Part 29

Ṡrāvastī was the place where, according to Fā-hien, the first sandal-wood image of Buddha was set up in a monastery by King Prasena-jit (see p. 471)[208]. A colossal erect figure of the Buddha was found here in a temple excavated by Sir A. Cunningham, but this was of stone.

With regard to the celebrated sandal-wood image, Fā-hien (p. 57) relates a strange legend of its preservation by a miracle:—

‘The kings and people of the countries around vied with one another in their offerings (to the image). Hanging up about it silken canopies, scattering flowers, burning incense, and lighting lamps. It happened that a rat, carrying in its mouth the wick of a lamp, set one of the canopies on fire, which caught the Vihāra, and the seven stories were all consumed. The kings and people were all very sad, supposing that the sandal-wood image had been burned; but lo! when a small Vihāra to the east was opened, there was seen the original image!’

Fā-hien goes on to describe another miracle:—

‘To the north-west of the Vihāra there is a grove called “The getting of Eyes.” Formerly there were five hundred blind men, who lived here; Buddha preached his Law to them, and they all got back their eyesight. Full of joy they stuck their staves in the earth, and did reverence. The staves immediately began to grow, and formed a grove’ (Legge, pp. 58, 59).

Hiouen Thsang states that in his time the towns and monasteries about Ṡrāvastī were mostly in ruins. He, too, gives an interesting account of a miraculous incident which occurred there:—

To the north-east of the Jeta-vana garden is the place where the Buddha washed a sick Monk, who lived apart by himself in a solitary place. The Lord of the World seeing him inquired, ‘What is your affliction?’ He answered, ‘In former days, my disposition being a careless one, I never looked on any sick man with pity, and now when I am sick, no one looks on me.’ Thereupon the Buddha said to him, ‘My son! I will look on you,’ and touching him with his hand, he healed the sickness. Then leading him forth, he washed his body, and gave him new clothes, and said, ‘From this time forward be diligent and exert yourself.’ Hearing this, the penitent monk, moved by gratitude and filled with joy, followed the Buddha and became his disciple. (Founded on Beal, ii. 5, abridged.)

_Vaiṡālī._

Vaiṡālī (in Pāli Vesālī, now Besārh) lies twenty miles north of Hāji-pur, on the left bank of the Ganges, and twenty-seven north-east of Patnā. This town (the city of the Liććhavis) is celebrated as the scene of the second Council (p. 57). Near it, at a place called Bakhra, is a celebrated ancient pillar surmounted by a lion (see Cunningham, i. 59). Vaiṡālī, however, is chiefly noted as one of the places where Gautama often preached and taught, and where he stopped on his way to Kusinārā, the place of his death. His usual residence was in a Vihāra, described by Fā-hien as double-galleried, and in a garden presented to him by the courtesan Amba-pālī, whom he converted and induced to live a virtuous life. He also resided for the fifth year of his teaching in a building called the Kūṭāgāra[209] hall.

Hiouen Thsang speaks of the town and of the objects of interest round it thus (Beal, ii. 66-75):—

Both heretics and believers are found here living together. There are several hundred monasteries (Saṅghārāmas) which are mostly dilapidated. There are also several Deva temples, occupied by sectaries of different kinds. The followers of the Nirgranthas (i. e. of the Jains) are very numerous.

To the north is a Stūpa which indicates the place where Tathāgata stopped and took leave of the Liććhavis, on his way to Kuṡi-nagara to die. Wishing him to quit the world, Māra (compare p. 41) came to Buddha and said, ‘You have now dwelt sufficiently long in the world. Those whom you have saved from the circling streams of transmigration are as numerous as the sand.’ The Buddha replied, ‘No, those who are saved are as the grains of dust on my nail; those who are not saved are like the grains of dust on the whole earth. Nevertheless, after three months I shall die.’ Māra hearing this was rejoiced, and departed.

Both within and without the city of Vaiṡālī and all round it, the sacred vestiges are so numerous, that it would be difficult to recount them all. To the north-west is a Stūpa at the spot where Buddha dwelt when he recited the history of his former birth (Jātaka) as a Ćakra-vartin or Universal Monarch (compare p. 423) possessed of the seven treasures. To the south-east is a great Stūpa, marking the place where the convocation of the seven hundred sages and saints was held, one hundred and ten years after the Nirvāṇa of Buddha, to compel the monks who had broken the laws of Buddha to obey them.

It appears that the Liććhavis of Vaiṡālī obtained a large quantity of the relics of the Buddha’s body, and built a Stūpa over them.

