Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms

F >> Fa Hien >> Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms


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 dragon.(3)
The rock is fourteen cubits high, and more than twenty broad, with one
side of it smooth.

Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and Tao-ching went on ahead towards (the place
of) Buddha's shadow in the country of Nagara;(4) but Fa-hien and the
others remained in Woo-chang, and kept the summer retreat.(5)
That over, they descended south, and arrived in the country of
Soo-ho-to.(6)

NOTES

(1) Udyana, meaning "the Park;" just north of the Punjab, the country
along the Subhavastu, now called the Swat; noted for its forests,
flowers, and fruits (E. H., p. 153).

(2) Bhikshu is the name for a monk as "living by alms," a mendicant.
All bhikshus call themselves Sramans. Sometimes the two names are used
together by our author.

(3) Naga 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 nagas 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 nagas 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 paramitas 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 Naga's name was Apatala, the guardian
deity of the Subhavastu river, and that he was converted by Sakyamuni
shortly before the death of the latter.

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

(5) We would seem now to be in 403.

(6) Soo-ho-to has not been clearly identified. Beal says that later
Buddhist writers include it in Udyana. 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(1) is flourishing. There is in it the
place where Sakra,(2) Ruler of Devas, in a former age,(3) tried the
Bodhisattva, by producing(4) a hawk (in pursuit of a) dove, when (the
Bodhisattva) cut off a piece of his own flesh, and (with it) ransomed
the dove. After Buddha had attained to perfect wisdom,(5) 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
layers(6) of gold and silver plates.

NOTES

(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 {to
euaggelion Xristou}. 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 Asoka'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 {.}
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) Sakra 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 Ti, "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 Sakyamuni, and every Buddhist saint. He
appears several times in Fa-hien's narrative. E. H., pp. 108 and 46.

(3) 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 Jataka
story."

(4) It occurs at once to the translator to render the characters
{.} {.} by "changed himself to." Such is often their meaning in the
sequel, but their use in chapter xxiv may be considered as a crucial
test of the meaning which I have given them here.

(5) That is, had become Buddha, or completed his course {.} {.}.

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



CHAPTER X

GANDHARA. LEGENDS OF BUDDHA.

The travellers, going downwards from this towards the east, in
five days came to the country of Gandhara,(1) the place where
Dharma-vivardhana,(2) the son of Asoka,(3) ruled. When Buddha was a
Bodhisattva, he gave his eyes also for another man here;(4) and at the
spot they have also reared a large tope, adorned with layers of gold
and silver plates. The people of the country were mostly students of
the hinayana.

NOTES

(1) Eitel says "an ancient kingdom, corresponding to the region about
Dheri and Banjour." But see note 5.

(2) Dharma-vivardhana is the name in Sanskrit, represented by the Fa
Yi {.} {.} of the text.

(3) Asoka is here mentioned for the first time;--the Constantine of
the Buddhist society, and famous for the number of viharas 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 "Asoka's
coronation can be fixed with absolute certainty within a year or two
either way of 267 B.C."

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



CHAPTER XI

TAKSHASILA. LEGENDS. THE FOUR GREAT TOPES.

Seven days' journey from this to the east brought the travellers to
the kingdom of Takshasila,(1) which means "the severed head" in the
language of China. Here, when Buddha was a Bodhisattva, he gave away
his head to a man;(2) 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
tigress.(2) 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 all those (and the other two mentioned before) "the four
great topes."

NOTES

(1) See Julien's "Methode pour dechiffrer et transcrire les Nomes
Sanscrits," p. 206. Eitel says, "The Taxila of the Greeks, the region
near Hoosun Abdaul in lat. 35d 48s N., lon. 72d 44s 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 Punjab, still
existing in the ruins of Shahdheri, between the Indus and Hydaspes
(the modern Jhelum). So far he may be correct; but the Takshasila of
Fa-hien was on the other, or western side of the Indus; and between
the river and Gandhara. 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 Jataka 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 PESHAWUR. PROPHECY ABOUT KING KANISHKA AND HIS TOPE.
BUDDHA'S ALMS-BOWL. DEATH OF HWUY-YING.

