ON TOWARDS NORTH INDIA. DARADA. IMAGE OF MAITREYA BODHISATTVA.
From this (the travellers) went westwards towards North India, and
after being on the way for a month, they succeeded in getting across
and through the range of the Onion mountains. The snow rests on them
both winter and summer. There are also among them venomous dragons,
which, when provoked, spit forth poisonous winds, and cause showers of
snow and storms of sand and gravel. Not one in ten thousand of those
who encounter these dangers escapes with his life. The people of the
country call the range by the name of “The Snow mountains.” When (the
travellers) had got through them, they were in North India, and
immediately on entering its borders, found themselves in a small
kingdom called T’o-leih,(1) where also there were many monks, all
students of the hinayana.
In this kingdom there was formerly an Arhan,(2) who by his supernatural
power(3) took a clever artificer up to the Tushita heaven, to see the
height, complexion, and appearance of Maitreya Bodhisattva,(4) and then
return and make an image of him in wood. First and last, this was done
three times, and then the image was completed, eighty cubits in height,
and eight cubits at the base from knee to knee of the crossed legs. On
fast-days it emits an effulgent light. The kings of the (surrounding)
countries vie with one another in presenting offerings to it. Here it
is,—to be seen now as of old.(5)
NOTES
(1) Eitel and others identify this with Darada, the country of the
ancient Dardae, the region near Dardus; lat. 30° 11′ N., lon. 73° 54′
E. See E. H. p. 30. I am myself in more than doubt on the point.
Cunningham (“Ancient Geography of India,” p. 82) says “Darel is a
valley on the right or western bank of the Indus, now occupied by
Dardus or Dards, from whom it received its name.” But as I read our
narrative, Fâ-Hien is here on the eastern bank of the Indus, and only
crosses to the western bank as described in the next chapter.
(2) Lo-han, Arhat, Arahat, are all designations of the perfected Arya,
the disciple who has passed the different stages of the Noble Path, or
eightfold excellent way, who has conquered all passions, and is not to
be reborn again. Arhatship implies possession of certain supernatural
powers, and is not to be succeeded by Buddhaship, but implies the fact
of the saint having already attained nirvâna. Popularly, the Chinese
designate by this name the wider circle of Buddha’s disciples, as well
as the smaller ones of 500 and 18. No temple in Canton is better worth
a visit than that of the 500 Lo-han.
(3) Riddhi-sakshatkriya, “the power of supernatural footsteps,“=”a body
flexible at pleasure,” or unlimited power over the body. E. H., p. 104.
(4) Tushita is the fourth Devaloka, where all Bodhisattvas are reborn
before finally appearing on earth as Buddha. Life lasts in Tushita 4000
years, but twenty-four hours there are equal to 400 years on earth. E.
H., p. 152.
(5) Maitreya (Spence Hardy, Maitri), often styled Ajita, “the
Invincible,” was a Bodhisattva, the principal one, indeed, of
Sâkyamuni’s retinue, but is not counted among the ordinary (historical)
disciples, nor is anything told of his antecedents. It was in the
Tushita heaven that Sâkyamuni met him and appointed him as his
successor, to appear as Buddha after the lapse of 5000 years. Maitreya
is therefore the expected Messiah of the Buddhists, residing at present
in Tushita, and, according to the account of him in Eitel (H., p. 70),
“already controlling the propagation of the Buddhistic faith.” The name
means “gentleness” or “kindness;” and this will be the character of his
dispensation.
(6) The combination of {.} {.} in the text of this concluding sentence,
and so frequently occurring throughout the narrative, has occasioned no
little dispute among previous translators. In the imperial thesaurus of
phraseology (P’ei-wan Yun-foo), under {.}, an example of it is given
from Chwang-tsze, and a note subjoined that {.} {.} is equivalent to
{.} {.}, “anciently and now.”