(1) Rama or Ramagrama, between Kapilavastu and Kusanagara.
(2) See the account of the eightfold division of the relics of Buddha’s body in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist Suttas, pp. 133-136.
(3) The bones of the human body are supposed to consist of 84,000 atoms, and hence the legend of Asoka’s wish to build 84,000 topes, one over each atom of Sâkyamuni’s skeleton.
(4) Fâ-Hien, it appears to me, intended his readers to understand that the naga-guardian had a palace of his own, inside or underneath the pool or tank.
(5) It stands out on the narrative as a whole that we have not here “some pilgrims,” but one devotee.
(6) What the “great prohibitions” which the devotee now gave up were we cannot tell. Being what he was, a monk of more than ordinary ascetical habits, he may have undertaken peculiar and difficult vows.
(7) The Sramanera, or in Chinese Shamei. See chap. xvi, note 19.
CHAPTER XXIV.
WHERE BUDDHA FINALLY RENOUNCED THE WORLD, AND WHERE HE DIED.
East from here four yojanas, there is the place where the heir-apparent sent back Chandaka, with his white horse;(1) and there also a tope was erected.
Four yojanas to the east from this, (the travellers) came to the Charcoal tope,(2) where there is also a monastery.