According to Fā-hien they also erected a Stūpa over half the relics of the burnt body of Ānanda (see p. 47 of this volume), the other being deposited near Rāja-gṛiha. His narrative runs as follows:—

When Ānanda was going from Magadha to Vaiṡālī, wishing his Pari-nirvāṇa to take place there, king Ajāta-ṡatru heard of his intention, and set out with his retinue to follow him.

The Liććhavis, too, when they heard that Ānanda was coming to their city, went out to meet him. In this way both parties arrived together at the river, and Ānanda, thinking to himself that he ought to please both, burnt his own body in the middle of the river, and thus attained Pari-nirvāṇa in a fiery ecstasy of Samādhi. Then his body was divided into two, so that each got one half as a sacred relic (Legge, pp. 75-77).

_Kauṡāmbī._

Kauṡāmbī (in Pāli Kosāmbī), now Kosam[210], on the river Jumnā, about thirty miles from Allahābād, was once a place hallowed by many Brāhmanical associations, and is mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa. It was the capital of the Kauṡāmba country, and is said to have been founded by Kuṡāmba, tenth in descent from Purūravas. Without doubt it was one of the most ancient cities of India. It was also the city of King Udayana, whose story is alluded to by the greatest of all Sanskrit poets, Kāli-dāsa, in his ‘Cloud-Messenger[211].’ Furthermore, Kauṡāmbī is the city in which the scene of the Sanskṛit drama Ratnāvalī was laid[212].

The Buddha resided there in the sixth and ninth years of his Buddhahood, and probably visited the place at other times. This was the chief cause of its reputation in connexion with Buddhism. But it also derived its sacred character from the fact that it contained the celebrated sandal-wood image[213] of the Buddha, believed to have been carved during his life-time, by a sculptor sent by Moggallāna (see last line, p. 414) at King Udayana’s request, to the Trayastriṉṡa heaven, when the Buddha was there preaching the Law to his mother (see p. 207).

In a village near at hand Sir A. Cunningham (i. 308) found two sculptured pillars, and the pedestal of a statue inscribed with the ‘Ye dharmā’ formula (see p. 104). A great monolith was also discovered there. In Fā-hien’s time a Vihāra existed at the spot where the Buddha had explained the Law (Legge, p. 96). Hiouen Thsang mentions that a lofty Stūpa, 200 feet high, was erected by Aṡoka near at hand.

There was also a cavern in which the Buddha had left his shadow impressed on the rock. He also speaks of ten monasteries all in ruins.

_Nālanda._

Nālanda[214] was the greatest seat of Buddhist learning in India. It has been identified by Sir A. Cunningham with the village of Baragaon, about seven miles north of Rāja-gṛiha, about thirty miles south-east of the modern Patnā, and about forty miles from Buddha-Gayā. Sir Alexander states that Baragaon possesses immense ruins and more numerous specimens of sculpture than any other place visited by him. According to Hiouen Thsang, the Buddha preached the Law there for three months. The vast extent and importance of the monastery (Saṅghārāma) or monasteries at Nālanda have been already alluded to (p. 169). Fā-hien, however, does not mention them, which seems to indicate that they were built subsequently to A.D. 425. Hiouen Thsang, who travelled in the seventh century, is said to have resided there for five years as a student. Ten thousand monks, renowned for their learning, lived and studied in six magnificent buildings. The following is an extract from the later Chinese traveller’s description of it (Beal, ii. 70):—

The monks of Nālanda, to the number of several thousands, are men of the highest ability. Their conduct is pure and unblamable, although the rules of the monastery are severe. The day is not sufficient for asking and answering profound questions. From morning till night the monks engage in discussion; the old and the young mutually helping one another. Those who cannot discuss questions out of the Tripiṭaka are little esteemed, and are obliged to hide themselves for shame. Hence learned men from different cities come here in multitudes to settle their doubts; and thence the streams of their wisdom spread far and wide. For this reason some persons usurp the name of Nālanda students, and in going to and fro receive honour in consequence.

If men from other quarters desire to enter and take part in the discussions, the keeper of the gate proposes some hard questions; those who are unable to answer have to retire. One must have studied deeply both old and new books, before gaining admission. Those students who come as strangers, have to show their ability by hard discussion; those who fail compared with those who succeed are as seven or eight to ten.

_Saṅkāṡya._

Saṅkāṡya, now called Saṅkisa, about fifty miles north-west of Kanouj, was identified by Sir A. Cunningham in 1842. It was evidently once a large town with many remarkable monuments, and ought to be reckoned among the most sacred places of Buddhism. Hiouen Thsang describes it under the name Kie-pi-tha (Kapitha).

