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

264
THE TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN
CHAPTER XXXVI
Fa-Hien's Indian Studies
From Varanasi the travellers went back east to Pataliputtra.
Fa-hien's original object had been to search for copies of the
Vinaya. In the various kingdoms of North India, however,
he had found one master transmitting orally the rules to another,
but no written copies which he could transcribe. He
had therefore travelled far and come on to Central India.
Here, in the mahayana monastery, he found a copy of the Vinaya,
containing the Mahasanghika^ rules—those which were
observed in the first Great Council, while Buddha was still in
the world. The original copy was handed down in the Jetavana
vihara. As to the other eighteen schools, each one has
the views and decisions of its own masters. Those agree with
this in the general meaning, but they have small and trivial
differences, as when one opens and another shuts. This copy
of the rules, however, is the most complete, with the fullest ex-
planations.-
He further got a transcript of the rules in six or seven thousand
gathas,^ being the sarvastivadah^ rules—those which are
observed by the communities of monks in the land of Ts'in
which also have all been handed down orally from master to
master without being committed to writing. In the community
here, moreover, he got the Samyuktabhi-dharma-hridaya-
sastra, containing about six or seven thousand gathas ; he also
got a SiJtra of two thousand five hundred gathas ; one chapter
of the Pari-nirvana-vaipulya Siitra, of about five thousand
gathas ; and the Mahasanghika Abhidharma.
In consequence of this success in his quest Fa-hien stayed
here for three years, learning Sanscrit books and the Sanscrit
speech, and writing out the Vinaya rules. When Tao-ching
arrived in the Central Kingdom, and saw the rules observed
by the Sramanas, and the dignified demeanor in their societies
1 Mahasanghika simply means " the sisting of a few, commonly of two, lines
Great Assembly," that is, of monks. somewhat metrically arranged.
^ It was afterwards translated by * " A branch." says Eitel, " of the
'
Fa-hien into Chinese.
great vaibhashika school, asserting the
^A gatha is a stanza, generally con- reality of all visible phenomena, and
claiming the authority of Rahula."
;