~Woo-chang, or Udyâna--Traces of Buddha~
After crossing the river, the travellers immediately came to the kingdom
of Woo-chang, which is indeed a part of North India. The people all use
the language of Central India, "Central India" being what we should call
the "Middle Kingdom." The food and clothes of the common people are the
same as in that Central Kingdom. The Law of Buddha is very flourishing
in Woo-chang. They call the places where the monks stay for a time or
reside permanently Sanghârâmas; and of these there are in all five
hundred, the monks being all students of the hînayâna. When stranger
bhikshus [1] arrive at one of them, their wants are supplied for three
days, after which they are told to find a resting-place for themselves.
There is a tradition that when Buddha came to North India, he came at
once to this country, and that here he left a print of his foot, which
is long or short according to the ideas of the beholder on the subject.
It exists, and the same thing is true about it, at the present day. Here
also are still to be seen the rock on which he dried his clothes, and
the place where he converted the wicked dragon. The rock is fourteen
cubits high, and more than twenty broad, with one side of it smooth.
Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and Tâo-ching went on ahead towards the place of
Buddha's shadow in the country of Nâgara; but Fâ-hien and the others
remained in Woo-chang, and kept the summer retreat. That over, they
descended south, and arrived in the country of Soo-ho-to.
[Footnote 1: Bhikshu is the name for a monk as "living by alms," a
mendicant. All bhikshus call themselves Sramans. Sometimes the two names
are used together by our author.]