~Legends of Buddha's Birth~
Less than a yojana to the east from this brought them to the city of
Kapilavastu; but in it there was neither king nor people. All was mound
and desolation. Of inhabitants there were only some monks and a score or
two of families of the common people. At the spot where stood the old
palace of king Suddhodana there have been made images of his eldest son
and his mother; and at the places where that son appeared mounted on a
white elephant when he entered his mother's womb, and where he turned
his carriage round on seeing the sick man after he had gone out of the
city by the eastern gate, topes have been erected. The places were also
pointed out where the rishi Â-e inspected the marks of Buddhaship on the
body of the heir-apparent when an infant; where, when he was in company
with Nanda and others, on the elephant being struck down and drawn on
one side, he tossed it away; [1] where he shot an arrow to the
southeast, and it went a distance of thirty li, then entering the ground
and making a spring to come forth, which men subsequently fashioned into
a well from which travellers might drink; where, after he had attained
to Wisdom, Buddha returned and saw the king, his father; where five
hundred Sâkyas quitted their families and did reverence to Upâli [2]
while the earth shook and moved in six different ways; where Buddha
preached his Law to the devas, and the four deva kings and others kept
the four doors of the hall, so that even the king, his father, could not
enter; where Buddha sat under a nyagrodha tree, which is still standing,
with his face to the east, and his aunt Mahâ-prajâpati presented him
with a Sanghâli; and where king Vaidûrya slew the seed of Sâkya, and
they all in dying became Srotâpannas. [3] A tope was erected at this
last place, which is still existing.
Several li northeast from the city was the king's field, where the
heir-apparent sat under a tree, and looked at the ploughers.
Fifty li east from the city was a garden, named Lumbinî, where the queen
entered the pond and bathed. Having come forth from the pond on the
northern bank, after walking twenty paces, she lifted up her hand, laid
hold of a branch of a tree, and, with her face to the east, gave birth
to the heir-apparent. When he fell to the ground, he immediately walked
seven paces. Two dragon-kings appeared and washed his body. At the place
where they did so, there was immediately formed a well, and from it, as
well as from the above pond, where the queen bathed, the monks even now
constantly take the water, and drink it.
There are four places of regular and fixed occurrence in the history of
all Buddhas: first, the place where they attained to perfect Wisdom and
became Buddha; second, the place where they turned the wheel of the Law;
third, the place where they preached the Law, discoursed of
righteousness, and discomfited the advocates of erroneous doctrines; and
fourth, the place where they came down, after going up to the
Trayastrimsas heaven to preach the Law for the benefit of their
mothers. Other places in connection with them became remarkable,
according to the manifestations which were made at them at particular
times.
The country of Kapilavastu is a great scene of empty desolation. The
inhabitants are few and far between. On the roads people have to be on
their guard against white elephants [4] and lions, and should not travel
incautiously.
[Footnote 1: The Lichchhavis of Vaisâlî had sent to the young prince a
very fine elephant; but when it was near Kapilavastu, Deva-datta, out of
envy, killed it with a blow of his fist. Nanda (not Ânanda, but a
half-brother of Siddhartha), coming that way, saw the carcass lying on
the road, and pulled it on one side; but the Bodhisattva, seeing it
there, took it by the tail, and tossed it over seven fences and ditches,
when the force of its fall made a great ditch.]
[Footnote 2: They did this, probably, to show their humility, for Upâli
was only a Sûdra by birth, and had been a barber; so from the first did
Buddhism assert its superiority to the conditions of rank and caste.
Upâli was distinguished by his knowledge of the rules of discipline, and
praised on that account by Buddha. He was one of the three leaders of
the first synod, and the principal compiler of the original Vinaya
books.]
[Footnote 3: The Srotâpannas are the first class of saints, who are not
to be reborn in a lower sphere, but attain to nirvàna after having been
reborn seven times consecutively as men or devas. The Chinese editions
state there were one thousand of the Sãkya seed. The general account is
that they were five hundred, all maidens, who refused to take their
place in king Vaidurya's harem, and were in consequence taken to a pond,
and had their hands and feet cut off. There Buddha came to them, had
their wounds dressed, and preached to them the Law. They died in the
faith, and were reborn in the region of the four Great Kings. Thence
they came back and visited Buddha at Jetavana in the night, and there
they obtained the reward of Srotâpanna.]
[Footnote 4: Fâ-hien does not say that he himself saw any of these white
elephants, nor does he speak of the lions as of any particular color. We
shall find by and by, in a note further on, that, to make them appear
more terrible, they are spoken of as "black."]