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NOVEMBER, 1878.)
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA.
291
found, and he extends widely his sympathy and converting her and to assist her as circumstances benefactions. His subjects serve him with per- might require. Having entered the village to ask fect self-devotion. At present the great king alms, he reached the house where his mother had Siladitya' carries his victorious arms from the been born. A young girl took some food and oast to the west, ho subdues distant people and went to give it to him. At the same instant makes the neighbouring nations fear him; but milk escaped from her breasts. This proof of her the people of this kingdom alone have not sub- relationship did not seem to him a good omen. mitted. Although he be often at the head of all The Arhat related to the young girl the history the troops of the five Indies, though he has sum- of her previous life, and she saw at once the holy moned the bravest generals of all the kingdoms, fruit of Buddha. Touched by the goodness of and though he has marched himself to punish her who had brought him into the world and fed them, he has not yet been able to vanquish their him, and thinking with emotion on the result of opposition. From this we may judge of their the actions of her previous life, he caused this warlike habits and manners. The men love study, monastery to be built in thankfulness for his and follow at the same time the teachings of great blessings. heresy and of truth. There are a hundred con- The Vihara of the convent is almost a hunvents, which contain nearly five thousand de- dred feet high. In the centre is raised a stone votees, and where they study alike the greater and statue of Buddha of nearly seventy feet. It is Losser vehicles. They reckon a hundred temples surmounted by seven stone caps which are sus. of the gods; the heretics of various sects are pended in the air, without any apparent attachexceedingly numerous.
ment. They are separated from each other by Within and outside the capital are raised five an interval of about three foet. According to the stópas. In all these places the four past Bud- old accounts of this country they are upheld by dhas have sat, and in performing their exercises the power of the rows of the Lo-han (the Arhat). have left the marks of their feet. These monu- According to some people this prodigy is owing ments were constructed by king Wu-yeu (A foka). to the efficacy of his supernatural powers; and There are other stúpas in stone and brick, but according to others, it is due to the potency of his they are so numerous that it would be difficult to medical knowledge. But we have inquired in mention all.
vain into its history : it is impossible to find A short distance to the south of the town there the explanation of this marvel. All round the is an ancient convent, in the middle of which is Vihara the rock walls have been carred, and on seen a stone statue of Kwan-tseu-tasai-p'u-8a them are represented the events of the life of (Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva) The Ju-lai (the Tatbågata) in all the places where he effects of his divine power are manifested in secret : filled the role of a Bodhisattva, the happy those who apply to him obtain for the most part omens which indicated his elevation to the dignity the objects of their vows.
of Arhat, and the divine prodigies which On the eastern frontiers of the kingdom there followed his entry into the Nirvana. The chisel is a great mountain which shows summits heaped of the artist has figured all these circumstances one upon another, chains of rocks, peaks in double in their most minute details, without omitting rank, and scarped crests. Of old there was a
one. convent there, which had been formed in a gloomy Outside the gates of the convent, to the south valley. Its lofty walls and deep halls occupied and to the north, right and left is an elephant in large openings in the rocks and rested against the stone. I have heard say by the people of the peaks; its pavilions and its two-storied towers country that at times these four) elephants give were backed by the caverns and looked into the vent to terrible roars that make the earth tremble. valley.
In old times Ch'in-na-p'u-8a (Jina Bodhisattva) This convent had been built by the Lo-han often stopped at this convent. 'O-che-lo (the Arhat Achára).' This Arhat ori- ! On leaving this kingdom he (Hiwan Thsang) ginally belonged to Western India. His mother travelled about a thousand li (200 miles) to the being dead, he watched in what class of beings she west, crossed the river Nai-mo-tho (Narmada), should be re-born. It appeared that in this king and arrived in the kingdom of Po-lu-kie-ch'e-p'o dom she had received the body of a woman. The (Baragachhêva).-Mémoires de Hiouen Thsang. Arhat speedily went thither with the object of liv. xi., vol. II. pp. 149-153.
This is Harshavardhana of Kananj, of which Hiwan Thaang's account has already been given, ante, pp. 196-202.
• The Muhayan and the Hinayana. • Vide ante, p. 197, n. 8.
. This seems to refer to the Ajanta Rock Temples.
Rather Atharya, vide ante, vol. IV. p. 174; vol. VI. p. 9; and Archeol. Surv. of W. India (vol. II.), Kathided and Kachh, p. 84.
