~At Ceylon--Feats of Buddha--His Statue in Jade~
The country originally had no human inhabitants, but was occupied only
by spirits and nâgas, with which merchants of various countries carried
on a trade. When the trafficking was taking place, the spirits did not
show themselves. They simply set forth their precious commodities, with
labels of the price attached to them; while the merchants made their
purchases according to the price; and took the things away.
Through the coming and going of the merchants in this way, when they
went away, the people of their various countries heard how pleasant the
land was, and flocked to it in numbers till it became a great nation.
The climate is temperate and attractive, without any difference of
summer and winter. The vegetation is always luxuriant. Cultivation
proceeds whenever men think fit: there are no fixed seasons for it.
When Buddha came to this country, wishing to transform the wicked nâgas
by his supernatural power, he planted one foot at the north of the royal
city, and the other on the top of a mountain, [1] the two being fifteen
yojanas apart. Over the footprint at the north of the city the king
built a large tope, four hundred cubits high, grandly adorned with gold
and silver, and finished with a combination of all the precious
substances. By the side of the tope he further built a monastery, called
the Abhayagiri, where there are now five thousand monks. There is in it
a hall of Buddha, adorned with carved and inlaid work of gold and
silver, and rich in the seven precious substances, in which there is an
image of Buddha in green jade, more than twenty cubits in height,
glittering all over with those substances, and having an appearance of
solemn dignity which words cannot express. In the palm of the right hand
there is a priceless pearl. Several years had now elapsed since Fâ-hien
left the land of Han; the men with whom he had been in intercourse had
all been of regions strange to him; his eyes had not rested on an old
and familiar hill or river, plant or tree: his fellow-travellers,
moreover, had been separated from him, some by death, and others flowing
off in different directions; no face or shadow was now with him but his
own, and a constant sadness was in his heart. Suddenly one day, when by
the side of this image of jade, he saw a merchant presenting as his
offering a fan of white silk; [2] and the tears of sorrow involuntarily
filled his eyes and fell down.
A former king of the country had sent to Central India and got a slip of
the patra tree, which he planted by the side of the hall of Buddha,
where a tree grew up to the height of about two hundred cubits. As it
bent on one side towards the southeast, the king, fearing it would fall,
propped it with a post eight or nine spans around. The tree began to
grow at the very heart of the prop, where it met the trunk; a shoot
pierced through the post, and went down to the ground, where it entered
and formed roots, that rose to the surface and were about four spans
round. Although the post was split in the middle, the outer portions
kept hold of the shoot, and people did not remove them. Beneath the tree
there has been built a vihâra, in which there is an image of Buddha
seated, which the monks and commonalty reverence and look up to without
ever becoming wearied. In the city there has been reared also the vihâra
of Buddha's tooth, in which, as well as on the other, the seven precious
substances have been employed.
The king practises the Brahmanical purifications, and the sincerity of
the faith and reverence of the population inside the city are also
great. Since the establishment of government in the kingdom there has
been no famine or scarcity, no revolution or disorder. In the treasuries
of the monkish communities there are many precious stones, and the
priceless manis. One of the kings once entered one of those treasuries,
and when he looked all round and saw the priceless pearls, his covetous
greed was excited, and he wished to take them to himself by force. In
three days, however, he came to himself, and immediately went and bowed
his head to the ground in the midst of the monks, to show his repentance
of the evil thought. As a sequel to this, he informed the monks of what
had been in his mind, and desired them to make a regulation that from
that day forth the king should not be allowed to enter the treasury and
see what it contained, and that no bhikshu should enter it till after he
had been in orders for a period of full forty years.
In the city there are many Vaisya elders and Sabaean merchants, whose
houses are stately and beautiful. The lanes and passages are kept in
good order. At the heads of the four principal streets there have been
built preaching halls, where, on the eighth, fourteenth, and fifteenth
days of the month, they spread carpets, and set forth a pulpit, while
the monks and commonalty from all quarters come together to hear the
Law. The people say that in the kingdom there may be altogether sixty
thousand monks, who get their food from their common stores. The king,
besides, prepares elsewhere in the city a common supply of food for five
or six thousand more. When any want, they take their great bowls, and go
to the place of distribution, and take as much as the vessels will hold,
all returning with them full.
