ON TO MATHURÂ OR MUTTRA. CONDITION AND CUSTOMS OF CENTRAL INDIA; OF
THE MONKS, VIHÂRAS, AND MONASTERIES.
From this place they travelled south-east, passing by a succession of
very many monasteries, with a multitude of monks, who might be counted
by myriads. After passing all these places, they came to a country
named Ma-tʽâou-lo.[1] They still followed the course of the Pʽoo-na[2]
river, on the banks of which, left and right, there were twenty
monasteries, which might contain three thousand monks; and (here) the
Law of Buddha was still more flourishing. Everywhere, from the
Sandy Desert, in all the countries of India, the kings had been firm
believers in that Law. When they make their offerings to a community
of monks, they take off their royal caps, and along with their
relatives and ministers, supply them with food with their own hands.
That done, (the king) has a carpet spread for himself on the ground,
and sits down in front of the chairman;—they dare not presume to sit
on couches in front of the community. The laws and ways, according
to which the kings presented their offerings when Buddha was in the
world, have been handed down to the present day.
All south from this is named the Middle Kingdom.[3] In it the cold and
heat are finely tempered, and there is neither hoar-frost nor snow.
The people are numerous and happy; they have not to register their
households, or attend to any magistrates and their rules; only those
who cultivate the royal land have to pay (a portion of) the grain from
it. If they want to go, they go; if they want to stay on, they stay.
The king governs without decapitation or (other) corporal punishments.
Criminals are simply fined, lightly or heavily, according to the
circumstances (of each case). Even in cases of repeated attempts at
wicked rebellion, they only have their right hands cut off. The king’s
body-guards and attendants all have salaries. Throughout the whole
country the people do not kill any living creature, nor drink
intoxicating liquor, nor eat onions or garlic. The only exception is
that of the Chaṇḍâlas.[4] That is the name for those who are (held to
be) wicked men, and live apart from others. When they enter the gate
of a city or a market-place, they strike a piece of wood to make
themselves known, so that men know and avoid them, and do not come
into contact with them. In that country they do not keep pigs and
fowls, and do not sell live cattle; in the markets there are no
butchers’ shops and no dealers in intoxicating drink. In buying
and selling commodities they use cowries.[5] Only the Chaṇḍâlas are
fishermen and hunters, and sell flesh meat.
After Buddha attained to pari-nirvâṇa,[6] the kings of the various
countries and the heads of the Vaiśyas[7] built vihâras for the
priests, and endowed them with fields, houses, gardens, and orchards,
along with the resident populations and their cattle, the grants being
engraved on plates of metal,[8] so that afterwards they were handed
down from king to king, without any daring to annul them, and they
remain even to the present time.
The regular business of the monks is to perform acts of meritorious
virtue, and to recite their Sûtras and sit wrapt in meditation. When
stranger monks arrive (at any monastery), the old residents meet and
receive them, carry for them their clothes and alms-bowl, give them
water to wash their feet, oil with which to anoint them, and the
liquid food permitted out of the regular hours.[9] When (the stranger)
has enjoyed a very brief rest, they further ask the number of years
that he has been a monk, after which he receives a sleeping apartment
with its appurtenances, according to his regular order, and everything
is done for him which the rules prescribe.[10]
Where a community of monks resides, they erect topes to Śâriputtra,[11]
to Mahâ-maudgalyâyana,[12] and to Ânanda[13], and also topes (in
honour) of the Abhidharma[14], the Vinaya[14], and the Sûtras.[14] A
month after the (annual season of) rest, the families which are looking
out for blessing stimulate one another[15] to make offerings to the
monks, and send round to them the liquid food which may be taken out of
the ordinary hours. All the monks come together in a great assembly,
and preach the Law;[16] after which offerings are presented at the tope
of Śâriputtra, with all kinds of flowers and incense. All through the
night lamps are kept burning, and skilful musicians are employed to
perform.[17]
When Śâriputtra was a great Brahmân, he went to Buddha, and begged
(to be permitted) to quit his family (and become a monk). The
great Mugalan and the great Kaśyapa[18] also did the same. The
bhikshuṇîs[19] for the most part make their offerings at the tope
of Ânanda, because it was he who requested the World-honoured one
to allow females to quit their families (and become nuns). The
Śrâmaṇeras[20] mostly make their offerings to Râhula.[21] The
professors of the Abhidharma[22] make their offerings to it; those of
the Vinaya[22] to it. Every year there is one such offering, and each
class has its own day for it. Students of the mahâyâna present offerings
to the Prajñâ-pâramitâ,[23] to Mañjuśrî,[24] and to Kwan-she-yin.[25]
When the monks have done receiving their annual tribute (from the
harvests),[26] the Heads of the Vaiśyas and all the Brahmâns bring
clothes and other such articles as the monks require for use, and
distribute among them. The monks, having received them, also proceed
to give portions to one another. From the nirvâṇa of Buddha,[27]
the forms of ceremony, laws, and rules, practised by the sacred
communities, have been handed down from one generation to another
without interruption.
