V. BUDDHASHIP ATTAINED.

At the place where Buddha attained to perfect Wisdom, there are three monasteries, in all of which there are monks residing. The families of their people around supply the societies of these monks with an abundant sufficiency of what they require, so that there is no lack or stint.13 The disciplinary rules are strictly observed by them. The laws regulating their demeanour in sitting, rising, and entering when the others are assembled, are those which have been practised by all the saints since Buddha was in the world down to the present day. The places of the four great topes have been fixed, and handed down without break, since Buddha attained to nirvâṇa. Those four great topes are those at the places where Buddha was born; where he attained to Wisdom; where he (began to) move the wheel of his Law; and where he attained to pari-nirvâṇa.

1 Gayâ, a city of Magadha, was north-west of the present Gayah (lat. 24° 47′ N., lon. 85° 1′ E). It was here that Śâkyamuni lived for seven years, after quitting his family, until he attained to Buddhaship. The place is still frequented by pilgrims. E. H., p. 41.
2 This is told so as to make us think that he was in danger of being drowned; but this does not appear in the only other account of the incident I have met with,—in ‘The Life of the Buddha,’ p. 31. And he was not yet Buddha, though he is here called so; unless indeed the narrative is confused, and the incidents do not follow in the order of time.
3 An incident similar to this is told, with many additions, in Hardy’s M. B., pp. 166–168; ‘The Life of the Buddha,’ p. 30; and the ‘Buddhist Birth Stories,’ pp. 91, 92; but the name of the ministering girl or girls is different. I take Grâmika from a note in Beal’s revised version; it seems to me a happy solution of the difficulty caused by the 彌家 of Fâ-hien.
4 Called ‘the tree of leaves,’ and ‘the tree of reflection;’ a palm tree, the borassus flabellifera, described as a tree which never loses its leaves. It is often confounded with the pippala. E. H., p. 92.
5 The kuśa grass, mentioned in a previous note.
6 See the account of this contest with Mâra in M. B., pp. 171–179, and ‘Buddhist Birth Stories,’ pp. 96–101.
7 See chap. xiii, note 7.
8 Called also Mahâ, or the Great Muchilinda. Eitel says: ‘A nâga king, the tutelary deity of a lake near which Śâkyamuni once sat for seven days absorbed in meditation, whilst the king guarded him.’ The account (p. 35) in ‘The Life of the Buddha’ is:—‘Buddha went to where lived the nâga king Muchilinda, and he, wishing to preserve him from the sun and rain, wrapped his body seven times round him, and spread out his hood over his head; and there he remained seven days in thought.’ So also the Nidâna Kathâ, in ‘Buddhist Birth Stories,’ p. 109.
9 This was Brahmâ himself, though ‘king’ is omitted. What he requested of the Buddha was that he would begin the preaching of his Law. Nidâna Kathâ, p. 111.
10 See chap. xii, note 10.
11 The other accounts mention only two; but in M. B., p. 182, and the Nidâna Kathâ, p. 110, these two have 500 well-laden wagons with them.
12 These must not be confounded with Mahâkaśyapa of chap. xvi, note 17. They were three brothers, Uruvilvâ, Gayâ, and Nadî-Kâśyapa, up to this time holders of ‘erroneous’ views, having 500, 300, and 200 disciples respectively. They became distinguished followers of Śâkyamuni; and are—each of them—to become Buddha by-and-by. See the Nidâna Kathâ, pp. 114, 115.
13 This seems to be the meaning; but I do not wonder that some understand the sentence of the benevolence of the monkish population to the travellers.