~Condition and Customs of Central India~
From this place they travelled southeast, 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-t'âou-lo. They still followed the course of the P'oo-na 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 on it 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. In it the cold and heat
are finely tempered, and there is neither hoarfrost 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 gain 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 Chandâlas. 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. Only the Chandâlas are fishermen and hunters, and sell
flesh meat.
After Buddha attained to pari-nirvâna the kings of the various countries
and the heads of the Vaisyas 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, so that afterwards they were handed down from king to king,
without any one 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 wrapped 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. [1] 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.
Where a community of monks resides, they erect topes to Sâriputtra, [2]
to Mahâ-maudgalyâyana, [3] and to Ânanda, and also topes in honor of the
Abhidharma, [4] the Vinaya, [4] and the Sûtras. [4] A month after the
annual season of rest, the families which are looking out for blessing
stimulate one another 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; after
which offerings are presented at the tope of Sâriputtra, with all kinds
of flowers and incense. All through the night lamps are kept burning,
and skilful musicians are employed to perform.
When Sâriputtra was a great Brahman, he went to Buddha, and begged to be
permitted to quit his family and become a monk. The great Mugalan and
the great Kas'yapa also did the same. The bhikshunis [5] for the most
part make their offerings at the tope of Ånanda, because it was he who
requested the World-honored one to allow females to quit their families
and become nuns. The Srâmaneras [6] mostly make their offerings to
Rahula. [7] The professors of the Abhidharma make their offerings to it;
those of the Vinaya 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 Prajña-pâramitâ, to Mañjus'ri, and to Kwan-she-yin.
When the monks have done receiving their annual tribute from the
harvests, the Heads of the Vaisyas and all the Brahmans bring clothes
and such other 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 nirvâna of Buddha, 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 South India,
and on to the Southern Sea, a distance of forty or fifty thousand li,
all is level plain. There are no large hills with streams among them;
there are simply the waters of the rivers.
[Footnote 1: No monk can eat solid food except between sunrise and noon,
and total abstinence from intoxicating drinks is obligatory. Food eaten
at any other part of the day is called vikâla, and forbidden; but a
weary traveller might receive unseasonable refreshment, consisting of
honey, butter, treacle, and sesamum oil.]
[Footnote 2: Sâriputtra was one of the principal disciples of Buddha,
and indeed the most learned and ingenious of them all.]
[Footnote 3: 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 magic powers.]
[Footnote 4: The different parts of the tripitaka.]
[Footnote 5: The bhikshunis are the female monks or nuns, subject to the
same rules as the bhikshus, and also to special ordinances of
restraint.]
[Footnote 6: The Srâmaneras are the novices, male or female, who have
vowed to observe the Shikshâpada, or ten commandments.]
[Footnote 7: The eldest son of Sâkyamuni by Yasodharâ. 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.]