From the place where (the travellers) crossed the Indus to Southern
India, and on to the Southern Sea, a distance of forty or fifty
thousand le, all is level plain. There are no large hills with streams
(among them); there are simply the waters of the rivers.
NOTES
[1] Muttra, ‘the peacock city;’ lat. 27° 30′ N., lon. 77° 43′ E.
(Hunter); the birthplace of Kṛishṇa, whose emblem is the peacock.
[2] This must be the Jumna, or Yamunâ. Why it is called, as here, the
Pʽoo-na has yet to be explained.
[3] In Pâli, Majjhima-desa, ‘the Middle Country.’ See Davids’
‘Buddhist Birth Stories,’ page 61, note.
[4] Eitel (pp. 145, 6) says, ‘The name Chaṇḍâlas is explained by
“butchers,” “wicked men,” and those who carry “the awful flag,” to
warn off their betters;—the lowest and most despised caste of India,
members of which, however, when converted, were admitted even into the
ranks of the priesthood.’
[5] ‘Cowries;’ 貝齒, not ‘shells and ivory,’ as one might suppose;
but cowries alone, the second term entering into the name from the
marks inside the edge of the shell, resembling ‘the teeth of fishes.’
[6] See chap. xii, note 3<, Buddha’s pari-nirvâṇa is equivalent to
Buddha’s death.
[7] See chap. xiii, note 6. The order of the characters is different
here, but with the same meaning.
[8] See the preparation of such a deed of grant in a special case, as
related in chapter xxxix. No doubt in Fâ-hien’s time, and long before
and after it, it was the custom to engrave such deeds on plates of
metal.
[9] ‘No monk can eat solid food except between sunrise and noon,’
and total abstinence from intoxicating drinks is obligatory (Davids’
Manual, p. 163). Food eaten at any other part of the day is
called vikâla, and forbidden; but a weary traveller might receive
unseasonable refreshment, consisting, as Watters has shown (Ch. Rev.
viii. 282), of honey, butter, treacle, and sesamum oil.
[10] The expression here is somewhat perplexing; but it occurs again
in chapter xxxviii; and the meaning is clear. See Watters, Ch. Rev.
viii. 282, 3. The rules are given at length in the Sacred Books of the
East, vol. xx, p. 272 and foll., and p. 279 and foll.
[11] Śâriputtra (Singh. Seriyut) was one of the principal disciples of
Buddha, and indeed the most learned and ingenious of them all, so that
he obtained the title of 智慧, ‘knowledge and wisdom.’ He is also
called Buddha’s ‘right-hand attendant.’ His name is derived from that
of his mother Śârikâ, the wife of Tishya, a native of Nâlanda.
In Spence Hardy, he often appears under the name of Upatissa
(Upa-tishya), derived from his father. Several Śâstras are ascribed to
him, and indeed the followers of the Abhidharma look on him as their
founder. He died before Śâkyamuni; but is to reappear as a future
Buddha. Eitel, pp. 123, 124.
[12] Mugalan, the Singhalese name of this disciple, is more
pronounceable. He also was one of the principal disciples, called
Buddha’s ‘left-hand attendant.’ He was distinguished for his power of
vision, and his magical powers. The name in the text is derived from
the former attribute, and it was by the latter that he took up an
artist to Tushita to get a view of Śâkyamuni, and so make a statue
of him. (Compare the similar story in chap. vi.) He went to hell, and
released his mother. He also died before Śâkyamuni, and is to reappear
as Buddha. Eitel, p. 65.
[13] See chapter 12, note 2.
[14] The different parts of the tripiṭaka. See chapter 1, note 4.
[15] A passage rather difficult to construe. The ‘families’ would be
those more devout than their neighbours.
[16] One rarely hears this preaching in China. It struck me most as I
once heard it at Osaka in Japan. There was a pulpit in a large hall
of the temple, and the audience sat around on the matted floor. One
priest took the pulpit after another; and the hearers nodded their
heads occasionally, and indicated their sympathy now and then by an
audible ‘h’m,’ which reminded me of Carlyle’s description of meetings
of ‘The Ironsides’ of Cromwell.
