Chapter XIII · NAGÂRA. FESTIVAL OF BUDDHA’S SKULL-BONE. OTHER RELICS, AND HIS SHADOW.
James Legge translation
[Chinese]
Notes in this chapter
Note 1 · Now in India, Fâ-hien used the Indian measure of distance; but it is not possible to determine exactly what its length then was. The estimatNote 2 · The present Hidda, west of Peshâwar, and five miles south of Jellalabad.Note 3 · ‘The vihâra,’ says Hardy, ‘is the residence of a recluse or priest;’ and so Davids:—‘the clean little hut where the mendicant lives.’ Our auNote 4 · According to the characters, ‘square, round, four inches.’ Hsüan-chwang says it was twelve inches round.Note 5 · In Williams’ Dictionary, under 頂, the characters, used here, are employed in the phrase for ‘to degrade an officer,’ that is, ‘to remove theNote 6 · The Vaiśyas, or bourgeois caste of Hindu society, are described here as ‘resident scholars.’Note 7 · See Eitel’s Handbook under the name vimoksha, which is explained as ‘the act of self-liberation,’ and ‘the dwelling or state of liberty.’ ThNote 8 · This incense would be in long ‘sticks,’ small and large, such as are sold to-day throughout China, as you enter the temples.Note 9 · ‘The illuminating Buddha,’ the twenty-fourth predecessor of Śâkyamuni, and who, so long before, gave him the assurance that he would by-and-Note 10 · The staff was, as immediately appears, of Gośîrsha Chandana, or ‘sandal-wood from the Cow’s-head mountain,’ a species of copper-brown sandalNote 11 · Or Saṅghaṭi, the double or composite robe, part of a monk’s attire, reaching from the shoulders to the knees, and fastened round the waist (Note 12 · These were the ‘marks and beauties’ on the person of a supreme Buddha. The ṛishi Kalâ Devala saw them on the body of the infant Śâkya princeNote 13 · Probably = ‘all Buddhas.’Note 14 · The number may appear too great. But see what is said on the size of topes in chap. iii, note 4.Note 15 · In Singhalese, Pasê Buddhas; called also Nidâna Buddhas, and Pratyeka Jinas, and explained by ‘individually intelligent,’ ‘completely intellNote 16 · Going west for sixteen yojanas,1 he came to the city He-lo2 in the borders of the country of Nagâra, where there is the flat-bone of Buddha’Note 17 · Going on, north from this, for a yojana, (Fâ-hien) arrived at the capital of Nagâra, the place where the Bodhisattva once purchased with monNote 18 · A yojana to the north-east of the city brought him to the mouth of a valley, where there is Buddha’s pewter staff;10 and a vihâra also has bNote 19 · Entering the mouth of the valley, and going west, he found Buddha’s Saṅghâli,11 where also there is reared a vihâra, and offerings are made.Note 20 · South of the city, half a yojana, there is a rock cavern, in a great hill fronting the south-west; and here it was that Buddha left his shadNote 21 · Rather more than four hundred paces west from the shadow, when Buddha was at the spot, he shaved his hair and clipt his nails, and proceeded