釋迦方志 2.26

2.26

Nālandā Monastery (meaning 'Giving Without Satiety'). It was originally the southern Āmra Grove. In the past, five hundred merchants purchased it to offer to the Buddha, who preached the Dharma there for three months. It was jointly built by five successive kings: the first was King Śakrāditya (meaning 'Sun of Indra'), who initially founded this monastery; the second was King Buddhagupta (meaning 'Protected by the Awakened One'), who built a monastery next to the south; the third was King Tathāgatagupta (meaning 'Tathāgata'), who built a monastery next to the east; the fourth was King Bālāditya (meaning 'Morning Sun'), who built a monastery next to the east; and the fifth was King Vajra (meaning 'Diamond'), who built a monastery next to the north. Its surrounding walls rise steeply, about fifty feet high; there are seven courtyards in all, each three stories high, all sharing a single gate. Constructed across successive generations, it is magnificent and extremely ornate to the utmost degree. The monastery enforces strict regulations: since its founding, women have never entered. Ten overseers patrol and inspect every evening. Those who have not yet received full ordination are ranked according to age. The community of monks numbers several thousand; including visiting scholar-monks of renown, the total approaches ten thousand. Most of them are men of exceptional talent and extensive learning; several hundred of them have reputations renowned in foreign lands, so all the monks of India look up to them as models. Those who do not discourse upon the tenets of the Piṭakas feel ashamed of their very bodies. Therefore, when people from distant lands come to debate, the gatekeeper questions them and most are refuted and turn back. Even if visiting junior scholars come to discourse extensively on their arts and capabilities, seven or eight out of ten certainly retreat like flying birds. For this reason, those of lofty talent, broad erudition, strong memory, and manifold abilities guide others with their illustrious virtue and connect with the world through their brilliant splendor. Figures such as Dharmapāla and Candrapāla stirred up noble legacies in their fragrant dust; Guṇamati and Sthiramati spread their renown beyond the world of phenomena; the clear discourses of Prabhamitra and the elevated discussions of Jayasena; the insightful discernment of Jñānacandra and the resolute practice of Śīlabhadra—all were consummate in their own time and celebrated down through antiquity. Their learning surpassed old traditions, and their treatises and commentaries, each numbering several tens of fascicles, circulated widely in an illustrious age. Thus the sacred traces of this monastery may be briefly described: In the vihāra west of the monastery, the Buddha once preached the Dharma for three months. A hundred paces south of it is a small stupa, where monks from distant lands saw the Buddha. Farther south is a standing image of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, whom some have seen holding an incense burner and circumambulating the vihāra to the right. Next to the south is a stupa where the Buddha once stayed for three months shaving his hair and paring his nails; those who are ill and circumambulate it are mostly healed.