BOOK VIII.

Contains the First Part of the Account of the Country of Magadha (Mo-kie-to).

The country of Magadha (Mo-kie-t'o)1 is about 5000 li in circuit. The walled cities have but few inhabitants, but the towns2 are thickly populated. The soil is rich and fertile and the grain cultivation abundant. There is an unusual sort of rice grown here, the grains of which are large and scented and of an exquisite taste. It is specially remarkable for its shining colour. It is commonly called "the rice for the use of the great." 3 As the ground is low and damp, the inhabited towns are built on the high uplands. After the first month of summer and before the second month of autumn, the level country is flooded, and communication can be kept up by boats. The manners of the people are simple and honest. The temperature is pleasantly hot; they esteem very much the pursuit of learning and profoundly respect the religion of Buddha. There are some fifty sanghdrdmas, with about 10.000 priests, of whom the greater number study the teaching of the Great Vehicle. There are ten D6va temples, occupied by sectaries of different persuasions, who are very numerous.

To the south of the river Ganges there is an old city about 70 li round. Although it has been long deserted, its foundation walls still survive. Formerly, when men's

1 Or, it may mean the chief city 3 This appears to be the rice

or capital. called Mahdidlt and Suganclhikd

a Yih, the towns; Julien gives (Julien). villages.

lives were incalculably long, it was called Kusumapura (K'u-su-mo-pu-lo),4 so called because the palace of the king had many flowers. Afterwards, when men's age reached several thousands of years, then its name was changed to Pataliputra5 (Po-ch'a-li-tsu-eh'ing).

At the beginning there was a Brahman of high talent and singular learning. Many thousands flocked to him to receive instruction. One day all the students went out on a tour of observation; one of them betrayed a feeling of unquiet and distress. His fellow-students addressed him and said, "What troubles you, friend?" He said, "I am in my full maturity (beauty) with perfect strength, and yet I go on wandering about here like a lonely shadow till years and months have passed, and my duties {manly duties)6 not performed. Thinking of this, my words are sad and my heart is afflicted."

On this his companions in sport replied, "We must seek then for your good a bride and her friends." Then they supposed two persons to represent the father and mother of the bridegroom, anil two persons the father and mother of the bride,7 and as they were sitting under a Patali (Po-ch'a-li) tree, they called it the tree of the sonin-law.8 Then they gathered seasonable fruits and pure

4 Explained in a note to mean Hiang-hu-kong-sh'ing,—the city, or royal precinct, of the scented flower (kusuma).

6 The text seems to refer the foundation of this city to a remote period, and in this respect is in agreement with Diodoros, who says (lib. ii. cap. 39) that this city tirifyavtGT&Ti) Kox fieyiGTr} was founded by Herakles. The Buddhist accounts speak of it as a village, Patalig&ma, which was being strengthened and enlarged by Ajatasatru, contemporary of Buddha, for the purpose of repelling the advance of the Vrljjis. See Sac. Books of the East, vol. xi.pp. 16,17; Bigandet,Xi/e of Gaudama, p. 257; Fo-sho-hingtsan-king, p. 249, n. 3; Cunningham, Anc. Geog. of India, p. 453.

6 So it seems, from the story following, the passage must be understood. Julien confines the meaning to his "studies" not yet completed. But there would be no point in the pretended marriage, if that were his regret.

7 This is the natural translation of the passage, and makes good sense without the alteration proposed by Julien.

8 That is, they made the tree the father-in-law of the student; in other words, he was to marry the daughter of the tree, a Pdtali flower (Bignonia suaveolens). I can find no authority for Julien's statement that the word son-in-law corresponds to Pdtali; this statement is also repeated by Eitel, Handbook, sub voc. Pdtala.

water, and followed all the nuptial customs, and requested a time to be fixed. Then the father9 of the supposed bride, gathering a twig with flowers on it, gave it to the student and said, "This is your excellent partner; be graciously pleased to accept her." The student's heart was rejoiced as he took her to himself. And now, as the sun was setting, they proposed to return home; but the young student, affected by love, preferred to remain.

Then the other said, " All this was fun; pray come back with us; there are wild beasts in this forest; we are afraid they will kill you." But the student preferred to remain walking up and down by the side of the tree.

After sunset a strange light lit up the plain, the sound of pipes and lutes with their soft music (was heard), and the ground was covered with a sumptuous carpet. Suddenly an old man of gentle mien was seen coming, supporting himself by his staff, and there was also an old mother leading a young maiden. They were accompanied by a procession along the way, dressed in holiday attire and attended with music. The old man then pointed to the maiden and said, " This is your worship's wife (lady)." Seven days then passed in carousing and music, when the companions of the student, in doubt whether he had been destroyed by wild beasts, went forth and came to the place. They found him alone in the shade of the tree, sitting as if facing a superior guest. They asked him to return with them, but he respectfully declined.

After this he entered of his own accord the city, to pay respect to his relatives, and told them of this adventure from beginning to end. Having heard it with wonder, he returned with all his relatives and friends to the middle of the forest, and there they saw the flowering tree become a great mansion; servants of all kinds were hurrying to and fro on every side, and the old man came forward and received them with politeness, and entertained them with all kinds of dainties served up amidst the sound of music. 9 We must suppose him to represent the tree, the real father.

After the usual compliments, the guests returned to the city and told to all, far and near, what had happened.

After the year was accomplished the wife gave birth to a son, when the husband said to his spouse, "I wish now to return, but yet I cannot bear to be separated from you (your bridal residence); but if I rest here I fear the exposure to wind and weather."

The wife having heard this, told her father. The old man then addressed the student and said, "Whilst living contented and happy why must you go back? I. will build you a house; let there be no thought of desertion." On this his servants applied themselves to the work, and in less than a day it was finished.

When the old capital of Kusumapura10 was changed, this town was chosen, and from the circumstance of the genii building the mansion of the youth the name henceforth of the country was Pataliputra pura (the city of the son of the Patali tree).

To the north of the old palace of the king is a stone pillar several tens of feet high; this is the place where Asoka (Wxt-yau) raja made "a hell." In the hundredth year after the Nirvdna of Tathagata, there was a king - called A£6ka ('O-shu-kia), who was the great-grandson of Bimbisara - raja..11 He changed his capital from Eajagrlha to Patali (pura), and built an outside rampart to surround the old city. Since then many generations have

10 From this it would appear that the son of the king. See Cunning

Kusumapura was not on the same ham, Anc. Geog., p. 453.

site as Pataliputra. Kajagriba was "Hiuen Tsiang uses in this pas

the capital in the time of Ajatasatru, sage the phonetic equivalents for

and it was he who strengthened P&- Asoka, 'O-sku-Jda; on this Dr. Old

taliputra. In the next clause it is enberg founds an argument that

said that As6ka changed his capital the king referred to is not Dharma

from Rajagrlha to PataliputrS. He soka, but Kalas6ka( Vimaya Pitakam,

is described as the great-grandson of vol.i.,Introd.,p.xxxiii.n.) Butanote

Bimbasara, and therefore the grand- inthetextstatesthat'O-sAw-Kaisthe

son^f Ajatasatru. The VAyu Furdna Sanskrit form of Wu-yau; the latter

states that Kusumapura or Patali- in the Chinese form, signifying "sor

putra was founded by Raja TJda- rowless." Por Bimbisara, see p. 102,

yasva, the grandson of Ajatasatru; n. 41. but the Mah&wanso makes Udaya

passed, and now there only remain the old foundation walls (of the city). The sanghdrdmas, De'va temples, and sMpas which lie in ruins may be counted by hundreds. There are only two or three remaining (entire). To the north of the old palace,12 and bordering on the Ganges river, there is a little town which contains about iooo houses.

At first when As"6ka (Wu-yau) raja ascended the throne, he exercised a most cruel tyranny; he constituted a hell for the purpose of torturing living creatures. He surrounded it with high walls with lofty towers. He placed there specially vast furnaces of molten metal, sharp scythes, and every kind of instrument of torture like those in the infernal regions. He selected an impious man13 whom he appointed lord of the hell. At first every criminal in the empire, whatever his fault, was consigned to this place of calamity and outrage; afterwards all those who passed by the place were seized and destroyed. All who came to the place were killed without any chance of self-defence.

At this time a Sramana, just entered the religious order, was passing through the suburbs begging food, when he came to hell-gate. The impious keeper of the place laid hold upon him to destroy him. The Sramana, filled with fear, asked for a respite to perform an act of worship and confession. Just then he saw a man bound with cords enter the prison. In a moment they cut off his hands and feet, and pounded his body in a mortar, till all the members of his body were mashed up together in confusion.

The Sramana having witnessed this, deeply moved with pity, arrived at the conviction of the impermanence (anityd) of all earthly things, and reached the fruit of "exemption from learning" (Arhatship). Then the infernal

12 This may refer to Kusumapura, man; Julien has '' vm troupe de

the "flowery palace" city, or to the scelerats." The stdry of this place

palace in the old town of Patali- of torment is found also in Fa-Man,

putra. cap. xxxii.

18 There seems to be only one