It is said that the Buddha’s mother died seven days after his birth (see p. 24 of this volume), and was thus deprived of the advantage of hearing the Law from her son’s lips. To compensate her for this loss, the Buddha ascended by his own supernatural power in three steps to the Trayastriṉṡa heaven of Indra (p. 207), to which his mother had been transported, and there recited the Law for three months for her benefit. His return to earth seems to have been a more difficult matter; for his descent was not effected without the help of a ladder with three parallel flights of steps, made for him by the god Indra.

Fā-hien describes this miraculous incident in the following manner (Legge, 48, abridged):—

Saṅkāṡya is the place where Buddha came down after ascending to the Trayastriṉṡa heaven, and there preaching his Law for three months for his mother’s benefit. Buddha had ascended there by his supernatural power, without the knowledge of his disciples; but seven days before his return, Anuruddha, by his own supernatural vision, saw him in heaven, and requested Moggallāna (see p. 47 of this volume) to ascend to Indra’s heaven to inquire after ‘the World-honoured one.’ Moggallāna did so, and returned with the information that in seven days the Buddha would return. Then the kings of eight countries with their people, not having seen Buddha for a long time, were all eagerly looking up for him to return. But the female mendicant Utpalā[215] thought in her heart, ‘To-day, the kings, with their ministers and people, are all going to meet Buddha. I am but a woman; how shall I succeed in being the first to see him?’ Then Buddha, by his supernatural power, changed her into the appearance of a Universal Emperor, so that she was the foremost of all to meet and to do reverence to him.

At his descent three flights of steps were created. Buddha descended on the middle flight, composed of the seven precious substances; Mahā-Brahmā, king of the Brahmā heavens (see p. 211 of this volume), came down by a flight of silver steps on the right side, and Ṡakra (Indra), lord of the thirty-three divinities (p. 207), descended by steps of gold on the left side, holding a canopy made of the seven precious substances. An innumerable multitude of gods followed. No sooner had the Buddha come down than all three flights disappeared in the ground, except seven steps, which continued to be visible.

Afterwards King Aṡoka, being eager to ascertain where their ends rested, sent men to find out by digging. They dug down till they reached a yellow spring, but could not discover the bottom of the steps. Hence the king felt an increase of devotion, and built a Vihāra over the steps, with a standing image of Buddha sixteen cubits high. Behind the Vihāra he erected a stone pillar, about fifty cubits high, with a lion on the top of it. A dispute arose between some heretics and the Buddhist monks about the ownership of the place, and the former agreed to give up their claim if any supernatural sign occurred; upon which the lion on the column gave a great roar.

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.

It will be observed that an image of the Buddha is represented above the ladder, as if seated in Indra’s heaven, and as if engaged in the act of teaching there; while the earth is typically represented below in the shape of a square platform, with four small Buddhist temples, one at each of the four quarters of the compass (compare p. 85).

A ruder representation of the ladder occurs in the sculptures of the Bharhut Stūpa (Cunningham, p. 92). The General found an imperfect representation of it carved in soap-stone at Saṅkisa in 1876 (Report, xi. 26).

_Sāketa._

Sāketa is a name of the ancient city Ayodhyā (now Ajūdhyā) described in Valmīki’s great epic the Rāmāyanṇa, and believed to have been founded by Manu, the progenitor of the human race. This renowned city, which was a great centre of Brāhmanism, was also, no doubt, at one time a considerable centre of Buddhism. At all events, the identification of certain Buddhist sites there has been made clear by Sir A. Cunningham, who considers Sāketa to be the same as the Pi-so-kia (Viṡākhā) of Hiouen Thsang and the Shā-che or Shā-khe of Fā-hien. The former found twenty monasteries there, and 3000 priests studying the Little Vehicle according to the Sammatīya school; also fifty Deva temples and very many heretics.

In one of the monasteries resided the Arhat Deva-ṡarmā, who wrote a treatise called the Vijñāna-kāya-ṡāstra in defence of the doctrine of the non-existence of any Ego or personal self. A Stūpa, 200 feet high, was built by Aṡoka in the place where Buddha is supposed to have preached and taught during six years.

