[23] The reading here seems to me a great improvement on that of the Chinese editions, which means ‘Fire Limit.’ Buddha, it is said, 本 converted this demon, which Chinese character Beal rendered at first by ‘in one of his incarnations;’ and in his revised version he has ‘himself.’ The difference between Fâ-hien’s usage of 本 and 昔 throughout his narrative is quite marked. 本 always refers to the doings of Śâkyamuni; 昔, ‘formerly,’ is often used of him and others in the sense of ‘in a former age or birth.’
[24] See Hardy, M. B., p. 194:—‘As a token of the giving over of the garden, the king poured water upon the hands of Buddha; and from this time it became one of the principal residences of the sage.’
[25] This would seem to be absurd; but the writer evidently intended to convey the idea that there was something mysterious about the number of the topes.
[26] See [chap. xiii note. 15].
[27] This seems to be the meaning. The bodies of the monks are all burned. Hardy’s E. M., pp. 322–324.
CHAPTER XVIII.
KANYÂKUBJA, OR CANOUGE. BUDDHA’S PREACHING.
Fâ-hien stayed at the Dragon vihâra till after the summer retreat,[1] and then, travelling to the south-east for seven yojanas, he arrived at the city of Kanyâkubja,[2] lying along the Ganges.[3] There are two monasteries in it, the inmates of which are students of the hînayâna. At a distance from the city of six or seven le, on the west, on the northern bank of the Ganges, is a place where Buddha preached the Law to his disciples. It has been handed down that his subjects of discourse were such as ‘The bitterness and vanity (of life) as impermanent and uncertain,’ and that ‘The body is as a bubble or foam on the water.’ At this spot a tope was erected, and still exists.
Having crossed the Ganges, and gone south for three yojanas, (the travellers) arrived at a village named Â-le,[4] containing places where Buddha preached the Law, where he sat, and where he walked, at all of which topes have been built.
[1] We are now, probably, in 405.