, and the fan such as Fa-hien had seen and
used in his native land.

(6) This should be the pippala, or bodhidruma, generally spoken of, in
connexion with Buddha, as the Bo tree, under which he attained to the
Buddhaship. It is strange our author should have confounded them as he
seems to do. In what we are told of the tree here, we have, no doubt,
his account of the planting, growth, and preservation of the famous Bo
tree, which still exists in Ceylon. It has been stated in a previous
note that Asoka's son, Mahinda, went as the apostle of Buddhism to
Ceylon. By-and-by he sent for his sister Sanghamitta, who had entered
the order at the same time as himself, and whose help was needed, some
of the king's female relations having signified their wish to become
nuns. On leaving India, she took with her a branch of the sacred Bo
tree at Buddha Gaya, under which Sakyamuni had become Buddha. Of
how the tree has grown and still lives we have an account in Davids'
"Buddhism." He quotes the words of Sir Emerson Tennent, that it is
"the oldest historical tree in the world;" but this must be denied if
it be true, as Eitel says, that the tree at Buddha Gaya, from which
the slip that grew to be this tree was taken more than 2000 years ago,
is itself still living in its place. We must conclude that Fa-hien,
when in Ceylon, heard neither of Mahinda nor Sanghamitta.

(7) Compare what is said in chap. xvi, about the inquiries made
at monasteries as to the standing of visitors in the monkhood, and
duration of their ministry.

(8) The phonetic values of the two Chinese characters here are in
Sanskrit sa; and va, bo or bha. "Sabaean" is Mr. Beal's reading
of them, probably correct. I suppose the merchants were Arabs,
forerunners of the so-called Moormen, who still form so important a
part of the mercantile community in Ceylon.

(9) A Kalpa, we have seen, denotes a great period of time; a period
during which a physical universe is formed and destroyed.
Asankhyeya denotes the highest sum for which a conventional term
exists;--according to Chinese calculations equal to one followed by
seventeen ciphers; according to Thibetan and Singhalese, equal to one
followed by ninety-seven ciphers. Every Maha-kalpa consists of four
Asankhyeya-kalpas. Eitel, p. 15.

(10) See chapter ix.

(11) See chapter xi.

(12) He had been born in the Sakya house, to do for the world what the
character of all his past births required, and he had done it.

(13) They could no more see him, the World-honoured one. Compare the
Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist Suttas, pp. 89, 121, and
note on p. 89.

(14) Sudana or Sudatta was the name of the Bodhisattva in the birth
which preceded his appearance as Sakyamuni or Gotama, when he became
the Supreme Buddha. This period is known as the Vessantara Jataka,
of which Hardy, M. B., pp. 116-124, gives a long account; see also
"Buddhist Birth Stories," the Nidana Katha, p. 158. In it, as Sudana,
he fulfilled "the Perfections," his distinguishing attribute being
entire self-renunciation and alms-giving, so that in the Nidana Katha
is made to say ("Buddhist Birth Stories," p. 159):--

"This earth, unconscious though she be, and ignorant of joy or grief,
Even she by my free-giving's mighty power was shaken seven times."

Then, when he passed away, he appeared in the Tushita heaven, to enter
in due time the womb of Maha-maya, and be born as Sakyamuni.

(15) I take the name Sama from Beal's revised version. He says in a
note that the Sama Jataka, as well as the Vessantara, is represented
in the Sanchi sculptures. But what the Sama Jataka was I do not yet
know. But adopting this name, the two Chinese characters in the text
should be translated "the change into Sama." Remusat gives for them,
"la transformation en eclair;" Beal, in his first version, "his
appearance as a bright flash of light;" Giles, "as a flash of
lightning." Julien's Methode does not give the phonetic value in
Sanskrit of {.}.

(16) In an analysis of the number of times and the different forms in
which Sakyamuni had appeared in his Jataka births, given by Hardy (M.
B., p. 100), it is said that he had appeared six times as an elephant;
ten times as a deer; and four times as a horse.

(17) Chaitya is a general term designating all places and objects
of religious worship which have a reference to ancient Buddhas, and
including therefore Stupas and temples as well as sacred relics,
pictures, statues, &c. It is defined as "a fane," "a place for worship
and presenting offerings." Eitel, p. 141. The hill referred to is
the sacred hill of Mihintale, about eight miles due east of the Bo
tree;--Davids' Buddhism, pp. 230, 231.