Both Fā-hien and Hiouen Thsang mention the legend that he one day threw on the ground a twig he had used to clean his teeth (danta-kāshṭha), which sprouted and grew into a miraculous tree seven cubits high, at which height it always remained. The Brāhmans became jealous of the miracle and sometimes cut the tree down, sometimes uprooted it, but it always grew again and remained at the same height. Here also is the place where the four Buddhas (p. 400) walked and sat (Legge, pp. 54, 55; Beal, i. 240).

_Kanyā-kubja (Kanouj)._

Kanyā-kubja[217] is the Sanskṛit name for the ancient city of Kanouj; (often spelt Kanoj), once the capital of Northern India, and said to be the oldest city in India, next to Ayodhyā.

When Hiouen Thsang visited this place it was the capital of the celebrated monarch Harsha-vardhana, also called Ṡilāditya (see p. 167 of this volume), whose kingdom extended from Kashmīr to Assam and from the river Narbadā to Nepāl. When he carried off a tooth-relic of the Buddha from Kashmīr, his procession back to his capital was attended by a large number of tributary kings. Hiouen Thsang, in describing the piety of this great monarch, says of him, that ‘he sought to plant the tree of religious merit to such an extent that he forgot to sleep and to eat.’ He goes on to state as follows:—

King Ṡilāditya forbade the slaughter of any living thing as food on pain of death. He built several thousand Stūpas, each about 100 feet high. Then in all the highways of the towns and villages throughout India he erected hospices, and stationed physicians there with medicines for travellers and the poor persons round about. On all spots where there were holy traces of Buddha, he built monasteries. Once in five years he held the great assembly called Moksha. Then every year he assembled the monks, and bestowed on them the four kinds of alms (food, drink, medicine, clothing). He ordered them to carry on discussions, and himself judged of their arguments. He rewarded the good and punished the wicked. He promoted the men of talent, and degraded evil men. Wherever he moved he dwelt in a travelling-palace, and provided choice meats for men of all sorts of religion. Of these the Buddhist priests would be perhaps a thousand; the Brāhmans five hundred[218]. He divided each day into three portions. During the first he occupied himself on matters of government; during the second he practised himself in religious devotion (Beal, i. 214).

Notwithstanding Hiouen Thsang’s description of various Stūpas, monasteries and monuments seen by him, General Sir A. Cunningham was not able to identify any of the existing ruins in the neighbourhood of Kanouj, ‘so completely has almost every trace of Hindū occupation been obliterated by the Musalmāns’ (Report, i. 284).

Fā-hien mentions a Stūpa near the town, built on the spot where the Buddha preached a discourse on ‘the bitterness and vanity of life,’ comparing it to ‘a bubble or foam on water’ (Legge, 54).

_Pāṭali-putra._

Pāṭali-putra (now Patnā) seems to have existed as a village at a very early period. Its ancient name was Kusuma-pura. It was enlarged and practically founded about the time of the Buddha’s death by Ajāta-ṡatru[219], who did not, however, remove there from his own capital city Rāja-gṛiha. One of his successors, the great King Aṡoka, the well-known patron of Buddhism (p. 66), converted Pāṭali-putra into the metropolis of the kingdom of Magadha, and it thenceforward became an important centre of Buddhism. Sir A. Cunningham states that it continued flourishing as the capital of the great Gupta kingdom during the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era.

Fā-hien relates a tradition that King Aṡoka’s palace in the city was built by genii (spirits), who brought great rocks and constructed chambers by heaping them together. He describes a monastery belonging to the Great Vehicle, and a temple belonging to the Little Vehicle, in the neighbourhood of the city, and gives an account of a Buddhist procession of four-wheeled cars and images which took place once a year. Each car was twenty-two feet or more high, and had five stories, with niches on four sides, in which were placed images of the Buddha and the Bodhi-sattvas, along with images of the gods (dēvas). They were made to look like moving pagodas (or Dāgabas). The Hindūs, as we know, have similar car-processions to this day, when the images of Kṛishṇa are dragged through the streets of towns and villages.

Fā-hien mentions the interesting fact that the nobles of the country had founded hospitals in the city to which destitute, crippled, and diseased persons might repair, and receive advice, food, and medicines suited to their cases, gratuitously. He adds that Aṡoka, wishing to build 84,000 Stūpas[220] in place of the eight originally constructed over the Buddha’s ashes, built the first Stūpa and a pillar near Pāṭali-putra.

Near it he says was an impression of the Buddha’s foot, over which a temple with a door towards the north had been erected (Legge, pp. 77-80; Beal, i. lv-lviii). The position of the Stūpa and column has been discovered by Sir A. Cunningham (xi. 157, 158).

_Kesarīya._