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LEGEND OF PĀȚALIPUTTA.

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tens of Deva-temples, and the adherents of the various sects were very numerous.

South of the Ganges, the pilgrim proceeds, was an old city above 70 li (about fourteen miles) in circuit, the foundations of which were still visible although the city had long been a wilderness. In the far past when men lived for countless years it had been called "Kusun.apura city" from the numerous flowers (Kusuma) in the royal inclosure (pura). Afterwards when men's lives still extended to milleniums the name was changed to "Pataliputra city". The pilgrim gives the following account of the origin of the city and its second name. Once on a time a very learned brahmin had a large number of disciples. A party of these on a certain occasion wandered into the wood, and a young man of their number appeared unhappy and disconsolate. To cheer and amuse the gloomy youth his companions agreed to get up a mock marriage for him. A man and a woman were chosen to stand as parents for the bridegroom, and another couple represented the parents of the imaginary bride. They were all near a paṭali tree at the time, and as the name of the tree had a feminine termination they decided to make it the bride. All the ceremonies of a marriage were gone through, and the man acting as father of the bride broke off a branch of the pāṭali tree, and gave it to the bridegroom to be his bride. When all was over, and the other young men were going home, they wanted their companion, the bridegroom, to go with them, but he insisted on remaining near the tree. Here at dusk an old man appeared with his wife and a young maiden, and the old man gave the maiden to the young student to be his wife. This couple lived together for a year when a son was born to them. The student, now tired of the lonely wild life of the woods, wanted to go back to his home, but the old man, his father-in-law, induced him to remain by the promise of a properly built establishment, and the promise was carried out very promptly. Afterwards when the seat of government was removed to this place it got the name Pāṭaliputra because it had been built by the gods for the son of the pățali tree, and it kept the name ever since.

In the part of this story which tells of the students making the patali tree the bride the translators had the reading wei-nü-hsü-shu-ye(), "they called it the son-in-law tree". This is nonsense, and cannot be forced into agreement with the context. In the abstract of the passage given above the reading of the D text has been followed, viz. wei-nü-shêng()-shu, "saying it was a

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MARRIAGE TO A TREE.

feminine tree", that is, they took the tree for the bride because its name had a feminine termination. The place where the mock ceremony was performed was close to a păţali, Bignonia suaveolens or Trumpet-flower tree, and the bride was called Miss Patali, her father in the play giving a branch of the tree, as his daughter, to the student to be his wife. Afterwards, as the story shows, the Dryads of the tree, like the melancholy mortal, took the whole affair in earnest, and made the marriage a reality. The old man and the old mother and her daughter are the god and goddesses of the tree, and the daughter becomes the student's wife. When he proposes to go away the old god by superhuman agency builds for the residence of his newly born grandson a substantial establishment. This was the nucleus of the city which from the story of its origin obtained and kept the name Pațaliputra. In Buddhist books the building of the city with this name is sometimes ascribed to king Ajātasattu in the Buddha's time. It was built as a defence against the Vajjians, and it had a Gotama Gate and a Gotama Landing-place from the name of the Buddha. 1 This city is described as being 240 li from the Rajagaha mountains in a north-by-east direction.

Continuing his description, the pilgrim tells us that to the north of the "old palace" (that is capital) was a stone pillar some tens of feet in height on the site of Asoka's "Hell". "In the 100th year after Sakya Ju-lai's nirvāṇa”, he says, “king Asoka greatgrandson of king Bimbisāra transferred his capital from Rājagaha to Paṭaliputra, and surrounded the latter old city with an outer wall." Of this city the long lapse of time had left only the old foundations. Of monasteries, deva-temples, and topes there were hundreds of ruins, but only two or three of the old structures survived. On the north of the capital and near the Ganges was a small walled city containing above 1000 inhabitants: this was the Hell-prison of king Asoka. The pilgrim then gives us a short history of this Prison or Hell. It was instituted by king Asoka, soon after his accession, when he was cruel and tyrannical. It was surrounded by high walls with a lofty tower

1 Chang-a-han-ching ch. 2; Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih ch. 36; Vin. Mah. VI. 28; Maha-Parinibbana-sutta (Dīgha II. 89).

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at each corner; it was made to resemble hell with all its tortures, such as great furnaces of fierce heat and cutting instruments with sharp points and edges; a fierce wicked man was sought out and made jailer. At first only local criminals were all, without regard to the nature of their offences, sent to this prison; afterwards casual passers by were wantonly dragged in and put to death; all who entered were killed, and so secrecy was preserved. But it came to pass that a recently ordained śramaņa one day on his begging rounds came to the Prison gate, and was caught by the jailer, who proceeded to kill him. The śramana, greatly terrified, prayed for a short respite in order to make his confession, and the request was granted. At this moment a prisoner was brought in and at once dismembered and cut to atoms in the presence of the śramaņa: the latter was moved by the spectacle to deep pity, attained the contemplation of impermanency, and realised arhatship. When his time came the jailer put the śramaņa in a caldron of boiling water, but the water became cold, and the śramana was seen to sit in it on a lotus-seat. This marvel was reported to the king, who came to see it, and extolled the miraculous protection. The jailer now told the king that according to his own rule, (that no one who entered the Prison was to be allowed to leave it), His Majesty must die. The king admitted the force of the remark, but giving the jailer precedence he ordered the lictors to cast him into the great furnace. Then His Majesty left the Prison, caused it to be demolished, and made his penal code liberal.