(18) Eitel says (p. 31): "A famous ascetic, the founder of a school,
which flourished in Ceylon, A.D. 400." But Fa-hien gives no intimation
of Dharma-gupta's founding a school.



CHAPTER XXXIX

CREMATION OF AN ARHAT. SERMON OF A DEVOTEE.

South of the city seven le there is a vihara, called the Maha-vihara,
where 3000 monks reside. There had been among them a Sramana, of
such lofty virtue, and so holy and pure in his observance of the
disciplinary rules, that the people all surmised that he was an Arhat.
When he drew near his end, the king came to examine into the point;
and having assembled the monks according to rule, asked whether the
bhikshu had attained to the full degree of Wisdom.(1) They answered
in the affirmative, saying that he was an Arhat. The king accordingly,
when he died, buried him after the fashion of an Arhat, as the regular
rules prescribed. Four of five le east from the vihara there was
reared a great pile of firewood, which might be more than thirty
cubits square, and the same in height. Near the top were laid sandal,
aloe, and other kinds of fragrant wood.

On the four sides (of the pile) they made steps by which to ascend it.
With clean white hair-cloth, almost like silk, they wrapped (the body)
round and round.(2) They made a large carriage-frame, in form like our
funeral car, but without the dragons and fishes.(3)

At the time of the cremation, the king and the people, in multitudes
from all quarters, collected together, and presented offerings
of flowers and incense. While they were following the car to the
burial-ground,(4) the king himself presented flowers and incense. When
this was finished, the car was lifted on the pile, all over which oil
of sweet basil was poured, and then a light was applied. While the
fire was blazing, every one, with a reverent heart, pulled off his
upper garment, and threw it, with his feather-fan and umbrella, from a
distance into the midst of the flames, to assist the burning. When
the cremation was over, they collected and preserved the bones, and
proceeded to erect a tope. Fa-hien had not arrived in time (to see the
distinguished Shaman) alive, and only saw his burial.

At that time the king,(5) who was a sincere believer in the Law of
Buddha and wished to build a new vihara for the monks, first
convoked a great assembly. After giving the monks a meal of rice,
and presenting his offerings (on the occasion), he selected a pair of
first-rate oxen, the horns of which were grandly decorated with
gold, silver, and the precious substances. A golden plough had been
provided, and the king himself turned up a furrow on the four sides
of the ground within which the building was supposed to be. He then
endowed the community of the monks with the population, fields, and
houses, writing the grant on plates of metal, (to the effect) that
from that time onwards, from generation to generation, no one should
venture to annul or alter it.

In this country Fa-hien heard an Indian devotee, who was reciting
a Sutra from the pulpit, say:--"Buddha's alms-bowl was at first in
Vaisali, and now it is in Gandhara.(6) After so many hundred years"
(he gave, when Fa-hien heard him, the exact number of years, but he
has forgotten it), "it will go to Western Tukhara;(7) after so
many hundred years, to Khoten; after so many hundred years, to
Kharachar;(8) after so many hundred years, to the land of Han; after
so many hundred years, it will come to Sinhala; and after so many
hundred years, it will return to Central India. After that, it will
ascend to the Tushita heaven; and when the Bodhisattva Maitreya sees
it, he will say with a sigh, 'The alms-bowl of Sakyamuni Buddha
is come;' and with all the devas he will present to it flowers and
incense for seven days. When these have expired, it will return to
Jambudvipa, where it will be received by the king of the sea nagas,
and taken into his naga palace. When Maitreya shall be about to attain
to perfect Wisdom (and become Buddha), it will again separate into
four bowls,(9) which will return to the top of mount Anna,(9) whence
they came. After Maitreya has become Buddha, the four deva kings will
again think of the Buddha (with their bowls as they did in the case
of the previous Buddha). The thousand Buddhas of this Bhadra-kalpa,
indeed, will all use the same alms-bowl; and when the bowl
has disappeared, the Law of Buddha will go on gradually to be
extinguished. After that extinction has taken place, the life of man
will be shortened, till it is only a period of five years. During this
period of a five years' life, rice, butter, and oil will all vanish
away, and men will become exceedingly wicked. The grass and trees
which they lay hold of will change into swords and clubs, with which
they will hurt, cut, and kill one another. Those among them on whom
there is blessing will withdraw from society among the hills; and when
the wicked have exterminated one another, they will again come forth,
and say among themselves, 'The men of former times enjoyed a very
great longevity; but through becoming exceedingly wicked, and doing
all lawless things, the length of our life has been shortened and
reduced even to five years. Let us now unite together in the practice
of what is good, cherishing a gentle and sympathising heart, and
carefully cultivating good faith and righteousness. When each one in
this way practises that faith and righteousness, life will go on to
double its length till it reaches 80,000 years. When Maitreya appears
in the world, and begins to turn the wheel of his Law, he will in
the first place save those among the disciples of the Law left by the
Sakya who have quitted their families, and those who have accepted
the three Refuges, undertaken the five Prohibitions and the eight
Abstinences, and given offerings to the three Precious Ones; secondly
and thirdly, he will save those between whom and conversion there is a
connexion transmitted from the past.'"(10)

