GRIDHRA-KUTA HILL, AND LEGENDS. FÂ-HIEN PASSES A NIGHT ON IT. HIS
REFLECTIONS.
Entering the valley, and keeping along the mountains on the south-east,
after ascending fifteen le, (the travellers) came to mount
Gridhra-kuta.(1) Three le before you reach the top, there is a cavern
in the rocks, facing the south, in which Buddha sat in meditation.
Thirty paces to the north-west there is another, where Ananda was
sitting in meditation, when the deva Mara Pisuna,(2) having assumed the
form of a large vulture, took his place in front of the cavern, and
frightened the disciple. Then Buddha, by his mysterious, supernatural
power, made a cleft in the rock, introduced his hand, and stroked
Ananda’s shoulder, so that his fear immediately passed away. The
footprints of the bird and the cleft for (Buddha’s) hand are still
there, and hence comes the name of “The Hill of the Vulture Cavern.”
In front of the cavern there are the places where the four Buddhas sat.
There are caverns also of the Arhats, one where each sat and meditated,
amounting to several hundred in all. At the place where in front of his
rocky apartment Buddha was walking from east to west (in meditation),
and Devadatta, from among the beetling cliffs on the north of the
mountain, threw a rock across, and hurt Buddha’s toes,(3) the rock is
still there.(4)
The hall where Buddha preached his Law has been destroyed, and only the
foundations of the brick walls remain. On this hill the peak is
beautifully green, and rises grandly up; it is the highest of all the
five hills. In the New City Fâ-Hien bought incense-(sticks), flowers,
oil and lamps, and hired two bhikshus, long resident (at the place), to
carry them (to the peak). When he himself got to it, he made his
offerings with the flowers and incense, and lighted the lamps when the
darkness began to come on. He felt melancholy, but restrained his tears
and said, “Here Buddha delivered the Surangama (Sutra).(5) I, Fâ-Hien,
was born when I could not meet with Buddha; and now I only see the
footprints which he has left, and the place where he lived, and nothing
more.” With this, in front of the rock cavern, he chanted the Surangama
Sutra, remained there over the night, and then returned towards the New
City.(6)
NOTES
(1) See chap. xxviii, note 1.
(2) See chap. xxv, note 9. Pisuna is a name given to Mara, and
signifies “sinful lust.”
(3) See M. B., p. 320. Hardy says that Devadatta’s attempt was “by the
help of a machine;” but the oldest account in the Sacred Books of the
East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, p. 245, agrees with what Fâ-Hien implies
that he threw the rock with his own arm.
(4) And, as described by Hsuan-chwang, fourteen or fifteen cubits high,
and thirty paces round.
(5) See Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio’s “Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of
the Buddhist Tripitaka,” Sutra Pitaka, Nos. 399, 446. It was the former
of these that came on this occasion to the thoughts and memory of
Fâ-Hien.
(6) In a note (p. lx) to his revised version of our author, Mr. Beal
says, “There is a full account of this perilous visit of Fâ-Hien, and
how he was attacked by tigers, in the ‘History of the High Priests.’”
But “the high priests” merely means distinguished monks, “eminent
monks,” as Mr. Nanjio exactly renders the adjectival character. Nor was
Fâ-Hien “attacked by tigers” on the peak. No “tigers” appear in the
Memoir. “Two black lions” indeed crouched before him for a time this
night, “licking their lips and waving their tails;” but their
appearance was to “try,” and not to attack him; and when they saw him
resolute, they “drooped their heads, put down their tails, and
prostrated themselves before him.” This of course is not an historical
account, but a legendary tribute to his bold perseverance.