Going southwards from Gandhara, (the travellers) in four days arrived
at the kingdom of Purushapura.(1) Formerly, when Buddha was travelling
in this country with his disciples, he said to Ananda,(2) "After my
pari-nirvana,(3) there will be a king named Kanishka,(4) 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, Sakra,
Ruler of Devas, wishing to excite the idea in his mind, assumed the
appearance of a little herd-boy, and was making a tope right in the
way (of the king), who asked what sort of thing he was making. The boy
said, "I am making a tope for Buddha." The king said, "Very good;"
and immediately, right over the boy's tope, he (proceeded to) rear
another, which was more than four hundred cubits high, and adorned
with layers of all the precious substances. Of all the topes and
temples which (the travellers) saw in their journeyings, there was not
one comparable to this in solemn beauty and majestic grandeur. There
is a current saying that this is the finest tope in Jambudvipa.(5)
When the king's tope was completed, the little tope (of the boy)
came out from its side on the south, rather more than three cubits in
height.

Buddha's alms-bowl is in this country. Formerly, a king of Yueh-she(6)
raised a large force and invaded this country, wishing to carry the
bowl away. Having subdued the kingdom, as he and his captains were
sincere believers in the Law of Buddha, and wished to carry off the
bowl, they proceeded to present their offerings on a great scale. When
they had done so to the Three Precious Ones, he made a large elephant
be grandly caparisoned, and placed the bowl upon it. But the elephant
knelt down on the ground, and was unable to go forward. Again he
caused a four-wheeled waggon to be prepared in which the bowl was
put to be conveyed away. Eight elephants were then yoked to it, and
dragged it with their united strength; but neither were they able to
go forward. The king knew that the time for an association between
himself and the bowl had not yet arrived,(7) and was sad and deeply
ashamed of himself. Forthwith he built a tope at the place and a
monastery, and left a guard to watch (the bowl), making all sorts of
contributions.

There may be there more than seven hundred monks. When it is near
midday, they bring out the bowl, and, along with the common people,(8)
make their various offerings to it, after which they take their midday
meal. In the evening, at the time of incense, they bring the bowl out
again.(9) It may contain rather more than two pecks, and is of various
colours, black predominating, with the seams that show its fourfold
composition distinctly marked.(10) Its thickness is about the fifth of
an inch, and it has a bright and glossy lustre. When poor people throw
into it a few flowers, it becomes immediately full, while some very
rich people, wishing to make offering of many flowers, might not stop
till they had thrown in hundreds, thousands, and myriads of bushels,
and yet would not be able to fill it.(11)

Pao-yun and Sang-king here merely made their offerings to the
alms-bowl, and (then resolved to) go back. Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and
Tao-ching had gone on before the rest to Negara,(12) to make their
offerings at (the places of) Buddha's shadow, tooth, and the flat-bone
of his skull. (There) Hwuy-king fell ill, and Tao-ching remained to
look after him, while Hwuy-tah came alone to Purushapura, and saw the
others, and (then) he with Pao-yun and Sang-king took their way
back to the land of Ts'in. Hwuy-king(13) came to his end(14) in the
monastery of Buddha's alms-bowl, and on this Fa-hien went forward
alone towards the place of the flat-bone of Buddha's skull.

NOTES

(1) The modern Peshawur, lat. 34d 8s N., lon. 71d 30s E.

(2) A first cousin of Sakyamuni, and born at the moment when he
attained to Buddhaship. Under Buddha's teaching, Ananda 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 Sakyamuni 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 Maha-pari-nirvana
Sutra, without being moved almost to tears. Ananda 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 nirvana, Sakyamuni 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-nirvana, 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. So far as our use
of language is concerned, apart from any assured faith in and hope of
immortality, his pari-nirvana was his death.

(4) 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 Yueh-she, immediately mentioned, or Tukhara. Converted by
the sudden appearance of a saint, he became a zealous Buddhist, and
patronised the system as liberally as Asoka 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.

(5) Jambudvipa is one of the four great continents of the universe,
representing the inhabited world as fancied by the Buddhists, and so
called because it resembles in shape the leaves of the jambu tree. It
is south of mount Meru, and divided among four fabulous kings (E. H.,
p. 36). It is often used, as here perhaps, merely as the Buddhist name
for India.