[17] This last statement is wanting in the Chinese editions.
[18] There was a Kâśyapa Buddha, anterior to Śâkyamuni. But this
Mahâkaśyapa was a Brahmân of Magadha, who was converted by Buddha,
and became one of his disciples. He took the lead after Śâkyamuni’s
death, convoked and directed the first synod, from which his title of
Arya-sthavira is derived. As the first compiler of the Canon, he is
considered the fountain of Chinese orthodoxy, and counted as the first
patriarch. He also is to be reborn as Buddha. Eitel, p. 64.
[19] The bhikshuṇîs are the female monks or nuns, subject to the same
rules as the bhikshus, and also to special ordinances of restraint.
See Hardy’s E. M., chap. 17. See also Sacred Books of the East, vol.
xx, p. 321.
[20] The Śrâmaṇeras are the novices, male or female, who have vowed to
observe the Shikshâpada, or ten commandments. Fâ-hien was himself one
of them from his childhood. Having heard the Trîsharaṇa, or
threefold formula of Refuge,—‘I take refuge in Buddha; the Law;
the Church,—the novice undertakes to observe the ten precepts that
forbid—[1] destroying life; [2] stealing; [3] impurity; [4] lying;
[5] intoxicating drinks; [6] eating after midday; [7] dancing,
singing, music, and stage-plays; [8] garlands, scents, unguents, and
ornaments; [9] high or broad couches; [10] receiving gold or silver.’
Davids’ Manual, p. 160; Hardy’s E. M., pp. 23, 24.
[21] The eldest son of Śâkyamuni by Yaśodharâ. Converted to Buddhism,
he followed his father as an attendant; and after Buddha’s death
became the founder of a philosophical realistic school (vaibhâshika).
He is now revered as the patron saint of all novices, and is to be
reborn as the eldest son of every future Buddha. Eitel, p. 101. His
mother also is to be reborn as Buddha.
[22] See note 14.
[23] There are six (sometimes increased to ten) pâramitâs, ‘means of
passing to nirvâṇa:—Charity; morality; patience; energy; tranquil
contemplation; wisdom (prajñâ); made up to ten by use of the proper
means; science; pious vows; and force of purpose. But it is only
prajñâ which carries men across the saṃsâra to the shores of nirvâṇa.’
Eitel, p. 90.
[24] According to Eitel (pp. 71, 72), A famous Bodhisattva, now
specially worshipped in Shan-se, whose antecedents are a hopeless
jumble of history and fable. Fâ-hien found him here worshipped by
followers of the mahâyâna school; but Hsüan-chwang connects his
worship with the yogachara or tantra-magic school. The mahâyâna school
regard him as the apotheosis of perfect wisdom. His most common titles
are Mahâmati, “Great wisdom,” and Kumâra-râja, “King of teaching, with
a thousand arms and a hundred alms-bowls.”
[25] Kwan-she-yin and the dogmas about him or her are as great a
mystery as Mañjuśrî. The Chinese name is a mistranslation of
the Sanskrit name Avalokiteśvara, ‘On-looking Sovereign,’ or even
‘On-looking Self-Existent,’ and means ‘Regarding or Looking on the
sounds of the world,’ = ‘Hearer of Prayer.’ Originally, and still in
Thibet, Avalokiteśvara had only male attributes, but in China and
Japan (Kwannon), this deity (such popularly she is) is represented
as a woman, ‘Kwan-yin, the greatly gentle, with a thousand arms and a
thousand eyes;’ and has her principal seat in the island of Pʽoo-tʽoo,
on the China coast, which is a regular place of pilgrimage. To
the worshippers of whom Fâ-hien speaks, Kwan-she-yin would only be
Avalokiteśvara. How he was converted into the ‘goddess of mercy,’ and
her worship took the place which it now has in China, is a difficult
inquiry, which would take much time and space, and not be brought
after all, so far as I see, to a satisfactory conclusion. See Eitel’s
Handbook, pp. 18–20, and his Three Lectures on Buddhism (third
edition), pp. 124–131. I was talking on the subject once with an
intelligent Chinese gentleman, when he remarked, ‘Have you not much
the same thing in Europe in the worship of Mary?’
[26] Compare what is said in chap. v.
[27] This nirvâṇa of Buddha must be—not his death, but his attaining
to Buddhaship.