

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 148 pages of information about A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms.
(1) Identified, as Beal says, by Cunningham with Tadwa, a village nine miles to the west of Sahara-mahat.  The birthplace of Kasyapa Buddha is generally thought to have been Benares.  According to a calculation of Remusat, from his birth to A.D. 1832 there were 1,992,859 years!

   (2) It seems to be necessary to have a meeting between every Buddha
   and his father.  One at least is ascribed to Sakyamuni and his father
   (real or supposed) Suddhodana.

(3) This is the highest epithet given to every supreme Buddha; in Chinese {.} {.}, meaning, as Eitel, p. 147 says, “Sic profectus sum.”  It is equivalent to “Rightful Buddha, the true successor in the Supreme Buddha Line.”  Hardy concludes his account of the Kasyapa Buddha (M.  B., p. 97) with the following sentence:—­“After his body was burnt, the bones still remained in their usual position, presenting the appearance of a perfect skeleton; and the whole of the inhabitants of Jambudvipa, assembling together, erected a dagoba over his relics one yojana in height!”
(4) Na-pei-kea or Nabhiga is not mentioned elsewhere.  Eitel says this Buddha was born at the city of Gan-ho ({.} {.} {.}) and Hardy gives his birthplace as Mekhala.  It may be possible, by means of Sanskrit, to reconcile these statements.



Less than a yojana to the east from this brought them to the city of Kapilavastu;(1) but in it there was neither king nor people.  All was mound and desolation.  Of inhabitants there were only some monks and a score or two of families of the common people.  At the spot where stood the old palace of king Suddhodana(2) there have been made images of the prince (his eldest son) and his mother;(3) and at the places where that son appeared mounted on a white elephant when he entered his mother’s womb,(4) and where he turned his carriage round on seeing the sick man after he had gone out of the city by the eastern gate,(5) topes have been erected.  The places (were also pointed out)(6) where (the rishi) A-e(7) inspected the marks (of Buddhaship on the body) of the heir-apparent (when an infant); where, when he was in company with Nanda and others, on the elephant being struck down and drawn to one side, he tossed it away;(8) where he shot an arrow to the south-east, and it went a distance of thirty le, then entering the ground and making a spring to come forth, which men subsequently fashioned into a well from which travellers might drink;(9) where, after he had attained to Wisdom, Buddha returned and saw the king, his father;(10) where five hundred Sakyas quitted their families and did reverence to Upali(11) while the earth shook and moved in six different ways; where Buddha preached his Law to the devas, and the four deva kings and others kept the four doors (of the hall), so that (even) the king, his father, could not enter;(12) where Buddha sat under a nyagrodha tree, which is still standing,(13) with his face to the east, and (his aunt) Maja-prajapati presented him with a Sanghali;(14) and (where) king Vaidurya slew the seed of Sakya, and they all in dying became Srotapannas.(15) A tope was erected at this last place, which is still existing.

Project Gutenberg
A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
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