[2] This must be the Jumna, or Yamunâ. Why it is called, as here, the Pʽoo-na has yet to be explained.
[3] In Pâli, Majjhima-desa, ‘the Middle Country.’ See Davids’ ‘Buddhist Birth Stories,’ page 61, note.
[4] Eitel (pp. 145, 6) says, ‘The name Chaṇḍâlas is explained by “butchers,” “wicked men,” and those who carry “the awful flag,” to warn off their betters;—the lowest and most despised caste of India, members of which, however, when converted, were admitted even into the ranks of the priesthood.’
[5] ‘Cowries;’ 貝齒, not ‘shells and ivory,’ as one might suppose; but cowries alone, the second term entering into the name from the marks inside the edge of the shell, resembling ‘the teeth of fishes.’
[6] See [chap. xii, note 3], Buddha’s pari-nirvâṇa is equivalent to Buddha’s death.
[7] See [chap. xiii, note 6]. The order of the characters is different here, but with the same meaning.
[8] See the preparation of such a deed of grant in a special case, as related in [chapter xxxix]. No doubt in Fâ-hien’s time, and long before and after it, it was the custom to engrave such deeds on plates of metal.
[9] ‘No monk can eat solid food except between sunrise and noon,’ and total abstinence from intoxicating drinks is obligatory (Davids’ Manual, p. 163). Food eaten at any other part of the day is called vikâla, and forbidden; but a weary traveller might receive unseasonable refreshment, consisting, as Watters has shown (Ch. Rev. viii. 282), of honey, butter, treacle, and sesamum oil.
[10] The expression here is somewhat perplexing; but it occurs again in [chapter xxxviii]; and the meaning is clear. See Watters, Ch. Rev. viii. 282, 3. The rules are given at length in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xx, p. 272 and foll., and p. 279 and foll.
[11] Śâriputtra (Singh. Seriyut) was one of the principal disciples of Buddha, and indeed the most learned and ingenious of them all, so that he obtained the title of 智慧, ‘knowledge and wisdom.’ He is also called Buddha’s ‘right-hand attendant.’ His name is derived from that of his mother Śârikâ, the wife of Tishya, a native of Nâlanda. In Spence Hardy, he often appears under the name of Upatissa (Upa-tishya), derived from his father. Several Śâstras are ascribed to him, and indeed the followers of the Abhidharma look on him as their founder. He died before Śâkyamuni; but is to reappear as a future Buddha. Eitel, pp. 123, 124.