The tooth of Buddha is always brought forth in the middle of the third
month. Ten days beforehand the king grandly caparisons a large elephant,
on which he mounts a man who can speak distinctly, and is dressed in
royal robes, to beat a large drum, and make the following proclamation:
"The Bodhisattva, during three Asankhyeya-kalpas, [3] manifested his
activity, and did not spare his own life. He gave up kingdom, city,
wife, and son; he plucked out his eyes and gave them to another; he cut
off a piece of his flesh to ransom the life of a dove; he cut off his
head and gave it as an alms; he gave his body to feed a starving
tigress; he grudged not his marrow and brains. In many such ways as
these did he undergo pain for the sake of all living. And so it was,
that, having become Buddha, he continued in the world for forty-five
years, preaching his Law, teaching and transforming, so that those who
had no rest found rest, and the unconverted were converted. When his
connection with the living was completed, he attained to pari-nirvana
and died. Since that event, for one thousand four hundred and
ninety-seven years, the light of the world has gone out, and all living
things have had long-continued sadness. Behold! ten days after this,
Buddha's tooth will be brought forth, and taken to the Abhayagiri
-vihâra. Let all and each, whether monks or laics, who wish to amass
merit for themselves, make the roads smooth and in good condition,
grandly adorn the lanes and by-ways, and provide abundant store of
flowers and incense to be used as offerings to it."
When this proclamation is over, the king exhibits, so as to line both
sides of the road, the five hundred different bodily forms in which the
Bodhisattva has in the course of his history appeared:--here as Sudâna,
there as Sâma; now as the king of elephants, and then as a stag or a
horse. All these figures are brightly colored and grandly executed,
looking as if they were alive. After this the tooth of Buddha is brought
forth, and is carried along in the middle of the road. Everywhere on the
way offerings are presented to it, and thus it arrives at the hall of
Buddha in the Abhayagiri-vihâra. There monks and laics are collected in
crowds. They burn incense, light lamps, and perform all the prescribed
services, day and night without ceasing, till ninety days have been
completed, when the tooth is returned to the vihâra within the city. On
fast-days the door of that vihâra is opened, and the forms of ceremonial
reverence are observed according to the rules.
Forty li to the east of the Abhayagiri-vihâra there is a hill, with a
vihâra on it, called the Chaitya, where there may be two thousand monks.
Among them there is a Sramana of great virtue, named Dharma-gupta,
honored and looked up to by all the kingdom. He has lived for more than
forty years in an apartment of stone, constantly showing such gentleness
of heart, that he has brought snakes and rats to stop together in the
same room, without doing one another any harm.
[Footnote 1: This would be what is known as "Adam's peak," having,
according to Hardy, the three names of Selesumano, Samastakûta, and
Samanila. There is an indentation on the top of it, a superficial
hollow, 5 feet 3 3/4 inches long, and 2 1/2 feet wide. The Hindus regard
it as the footprint of Siva; the Mohammedans, as that of Adam; and the
Buddhists, as in the text--as having been, made by Buddha.]
[Footnote 2: We naturally suppose that the merchant-offerer was a
Chinese, as indeed the Chinese texts say, and the fan such as Fâ-hien
had seen and used in his native land.]
[Footnote 3: A Kalpa, we have seen, denotes a great period of time; a
period during which a physical universe is formed and destroyed.
Asankhyeya denotes the highest sum for which a conventional term
exists--according to Chinese calculations equal to one followed by
seventeen ciphers; according to Thibetan and Singhalese, equal to one
followed by ninety-seven ciphers. Every Maha-kalpa consists of four
Asankhye-yakalpas.]