~Dakshina, and the Pigeon Monastery~
South from this two hundred yojanas, there is a country named Dakshina,
where there is a monastery dedicated to the by-gone Kasyapa Buddha, and
which has been hewn out from a large hill of rock. It consists in all of
five stories;--the lowest, having the form of an elephant, with five
hundred apartments in the rock; the second, having the form of a lion,
with four hundred apartments; the third, having the form of a horse,
with three hundred apartments; the fourth, having the form of an ox,
with two hundred apartments; and the fifth, having the form of a pigeon,
with one hundred apartments. At the very top there is a spring, the
water of which, always in front of the apartments in the rock, goes
round among the rooms, now circling, now curving, till in this way it
arrives at the lowest story, having followed the shape of the structure,
and flows out there at the door. Everywhere in the apartments of the
monks, the rock has been pierced so as to form windows for the admission
of light, so that they are all bright, without any being left in
darkness. At the four corners of the tiers of apartments, the rock has
been hewn so as to form steps for ascending to the top of each. The men
of the present day, being of small size, and going up step by step,
manage to get to the top; but in a former age they did so at one step.
Because of this, the monastery is called Paravata, that being the Indian
name for a pigeon. There are always Arhats residing in it.
The country about is a tract of uncultivated hillocks, without
inhabitants. At a very long distance from the hill there are villages,
where the people all have bad and erroneous views, and do not know the
Sramanas of the Law of Buddha, Brahmanas, or devotees of any of the
other and different schools. The people of that country are constantly
seeing men on the wing, who come and enter this monastery. On one
occasion, when devotees of various countries came to perform their
worship at it, the people of those villages said to them, "Why do you
not fly? The devotees whom we have seen hereabouts all fly"; and the
strangers answered, on the spur of the moment, "Our wings are not yet
fully formed."
The kingdom of Dakshina is out of the way, and perilous to traverse.
There are difficulties in connection with the roads; but those who know
how to manage such difficulties and wish to proceed should bring with
them money and various articles, and give them to the king. He will then
send men to escort them. These will, at different stages, pass them over
to others, who will show them the shortest routes. Fâ-hien, however, was
after all unable to go there; but having received the above accounts
from men of the country, he has narrated them.