Fā-hien adds that a Stūpa was erected on the spot where Buddha descended; another where the female mendicant caught the first sight of Buddha at his descent.
The basement of King Aṡoka’s pillar was found by General Cunningham in 1876. On a previous occasion he discovered the capital of the ancient pillar surmounted by an elephant, which may have been mistaken by Fā-hien for a lion (see Cunningham, i. 274).
Hiouen Thsang, in his account of the three ladders (Beal, i. 202), says that they were arranged side by side from north to south, so that those who descended might have their faces to the east, and that the flight by which Indra descended was of crystal (not of gold), while that used by Brahmā was of silver, and the Buddha’s steps were of gold (or of the seven precious substances, of which gold was one). This indicated the superiority of Buddha over the two gods who accompanied him.
In harmony with these ideas Indra and Brahmā are sometimes represented in Buddhistic sculptures standing one on each side of the Buddha, and protecting him. They were also present at his birth (see [p. 483] and engraving opposite [p. 477]).
Hiouen Thsang adds that some centuries before his time the ladders still existed in their original position; but, when he visited the spot, they had sunk into the earth, and disappeared. Saṅkāṡya, however, was still much frequented. A magnificent image of the Buddha was preserved in a large monastery there, and 1000 priests were studying the doctrines of the Sammatīya, a school of the Hīna-yāna, in four monasteries. Furthermore, many ‘myriads’ of pious laymen lived in the neighbourhood.
The story of Buddha’s descent from heaven by help of golden steps is commonly believed both in Ceylon and Burma to the present day. The legend, as current in Ceylon, is given by Spence Hardy (Manual, p. 311).
It appears that when Buddha was about to return to earth from the god Indra’s heaven, the god reflected that, although Buddha had ascended in three steps, his descent ought to be celebrated ‘with special honours.’ He therefore caused a ladder of gold to extend from the Mountain Meru (see [p. 206] of the present Lectures) to Saṅkāṡya, 80,000 Yojanas[216] in length. The steps were alternately of gold, silver, coral, ruby, emerald and other gems. At the right side of the ladder he created another, also of gold, by which Indra, blowing the conch, descended, accompanied by his own gods; and on the left another ladder of silver, by which Brahmā and the Brahmā gods ([p. 210]) descended, holding umbrellas over the Buddha. The three flights of steps appeared to the people of the earth like three rainbows. When Buddha commenced his descent all the worlds were illuminated by the light from his body.
With this extravagant myth—believed in as a historical fact by most Buddhists—we may contrast the simple narrative of Jacob’s dream in Genesis xxviii.
Nevertheless the legend is curious, and I was greatly pleased by discovering in the Indian Section of the South Kensington Museum, a small bronze model of the triple ladder, lately dug up at Moulmein. Mr. Purdon Clarke, C.I.E., the present Keeper, kindly had the model photographed, and presented me with a drawing of it. This I have had engraved, and here give.
