Chapter XXXVIII · AT CEYLON. RISE OF THE KINGDOM. FEATS OF BUDDHA. TOPES AND MONASTERIES. STATUE OF BUDDHA IN JADE. BO TREE. FESTIVAL OF BUDDHA’S TOOTH.
James Legge translation
[Chinese]
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.
Notes in this chapter
Note 1 · It is desirable to translate 人民, for which ‘inhabitants’ or ‘people’ is elsewhere sufficient, here by ‘human inhabitants.’ According to otheNote 2 · That Śâkyamuni ever visited Ceylon is to me more than doubtful. Hardy, in M. B., pp. 207–213, has brought together the legends of three visiNote 3 · This would be what is known as ‘Adam’s peak,’ having, according to Hardy (pp. 211, 212, notes), the three names of Selesumano, Samastakûta, Note 4 · Meaning ‘The Fearless Hill.’ There is still the Abhayagiri tope, the highest in Ceylon, according to Davids, 250 feet in height, and built aNote 5 · 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 usedNote 6 · This should be the pippala, or bodhidruma, generally spoken of, in connexion with Buddha, as the Bo tree, under which he attained to the BudNote 7 · Compare what is said in chap. xvi, about the inquiries made at monasteries as to the standing of visitors in the monkhood, and duration of tNote 8 · The phonetic values of the two Chinese characters here are in Sanskrit sâ; and vâ, bo or bhâ. ‘Sabæan’ is Mr. Beal’s reading of them, probabNote 9 · A Kalpa, we have seen, denotes a great period of time; a period during which a physical universe is formed and destroyed. Asaṅkhyeya denotesNote 10 · 10 See chapter ix.Note 11 · 11 See chapter xi.Note 12 · He had been born in the Śâkya house, to do for the world what the character of all his past births required, and he had done it.Note 13 · They could no more see him, the World-honoured one. Compare the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist Suttas, pp. 89, 121, and note onNote 14 · Sudâna or Sudatta was the name of the Bodhisattva in the birth which preceded his appearance as Śâkyamuni or Gotama, when he became the SuprNote 15 · I take the name Sâma from Beal’s revised version. He says in a note that the Sâma Jâtaka, as well as the Vessantara, is represented in the SNote 16 · 16 In an analysis of the number of times and the different forms in which Śâkyamuni had appeared in his Jâtaka births, given by Hardy (M. B.Note 17 · Chaitya is a general term designating all places and objects of religious worship which have a reference to ancient Buddhas, and including tNote 18 · Eitel says (p. 31): ‘A famous ascetic, the founder of a school, which flourished in Ceylon, A.D. 400.’ But Fâ-hien gives no intimation of DhNote 19 · The country originally had no human inhabitants,1 but was occupied only by spirits and nâgas, with which merchants of various countries carrNote 20 · When Buddha came to this country,2 wishing to transform the wicked nâgas, by his supernatural power he planted one foot at the north of the Note 21 · A former king of the country had sent to Central India and got a slip of the patra tree,6 which he planted by the side of the hall of BuddhaNote 22 · The king practises the Brahmânical purifications, and the sincerity of the faith and reverence of the population inside the city are also grNote 23 · In the city there are many Vaiśya elders and Sabæan8 merchants, whose houses are stately and beautiful. The lanes and passages are kept in gNote 24 · The tooth of Buddha is always brought forth in the middle of the third month. Ten days beforehand the king grandly caparisons a large elephaNote 25 · 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 thNote 26 · Forty le to the east of the Abhayagiri-vihâra there is a hill, with a vihâra on it, called the Chaitya,17 where there may be 2000 monks. Amo