PÂṬALIPUTTRA OR PATNA, IN MAGADHA. KING AŚOKA’S SPIRIT-BUILT PALACE
AND HALLS. THE BUDDHIST BRAHMAN, RÂDHA-SÂMI. DISPENSARIES AND
HOSPITALS.
Having crossed the river, and descended south for a yojana, (the
travellers) came to the town of Pâṭaliputtra,[1] in the kingdom of
Magadha, the city where king Aśoka[2] ruled. The royal palace and
halls in the midst of the city, which exist now as of old, were all
made by spirits which he employed, and which piled up the stones,
reared the walls and gates, and executed the elegant carving and
inlaid sculpture-work,—in a way which no human hands of this world
could accomplish.
King Aśoka had a younger brother who had attained to be an Arhat, and
resided on Gṛidhra-kûṭa[3] hill, finding his delight in solitude and
quiet. The king, who sincerely reverenced him, wished and begged him
(to come and live) in his family, where he could supply all his
wants. The other, however, through his delight in the stillness of the
mountain, was unwilling to accept the invitation, on which the king
said to him, ‘Only accept my invitation, and I will make a hill for
you inside the city.’ Accordingly, he provided the materials of a
feast, called to him the spirits, and announced to them, ‘To-morrow
you will all receive my invitation; but as there are no mats for you
to sit on, let each one bring (his own seat).’ Next day the spirits
came, each one bringing with him a great rock, (like) a wall, four or
five paces square, (for a seat). When their sitting was over, the king
made them form a hill with the large stones piled on one another, and
also at the foot of the hill, with five large square stones, to make
an apartment, which might be more than thirty cubits long, twenty
cubits wide, and more than ten cubits high.
In this city there had resided a great Brahmân,[4] named
Râdha-sâmi,[5] a professor of the mahâyâna, of clear discernment and
much wisdom, who understood everything, living by himself in spotless
purity. The king of the country honoured and reverenced him, and
served him as his teacher. If he went to inquire for and greet him,
the king did not presume to sit down alongside of him; and if, in his
love and reverence, he took hold of his hand, as soon as he let it go,
the Brahmân made haste to pour water on it and wash it. He might be
more than fifty years old, and all the kingdom looked up to him. By
means of this one man, the Law of Buddha was widely made known, and
the followers of other doctrines did not find it in their power to
persecute the body of monks in any way.
By the side of the tope of Aśoka, there has been made a mahâyâna
monastery, very grand and beautiful; there is also a hînayâna one;
the two together containing six or seven hundred monks. The rules of
demeanour and the scholastic arrangements[6] in them are worthy of
observation.
Shamans of the highest virtue from all quarters, and students,
inquirers wishing to find out truth and the grounds of it, all resort
to these monasteries. There also resides in this monastery a Brahmân
teacher, whose name also is Mañjuśrî,[7] whom the Shamans of greatest
virtue in the kingdom, and the mahâyâna Bhikshus honour and look up
to.
The cities and towns of this country are the greatest of all in the
Middle Kingdom. The inhabitants are rich and prosperous, and vie with
one another in the practice of benevolence and righteousness. Every
year on the eighth day of the second month they celebrate a procession
of images. They make a four-wheeled car, and on it erect a structure
of four storeys by means of bamboos tied together. This is supported
by a king-post, with poles and lances slanting from it, and is rather
more than twenty cubits high, having the shape of a tope. White and
silk-like cloth of hair[8] is wrapped all round it, which is then
painted in various colours. They make figures of devas, with gold,
silver, and lapis lazuli grandly blended and having silken streamers
and canopies hung out over them. On the four sides are niches, with
a Buddha seated in each, and a Bodhisattva standing in attendance on
him. There may be twenty cars, all grand and imposing, but each one
different from the others. On the day mentioned, the monks and laity
within the borders all come together; they have singers and skilful
musicians; they pay their devotion with flowers and incense. The
Brahmâns come and invite the Buddhas to enter the city. These do so
in order, and remain two nights in it. All through the night they keep
lamps burning, have skilful music, and present offerings. This is the
practice in all the other kingdoms as well. The Heads of the Vaiśya
families in them establish in the cities houses for dispensing charity
and medicines. All the poor and destitute in the country, orphans,
widowers, and childless men, maimed people and cripples, and all who
are diseased, go to those houses, and are provided with every kind
of help, and doctors examine their diseases. They get the food and
medicines which their cases require, and are made to feel at ease; and
when they are better, they go away of themselves.
When king Aśoka destroyed the seven topes, (intending) to make
eighty-four thousand,[9] the first which he made was the great tope,
more than three le to the south of this city. In front of this there
is a footprint of Buddha, where a vihâra has been built. The door of
it faces the north, and on the south of it there is a stone pillar,
fourteen or fifteen cubits in circumference, and more than thirty
cubits high, on which there is an inscription, saying, ‘Aśoka gave the
jambudvipa to the general body of all the monks, and then redeemed
it from them with money. This he did three times.’[10] North from the
tope 300 or 400 paces, king Aśoka built the city of Ne-le.[11] In it
there is a stone pillar, which also is more than thirty feet high,
with a lion on the top of it. On the pillar there is an inscription
recording the things which led to the building of Ne-le, with the
number of the year, the day, and the month.
NOTES
[1] The modern Patna, lat. 25° 28′ N., lon. 85° 15′ E. The Sanskrit
name means ‘The city of flowers.’ It is the Indian Florence.
[2] See chap. x, note 3. Aśoka transferred his court from Râjagṛiha
to Pâṭaliputtra, and there, in the eighteenth year of his reign, he
convoked the third Great Synod,—according, at least, to southern
Buddhism. It must have been held a few years before B.C. 250; Eitel
says in 246.
[3] ‘The Vulture-hill;’ so called because Mâra, according to Buddhist
tradition, once assumed the form of a vulture on it to interrupt the
meditation of Ânanda; or, more probably, because it was a resort of
vultures. It was near Râjagṛiha, the earlier capital of Aśoka, so that
Fâ-hien connects a legend of it with his account of Patna. It abounded
in caverns, and was famous as a resort of ascetics.
[4] A Brahmân by caste, but a Buddhist in faith.
[5] So, by the help of Julien’s ‘Méthode,’ I transliterate the
Chinese characters 羅太私迷. Beal gives Râdhasvâmi, his Chinese text
having a 婆 between 私 and 迷. I suppose the name was Râdhasvâmi or
Râdhasâmi.
[6] 庠序, the names of two kinds of schools, often occurring in
the Lî Kî and Mencius. Why should there not have been schools in those
monasteries in India as there were in China? Fâ-hien himself grew up
with other boys in a monastery, and no doubt had to ‘go to school.’
And the next sentence shows us there might be schools for more
advanced students as well as for the Śrâmaṇeras.
[7] See chap. xvi, note 25. It is perhaps with reference to the famous
Bodhisattva that the Brahmân here is said to be ‘also’ named Mañjuśrî.
[8] ? Cashmere cloth.
[9] See chap. xxiii, note 3.
[10] We wish that we had more particulars of this great transaction,
and that we knew what value in money Aśoka set on the whole world. It
is to be observed that he gave it to the monks, and did not receive it
from them. Their right was from him, and he bought it back. He was the
only ‘Power’ that was.
[11] We know nothing more of Ne-le. It could only have been a small
place; an outpost for the defence of Pâṭaliputtra.