(Such was the discourse), and Fa-hien wished to write it down as a
portion of doctrine; but the man said, "This is taken from no Sutra,
it is only the utterance of my own mind."

NOTES

(1) Possibly, "and asked the bhikshu," &c. I prefer the other way of
construing, however.

(2) It seems strange that this should have been understood as a
wrapping of the immense pyre with the cloth. There is nothing in
the text to necessitate such a version, but the contrary. Compare
"Buddhist Suttas," pp. 92, 93.

(3) See the description of a funeral car and its decorations in the
Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxviii, the Li Ki, Book XIX. Fa-hien's
{.} {.}, "in this (country)," which I have expressed by "our," shows
that whatever notes of this cremation he had taken at the time, the
account in the text was composed after his return to China, and when
he had the usages there in his mind and perhaps before his eyes. This
disposes of all difficulty occasioned by the "dragons" and "fishes."
The {.} at the end is merely the concluding particle.

(4) The pyre served the purpose of a burial-ground or grave, and hence
our author writes of it as such.

(5) This king must have been Maha-nana (A.D. 410-432). In the time
of his predecessor, Upatissa (A.D. 368-410), the pitakas were first
translated into Singhalese. Under Maha-nana, Buddhaghosha wrote his
commentaries. Both were great builders of viharas. See the Mahavansa,
pp. 247, foll.

(6) See chapter xii. Fa-hien had seen it at Purushapura, which Eitel
says was "the ancient capital of Gandhara."

(7) Western Tukhara ({.} {.}) is the same probably as the Tukhara
({.}) of chapter xii, a king of which is there described as trying to
carry off the bowl from Purushapura.

(8) North of the Bosteng lake at the foot of the Thien-shan range (E.
H., p. 56).

(9) See chap. xii, note 9. Instead of "Anna" the Chinese recensions
have Vina; but Vina or Vinataka, and Ana for Sudarsana are names of
one or other of the concentric circles of rocks surrounding mount
Meru, the fabled home of the deva guardians of the bowl.

(10) That is, those whose Karma in the past should be rewarded by such
conversion in the present.



CHAPTER XL

AFTER TWO YEARS TAKES SHIP FOR CHINA. DISASTROUS PASSAGE TO JAVA; AND
THENCE TO CHINA; ARRIVES AT SHAN-TUNG; AND GOES TO NANKING. CONCLUSION
OR L'ENVOI BY ANOTHER WRITER.

Fa-hien abode in this country two years; and, in addition (to
his acquisitions in Patna), succeeded in getting a copy of the
Vinaya-pitaka of the Mahisasakah (school);(1) the Dirghagama
and Samyuktagama(2) (Sutras); and also the
Samyukta-sanchaya-pitaka;(3)--all being works unknown in the land of
Han. Having obtained these Sanskrit works, he took passage in a large
merchantman, on board of which there were more than 200 men, and to
which was attached by a rope a smaller vessel, as a provision against
damage or injury to the large one from the perils of the navigation.
With a favourable wind, they proceeded eastwards for three days, and
then they encountered a great wind. The vessel sprang a leak and the
water came in. The merchants wished to go to the small vessel; but the
men on board it, fearing that too many would come, cut the connecting
rope. The merchants were greatly alarmed, feeling their risk of
instant death. Afraid that the vessel would fill, they took their
bulky goods and threw them into the water. Fa-hien also took his
pitcher(4) and washing-basin, with some other articles, and cast them
into the sea; but fearing that the merchants would cast overboard
his books and images, he could only think with all his heart of
Kwan-she-yin,(5) and commit his life to (the protection of) the church
of the land of Han,(6) (saying in effect), "I have travelled far in
search of our Law. Let me, by your dread and supernatural (power),
return from my wanderings, and reach my resting-place!"