(6) This king was perhaps Kanishka himself, Fa-hien mixing up, in an
inartistic way, different legends about him. Eitel suggests that a
relic of the old name of the country may still exist in that of the
Jats or Juts of the present day. A more common name for it is Tukhara,
and he observes that the people were the Indo-Scythians of the Greeks,
and the Tartars of Chinese writers, who, driven on by the Huns (180
B.C.), conquered Transoxiana, destroyed the Bactrian kingdom (126
B.C.), and finally conquered the Punjab, Cashmere, and great part of
India, their greatest king being Kanishak (E. H., p. 152).

(7) Watters, clearly understanding the thought of the author in this
sentence, renders--"his destiny did not extend to a connexion with
the bowl;" but the term "destiny" suggests a controlling or directing
power without. The king thought that his virtue in the past was not
yet sufficient to give him possession of the bowl.

(8) The text is simply "those in white clothes." This may mean "the
laity," or the "upasakas;" but it is better to take the characters
in their common Chinese acceptation, as meaning "commoners," "men who
have no rank." See in Williams' Dictionary under {.}.

(9) I do not wonder that Remusat should give for this--"et s'en
retournent apres." But Fa-hien's use of {.} in the sense of "in the
same way" is uniform throughout the narrative.

(10) Hardy's M. B., p. 183, says:--"The alms-bowl, given by
Mahabrahma, having vanished (about the time that Gotama became
Buddha), each of the four guardian deities brought him an alms-bowl of
emerald, but he did not accept them. They then brought four bowls made
of stone, of the colour of the mung fruit; and when each entreated
that his own bowl might be accepted, Buddha caused them to appear as
if formed into a single bowl, appearing at the upper rim as if placed
one within the other." See the account more correctly given in the
"Buddhist Birth Stories," p. 110.

(11) Compare the narrative in Luke's Gospel, xxi. 1-4.

(12) See chapter viii.

(13) This, no doubt, should be Hwuy-ying. King was at this time ill
in Nagara, and indeed afterwards he dies in crossing the Little Snowy
Mountains; but all the texts make him die twice. The confounding of
the two names has been pointed out by Chinese critics.

(14) "Came to his end;" i.e., according to the text, "proved the
impermanence and uncertainty," namely, of human life. See Williams'
Dictionary under {.}. The phraseology is wholly Buddhistic.



CHAPTER XIII

NAGARA. FESTIVAL OF BUDDHA'S SKULL-BONE. OTHER RELICS, AND HIS SHADOW.

Going west for sixteen yojanas,(1) he came to the city He-lo(2) in
the borders of the country of Nagara, where there is the flat-bone
of Buddha's skull, deposited in a vihara(3) adorned all over with
gold-leaf and the seven sacred substances. The king of the country,
revering and honouring the bone, and anxious lest it should be stolen
away, has selected eight individuals, representing the great families
in the kingdom, and committing to each a seal, with which he should
seal (its shrine) and guard (the relic). At early dawn these eight men
come, and after each has inspected his seal, they open the door. This
done, they wash their hands with scented water and bring out the bone,
which they place outside the vihara, on a lofty platform, where it is
supported on a round pedestal of the seven precious substances, and
covered with a bell of _lapis lazuli_, both adorned with rows of
pearls. Its colour is of a yellowish white, and it forms an imperfect
circle twelve inches round,(4) curving upwards to the centre. Every
day, after it has been brought forth, the keepers of the vihara ascend
a high gallery, where they beat great drums, blow conchs, and clash
their copper cymbals. When the king hears them, he goes to the vihara,
and makes his offerings of flowers and incense. When he has done this,
he (and his attendants) in order, one after another, (raise the bone),
place it (for a moment) on the top of their heads,(5) and then depart,
going out by the door on the west as they entered by that on the east.
The king every morning makes his offerings and performs his worship,
and afterwards gives audience on the business of his government. The
chiefs of the Vaisyas(6) also make their offerings before they
attend to their family affairs. Every day it is so, and there is no
remissness in the observance of the custom. When all the offerings are
over, they replace the bone in the vihara, where there is a vimoksha
tope,(7) of the seven precious substances, and rather more than five
cubits high, sometimes open, sometimes shut, to contain it. In front
of the door of the vihara, there are parties who every morning sell
flowers and incense,(8) and those who wish to make offerings buy
some of all kinds. The kings of various countries are also constantly
sending messengers with offerings. The vihara stands in a square of
thirty paces, and though heaven should shake and earth be rent, this
place would not move.

