SHA-CHE. LEGEND OF BUDDHA’S DANTA-KASHTHA.
Going on from this to the south-east for three yojanas, they came to
the great kingdom of Sha-che.(1) As you go out of the city of Sha-che
by the southern gate, on the east of the road (is the place) where
Buddha, after he had chewed his willow branch,(2) stuck it in the
ground, when it forthwith grew up seven cubits, (at which height it
remained) neither increasing nor diminishing. The Brahmans with their
contrary doctrines(3) became angry and jealous. Sometimes they cut the
tree down, sometimes they plucked it up, and cast it to a distance, but
it grew again on the same spot as at first. Here also is the place
where the four Buddhas walked and sat, and at which a tope was built
that is still existing.
NOTES
(1) Sha-che should probably be Sha-khe, making Cunningham’s
identification of the name with the present Saket still more likely.
The change of {.} into {.} is slight; and, indeed, the Khang-hsi
dictionary thinks the two characters should be but one and the same.
(2) This was, no doubt, what was called the danta-kashtha, or “dental
wood,” mostly a bit of the _ficus Indicus_ or banyan tree, which the
monk chews every morning to cleanse his teeth, and for the purpose of
health generally. The Chinese, not having the banyan, have used, or at
least Fâ-Hien used, Yang ({.}, the general name for the willow) instead
of it.
(3) Are two classes of opponents, or only one, intended here, so that
we should read “all the unbelievers and Brahmans,” or “heretics and
Brahmans?” I think the Brahmans were also “the unbelievers” and
“heretics,” having {.} {.}, views and ways outside of, and opposed to,
Buddha’s.