1

This short history of Asoka's Hell was probably condensed from the legends] in the Divyāvadāna and "Tsaa-han-ching". These agree closely in all the main incidents, and differ in some particulars, from the story as told in other books. According to the former accounts king Asoka had burned to death 500 ladies of his harem, and his chief minister Radhagupta (called also Anuruddha), reminding him that such proceedings were unseemly for a king, recommended His Majesty to institute a place of punishment under a proper official. The king took the advice, and caused a jail or place of punishment to be constructed, a handsome attractive building with trees and tanks like a city. After search and enquiry a sufficiently

1 Divyāv. p. 374 ff.; A-yü-wang-chuan ch. 1; A-yü-wang-ching ch. 1; Tsa-a-han-ching ch. 23; Bur. Int. p. 365 ff.

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cruel, ugly, wicked man named Chanda-Giri, in Chinese O-shan () or "Wicked Hill", was found for the post of jailer; he was duly installed and allowed to make the rule that no one who went in was to be let out. The jail was furnished with the tortures described in a Buddhist book on the infernal places of punishment, Wicked Hill having listened to a monk of the Ketuma monastery reading this exhilarating treatise aloud. But according to Fa

hsien and others Asoka had personally visited the infernal regions (the hells within the Iron Hills), and studied their tortures. Now Wicked Hill in this cruel Hell of Despair had boiled, roasted, pounded to fragments, and otherwise tortured to death very many wretched victims. But one day a stranger bhikshu named Samudra, in Chinese Hai or "Sea", in ignorance and by accident, came to the gate of the Prison, and wandered in, attracted by the beauties of the place. Wicked Hill immediately had the bhikshu seized and was proceeding to boil him when the bhikshu piteously implored a short respite. The jailer demurred at first but at length yielded. At that time one of the king's concubines arrived to undergo punishment for misconduct. She was at once pounded to atoms in the presence of the bhikshu. The latter now made the most of his respite, and by zealous application became an arhat. When his time for being boiled came, events occurred as Yuan-chuang relates. We have the story of Asoka's Hell-prison told also by Fa-hsien; but he places the site about half a mile to the south of the city, whereas Yuan-chuang places it to the north. Fahsien's account is not taken from the "Divyāvadāna", but it agrees with that work in placing the site of the Hell near the tope erected by Asoka over Ajātasattu's share of Buddha's relics. Yuan-chuang also seems to have found the site near, and to the north of, the Relics Tope as Fa-hsien describes. Our pilgrim's statements, however.

1 Fo-kuo-chi chs. 27 and 32. See also Fên-pie-kung-tê-lun ch. 3 (Bun. No. 1290); Fu-fa-tsang-yin-yuan ch. 3 (No. 1340).

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are not quite consistent with themselves. But as he remained at the place for seven days visiting all the sacred traces his account is not to be set aside lightly.

Not far south from

We return to the pilgrim's description. the Prison, he tells us, was a tope, the lower part of which had sunk out of sight leaving only the dome, which was ornamented with precious substances, and the stone balustrade. This, he adds, was one of the 84000 topes, and it was erected for Asoka in his palace by human agents; it contained a shêng or pint of the Buddha's, relics and it had miraculous manifestations, and illuminations by divine light. The pilgrim goes on to tell how the 84000 topes came to be built and the relics deposited in them. After Asoka had abolished his Hell the great arhat Upagupta made a skilful use of his opportunities to convert the king and succeeded in winning him over to Buddhism. When the king expressed to Upagupta his desire to increase the topes for the worship of the Buddha's relics the arhat replied- It has been my wish that your majesty by means of your religious merit would employ the gods that you might carry out your former vow and protect Buddha, the Canon, and the Church, and now is the opportunity. When Asoka heard all this he was greatly pleased, and having summoned the inferior gods (kueishên) he gave them his orders. The gods were to go over all Jambudvipa, and wherever there was a population of a full Koți, they were to erect a tope for Buddha's relics. The gods set up the topes, and reported to the king, who then divided the relics which he had taken from the topes of the eight countries and distributed them among the gods. He then told Upagupta that he would like to have all the relics deposited in the topes at the same instant. This was accomplished by Upagupta kindly putting his hand across the sun's face at midday, the gods having been ordered to deposit their relics at the moment the hand was seen darkening the sun.

It will be seen that in this description our pilgrim represents the old relic-tope of Paṭaliputra as having been built by human hands, and yet as one of the 84000 topes erected by the gods or Yakshas. Fa-hsien also makes this tope to be one of the 84000 set up by the Yakshas for Asoka. The dust-offering in a former existence, and the prophecy by the Buddha in conséquence, had been related to the king by the bhikshu saved from a cruel death in the Hell-prison. It was through the merit of this offering,

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