Going on, north from this, for a yojana, (Fa-hien) arrived at the
capital of Nagara, the place where the Bodhisattva once purchased
with money five stalks of flowers, as an offering to the Dipankara
Buddha.(9) In the midst of the city there is also the tope of Buddha's
tooth, where offerings are made in the same way as to the flat-bone of
his skull.

A yojana to the north-east of the city brought him to the mouth of a
valley, where there is Buddha's pewter staff;(10) and a vihara also
has been built at which offerings are made. The staff is made of
Gosirsha Chandana, and is quite sixteen or seventeen cubits long. It
is contained in a wooden tube, and though a hundred or a thousand men
ere to (try to) lift it, they could not move it.

Entering the mouth of the valley, and going west, he found Buddha's
Sanghali,(11) where also there is reared a vihara, and offerings are
made. It is a custom of the country when there is a great drought, for
the people to collect in crowds, bring out the robe, pay worship to
it, and make offerings, on which there is immediately a great rain
from the sky.

South of the city, half a yojana, there is a rock-cavern, in a great
hill fronting the south-west; and here it was that Buddha left his
shadow. Looking at it from a distance of more than ten paces, you
seem to see Buddha's real form, with his complexion of gold, and
his characteristic marks(12) in their nicety clearly and brightly
displayed. The nearer you approach, however, the fainter it becomes,
as if it were only in your fancy. When the kings from the regions all
around have sent skilful artists to take a copy, none of them have
been able to do so. Among the people of the country there is a saying
current that "the thousand Buddhas(13) must all leave their shadows
here."

Rather more than four hundred paces west from the shadow, when
Buddha was at the spot, he shaved his hair and clipt his nails, and
proceeded, along with his disciples, to build a tope seventy or eighty
cubits high, to be a model for all future topes; and it is still
existing. By the side of it there is a monastery, with more than seven
hundred monks in it. At this place there are as many as a thousand
topes(14) of Arhans and Pratyeka Buddhas.(15)

NOTES

(1) Now in India, Fa-hien used the Indian measure of distance; but
it is not possible to determine exactly what its length then was. The
estimates of it are very different, and vary from four and a half or
five miles to seven, and sometimes more. See the subject exhaustively
treated in Davids' "Ceylon Coins and Measures," pp. 15-17.

(2) The present Hilda, west of Peshawur, and five miles south of
Jellalabad.

(3) "The vihara," says Hardy, "is the residence of a recluse or
priest;" and so Davids:--"the clean little hut where the mendicant
lives." Our author, however, does not use the Indian name here, but
the Chinese characters which express its meaning--tsing shay, "a
pure dwelling." He uses the term occasionally, and evidently, in this
sense; more frequently it occurs in his narrative in connexion with
the Buddhist relic worship; and at first I translated it by "shrine"
and "shrine-house;" but I came to the conclusion, at last, to employ
always the Indian name. The first time I saw a shrine-house was, I
think, in a monastery near Foo-chow;--a small pyramidical structure,
about ten feet high, glittering as if with the precious substances,
but all, it seemed to me, of tinsel. It was in a large apartment of
the building, having many images in it. The monks said it was the most
precious thing in their possession, and that if they opened it, as I
begged them to do, there would be a convulsion that would destroy the
whole establishment. See E. H., p. 166. The name of the province of
Behar was given to it in consequence of its many viharas.

(4) According to the characters, "square, round, four inches."
Hsuan-chwang says it was twelve inches round.

(5) In Williams' Dictionary, under {.}, the characters, used here,
are employed in the phrase for "to degrade an officer," that is, "to
remove the token of his rank worn on the crown of his head;" but to
place a thing on the crown is a Buddhistic form of religious homage.