[196]This will be evident to any one who examines it attentively. The socket-hole of the umbrella-ornament may be easily detected.
[197]The form of ritual observed was like that I witnessed at Gayā, and described in my ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism,’ p. 310.
[198]See my ‘Brāhmanism and Hindūism,’ p. 434.
[199]That is, ‘the lord of deer.’ Sāraṅga is a kind of deer, and the Buddha was probably called so because he is fabled to have wandered about as a deer in this very place in one of his former births (see [p. 111] of this volume). The legend is that he was born eleven times as a deer, and on this account a deer is one of the sacred symbols of Buddhism. We learn from General Sir A. Cunningham (i. 105) that the name Sārnāth properly belongs to a temple dedicated to Ṡiva near the Buddhist monument, and the epithet ‘Lord of deer,’ is equally applicable to the god Ṡiva, who is often represented in the act of holding up a deer in his hand.
[200]The name Dhamek may possibly be a corruption of Dhamma-ćakka (Dharma-ćakra).
[201]Fā-hien says that the old city was girdled by five hills. These hills are now called Baibhār (on which are five Jain temples), Vipula, Ratna, Udaya, and Sona-giri. A long account of the place will be found in Cunningham’s ‘Ancient Geography of India,’ pp. 462-468, and in his ‘Archæological Report,’ i. 20. Bimbi-sāra seems to have built the town, which was afterwards improved by Ajāta-ṡatru, and the site of the new portion being not quite identical, the new town was called ‘new Rāja-gṛiha.’ Legge’s ‘Fā-hien,’ p. 81. There are several hot springs in this locality.
[202]Ajāta-ṡatru seems first to have sided with Buddha’s enemy Deva-datta.
[203]It may be mentioned here that any place or house in which the Buddha resided for a time was afterwards called Gandha-kuṭī (probably from the fragrance of the perfumed offerings always to be found in it). Hence the Bambu grove at Rāja-gṛiha, and the Jeta-vana at Srāvastī ([p. 407]), were both Gandha-kuṭīs.
[204]A magnificent edition of this work in Tibetan, Mongol, Manchu, and Chinese came into the possession of the French Missionaries (Huc, ii. 74).
[205]Here, therefore, there was a Gandha-kuṭī (see [note, p. 404]).