釋迦方志 1.74

1.74

The kingdom of Kanyākubja (Central India; the City of Hunchback Maidens) is more than four thousand li in circuit. The capital borders the Gaṅgā River on the west, more than twenty li long and four to five li wide. The heterodox and orthodox are half-and-half; there are more than a hundred monasteries, with monk-disciples exceeding ten thousand, studying both the Great and Small [Vehicles]. There are more than two hundred deva temples, with several thousand tīrthikas. It is the capital of the sovereign king who unifies the Five Indias, styled Śīlāditya (meaning "Sun of Precepts"), of the Vaiśya caste. When he was first about to ascend the throne, there was an image of Avalokiteśvara on the bank of the Gaṅgā, and he petitioned it. [The bodhisattva] told him: "You were originally an araṇya monk in this forest. Now that the King of Gauda Śaśāṅka has destroyed the Buddhadharma, you, O King, ought to revive it, holding compassion for sentient beings in your heart. You are about to rule over the five territories; take care not to mount the lion seat, nor to claim the title of Great King." The king then joined with King Kumāra to pacify and exterminate the tīrthika King Śaśāṅka's followers. He also imposed strict decrees: anyone who ate meat would have their tongue cut out, and anyone who killed living beings would have their hand severed. He then governed the affairs of state together with his widowed sister. Along the Gaṅgā, he built a thousand stūpas, each more than a hundred feet high. In cities, towns, villages, reaching alleys and crossroads, he established vihāras to store food and provide medicine to aid travellers and the poor. Wherever there were sacred traces, he built monasteries. Over the past twenty years, he has held an assembly once every five years, emptying his treasury to relieve all beings, keeping only weapons to prepare for the unforeseen. On the first day of the assembly, he gathers the monks of all kingdoms and for twenty-one days provides them with the four requisites of offerings, causing them to debate with one another. For those whose moral practice is steadfast and whose virtue is abundant and comprehensive, they mount the lion seat and the king receives the precepts from them, displaying veneration for those who are pure and beyond training; those whose foul conduct has come to light are expelled from the borders of the kingdom. All kings and ministers who plant blessings without indolence sit hand in hand with him; those who are otherwise receive no regard. The king tours and inspects local customs without a fixed dwelling; when travelling, he is always led and strictly guarded by the fourfold army, sailing boats and riding elephants, beating drums and blowing conch horns. His elephant army of eighty thousand awes all four directions; only during two or three months does he not travel abroad. In the palace, he feeds the śramaṇas daily—there are a thousand monks and five hundred brahmins. He divides the day into three periods: one period for attending to affairs of state, and two periods for cultivating blessings. Moreover, he abstains from flesh foods, taking by rule one meal a day. East of the monastery on the west of the river, he erected a jeweled platform more than a hundred feet high, inside of which is a life-sized golden image. Next, to the south, he erected a jeweled altar, which is the place where the Buddha's image is bathed. About fifteen li northeast of here, he built a separate traveling palace; from the monastery to the palace, gallery pavilions line both sides of the road, exhausted of every decorative carving, with musicians not shifting their places, but playing in turn. Furthermore, a golden image three feet high in relief is carried upon a great elephant under a jeweled canopy; the king, appearing as Śakra, holds a jeweled parasol and attends on the left, while King Kumāra (meaning "Child") of the kingdom of Kāmarūpa, appearing as King Brahmā, holds a fly-whisk and attends on the right. An armored elephant army of five hundred each escorts them together; in front and behind are a hundred great elephants each, upon which musicians beat drums and play music. King Śīlāditya also scatters pearls, various jewels, and flowers of gold and silver on all sides as he goes, making offerings to the Three Jewels. In the Five Indias, nunneries are rare; even where there are nuns, they share the same gate with the monks and also take meals in the same place, without infringing upon the monastic rules. However, King Kumāra is of the Kṣatriya caste; he told the envoy Li Yibiao: "Our line has succeeded one another for four thousand years; our ancestor was a divine sage who flew from the land of Han to rule this country." The stūpa northwest of the city was built by King Aśoka; in the past, the Buddha preached the Dharma here for seven days. Beside it is a stūpa for hair and nail relics, and the walking- and sitting-traces of the four buddhas. Further south, overlooking the Gaṅgā River, three monasteries share a common wall but have different gates; the Buddha images are adorned and magnificent. A Buddha's tooth is an inch and a half long, its radiant color shifting and changing, preserved in a jeweled casket. Daily, hundreds and thousands from near and far come to gaze upon it; the caretakers, troubled by the burden, levy a heavy tax in gold and jewels, but those who delight in worshipping do not begrudge heavy payments. On fast days it is brought out and placed upon a high seat; though scattered flowers pile up, the tooth casket is not buried. The monastery monks are pure and solemn, and the pure individuals number several thousand households. In front of the monastery to the left and right are vihāras more than a hundred feet high, with stone bases and brick chambers, within which the images are adorned with jewels or made of pure gold and silver. Next, a great vihāra to the southeast, with a stone base and brick chamber, is more than two hundred feet high; this is the place where the Buddha preached for six months on the body being impermanent, suffering, empty, and impure. There are also the walking- and sitting-traces of the four buddhas, six or seven li southeast of the city, upon the south bank of the Gaṅgā. More than a hundred li southeast of the city is the city of Navadevakula, situated on the east bank of the Gaṅgā River; three monasteries share a common wall but have different gates, twenty li in circuit. More than two hundred paces further ahead is a stūpa more than two hundred feet high, where the Buddha once preached the Dharma for seven days; inside are relics that emit light from time to time. Beside it are the walking- and sitting-traces of the four buddhas. Four li north of the monastery, on the bank of the Gaṅgā, is a stūpa more than two hundred feet high where the Buddha once preached the Dharma for seven days, and four hundred hungry ghosts attained awakening and were reborn in heaven. Beside it is also a stūpa for hair and nail relics, and next to it are the walking- and sitting-traces of the four buddhas. Travelling further southeast for more than six hundred li and crossing to the south of the Gaṅgā River, one arrives at: