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

THE TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN 247
willing to go away, he made to appear a large and deep ditch
which they could not cross over, and gave them his alms-bowl,
as a pledge of his regard, thus sending them back to their
families. There a stone pillar was erected with an account of
this event engraved upon it.
CHAPTER XXV
The Kingdom of Vaisali
East from this city ten yojanas, the travellers came to the
kingdom of Vaisali. North of the city so named is a large
forest, having in it the double-galleried vihara where Buddha
dwelt, and the tope over half the body of Ananda. Inside the
city the woman Ambapali^ built a vihara in honor of Buddha,
which is now standing as it was at first. Three li south of the
city, on the west of the road, is the garden which the same
Ambapali presented to Buddha, in which he might reside.
When Buddha was about to attain to his pari-nirvana, as he
was quitting the city by the west gate, he turned round, and,
beholding the city on his right, said to them, " Here I have
taken my last walk." Men subsequently built a tope at this
spot.
Three li northwest of the city there is a tope called, " Bows
and weapons laid down." The reason why it got that name
was this: The inferior wife of a king, whose country lay along
the river Ganges, brought forth from her womb a ball of flesh.
The superior wife, jealous of the other, said, " You have
brought forth a thing of evil omen," and immediately it was
put into a box of wood and thrown into the river. Farther
down the stream another king was walking and looking about,
when he saw the wooden box floating in the water. He had
it brought to him, opened it, and found a thousand little boys,
upright and complete, and each one different from the others.
He took them and had them brought up. They grew tall and
* Ambapali, Amrapali, ^r Amradarika, Buddha, Sakyamuni's predecessor, she
" the guardian of the Amra (probably had been born a devi, and finally apthe
mango) tree," is famous in Buddhist pearcd in earth under an Amra tree in
annals. She was a courtesan. She had Vaisali. There again she fell into her
been in many narakas or hells, was old ways, and had a son by king Bimbione
hundred thousand times a female sara; hut she was won over by Buddha
beggar, and ten thousand times a pros- to virtue and chastitv, renounced the
titute; but maintaining perfect con- world, and attained to the state of an
tinence during the period of Kasyapa Arhat.