Note 17 — 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
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. Among them there is a Śramaṇa of great virtue, named Dharma-gupta,18 honoured 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.