Chinese and Arabian Literature - E. Wilson - The Search For Mecca

236
THE TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN
Fifty yojanas northwest from the monastery there is another,
called " The Great Heap." Great Heap was the name
of a wicked demon, who was converted by Buddha, and men
subsequently at this place reared a vihara. When it was being
made over to an Arhat by pouring water on his hands, some
drops fell on the ground. They are still on the spot, and how-
ever they may be brushed away and removed, they continue to
be visible, and cannot be made to disappear.
At this place there is also a tope to Buddha, where a good
spirit constantly keeps all about it swept and watered, without
any labor of man being required. A king of corrupt views
once said, " Since you are able to do this, I will lead a multi-
tude of troops and reside there till the dirt and filth has in-
creased and accumulated, and see whether you can cleanse it
away or not." The spirit thereupon raised a great wind,
which blew the filth away, and made the place pure.
At this place there are many small topes, at which a man
may keep counting a whole day without being able to know
their exact number. If he be firmly bent on knowing it, he
will place a man by the side of each tope. When this is done,
proceeding to count the number of the men, whether they be
many or few, he will not get to know the number.'^
There is a monastery, containing perhaps six hundred or
seven hundred monks, in which there is a place where a Pratyeka
Buddha used to take his food. The nirvana ground where
he was burned after death is as large as a carriage wheel ; and
while grass grows all around, on this spot there is none. The
ground also where he dried his clothes produces no grass, but
the impression of them, where they lay on it, continues to the
present day.
CHAPTER XVHI
Buddha's Subjects of Discourse
Fa-hien stayed at the Dragon vihara till after the summer
retreat,^ and then, travelling to the southeast for seven yojanas,
he arrived at the city of Kanyakubja, lying along the Ganges.
There are two monasteries in it, the inmates of which are stu-
* This would seem to be absurd; but mysterious about the number of the
the writer evidently intended to con- topes.
vey the idea that there was something 1 This was, probably, in a.d. 405.