TAKSHAŚILÂ. LEGENDS. THE FOUR GREAT TOPES.
Seven days’ journey from this to the east brought the travellers to
the kingdom of Takshaśilâ,[1] which means ‘the severed head’ in the
language of China. Here, when Buddha was a Bodhisattva, he gave away
his head to a man;[2] and from this circumstance the kingdom got its
name.
Going on further for two days to the east, they came to the place
where the Bodhisattva threw down his body to feed a starving
tigress.[2] In these two places also large topes have been built,
both adorned with layers of all the precious substances. The kings,
ministers, and peoples of the kingdoms around vie with one another
in making offerings at them. The trains of those who come to scatter
flowers and light lamps at them never cease. The nations of those
quarters all those (and the other two mentioned before) ‘the four
great topes.’
NOTES
[1] See Julien’s ‘Méthode pour déchiffrer et transcrire les Nomes
Sanscrits,’ p. 206. Eitel says, ‘The Taxila of the Greeks, the region
near Hoosun Abdaul in lat. 35° 48′ N., lon. 72° 44′ E.’ But this
identification, I am satisfied, is wrong. Cunningham, indeed, takes
credit (‘Ancient Geography of India,’ pp. 108, 109) for determining
this to be the site of Arrian’s Taxila,—in the upper Punjâb, still
existing in the ruins of Shahdheri, between the Indus and Hydaspes
(the modern Jhelum). So far he may be correct; but the Takshaśilâ of
Fâ-hien was on the other, or western side of the Indus; and between
the river and Gandhâra. It took him, indeed, seven days travelling
eastwards to reach it; but we do not know what stoppages he may have
made on the way. We must be wary in reckoning distances from his
specifications of days.
[2] Two Jâtaka stories. See the account of the latter in Spence
Hardy’s ‘Manual of Buddhism,’ pp. 91, 92. It took place when Buddha
had been born as a Brahmân in the village of Daliddi; and from the
merit of the act, he was next born in a devaloka.