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

THE TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN 255
North of the vihara two or three li there was the Smasanam,
which name means in Chinese " the field of graves into which
the dead are thrown."
As they kept along the mountain on the south, and went
west for three hundred paces, they found a dwelling among
the rocks, named the Pippala cave, in which Buddha regularly
sat in meditation after taking his mid-day meal.
Going on still to the west for five or six li, on the north of
the hill, in the shade, they found the cavern called Srataparna,^
the place where, after the nirvana of Buddha, five hundred
Arhats collected the Siitras. When they brought the Siitras
forth, three lofty seats had been prepared and grandly ornamented.
Sariputtra occupied the one on the left, and Maudgalyayana
that on the right. Of the number of five hundred
one was wanting. Mahakasyapa was president on the middle
seat. Ananda was then outside the door, and could not get in.
At the place there was subsequently raised a tope, which is
still existing.
Along the sides of the hill, there are also a very great many
cells among the rocks, where the various Arhans sat and meditated.
As you leave the old city on the north, and go down
east for three li, there is the rock dwelling of Devadatta, and at
a distance of fifty paces from it there is a large, square, black
rock. Formerly there was a bhikshu, who, as he walked backwards
and forwards upon it, thought with himself :— " This
body is impermanent, a thing of bitterness and vanity, and
which cannot be looked on as pure. I am weary of this body,
and troubled by it as an evil." With this he grasped a knife,
and was about to kill himself. But he thought again :— " The
World-honored one laid down a prohibition against one's killing
himself."- Further it occurred to him:— "Yes, he did;
but I now only wish to kill three poisonous thieves." Immediately
with the knife he cut his throat. With the first gash
into the flesh he attained the state of a Srotapanna ; when he
had gone half through, he attained to be an Anagamin ; and
when he had cut right through, he was an Arhat, and attained
to pari-nirvana, and died.
* A very great place in the annals of The cave was prepared for the occasion
Buddhism. The Council in the Srata- by king Ajatasatru.
parna cave did not come together fortui- - Buddha made a law forbidding the
tously, but appears to have been con- monks to commit suicide. He provoked
by the older members to settle hibited any one from discoursing on the
the rules and doctrines of the order. miseries of life in such a manner as to
cause desperation.