法苑珠林 29.35

29.35

又從南行百五十里度殑伽河至摩揭陀國。屬中印度。城少人居。邑落極多。故城在王舍城山北東二百四十里北臨殑伽河。故宮北石柱高數丈。昔無憂王作地獄處。是頻婆娑羅王之曾孫也。王即戒日之女婿也。所治城名華氏城王宮多華。故因名焉。石柱南有大塔。即八萬四千之塔一數也。安佛舍利一升。時有光瑞。即是無憂王造。近護羅漢役鬼神所營。其側精舍中有大石。是佛欲涅槃。北趣拘尸。南顧摩揭。故蹈石上之雙足迹。長尺八寸。廣六寸。輪相華文。十指各異。近為惡王金耳毀壞佛迹。鑿已還平。文采如故。乃捐殑伽河中。尋復本處。貞觀二十三年有使。圖寫迹來。次側有四佛行坐迹塔。故城東南有龍猛菩薩伏外道處。次北有鬼辦塔。馬鳴事。又西南度尼連禪河有伽耶城。少人物可千餘家。城西南六里許至伽耶山。谿谷杳冥。世謂靈岳。自古君王封告成也。頂有石塔。高百餘尺。時放奇光。佛於此說寶雲等經。山東南尼連河減二里許。至鉢羅笈菩提山。言正覺。佛時證先登因名也。佛自東北岡上。頂欲入金剛定。振地搖山。神懼告佛。又至西南半崖中面間坐石。地山又震。淨居天告曰。此西南十五里近苦行處。畢鉢羅樹下金剛座處。是菩提座。三世諸佛咸此成正覺。佛方就之。仍為石室。龍留影也。世稱名地。其菩提樹。周垣甎壘以崇固之。東西闊。周可五百四十步。奇樹名花連陰列植。正門東開對尼連河。南門接大華池。西阨險固。北門通大寺。其院內聖迹諸塔列多。樹垣正中金剛座上者。賢劫初成與大地俱。大千界中。下極金輪上至地際。金剛所成。周百餘步。千佛同坐入金剛定。故因號焉。即證道之處。又曰道場。大地震時獨無搖也。如來得道之日互說不同。或云三月八日及十五日。垣北門外大菩提寺。六院三層。牆高四丈。壘甎為之。師子國王買取此處興造斯寺。僧徒僅千。大乘上座部所住持也。有骨舍利。狀如人指節。舍利者。大如真珠。彼土十二月三十日。當此方正月十五日也。世稱大神變月。若至其夕必放光瑞。天雨奇華充滿樹院。彼土常法。至於此時。道俗千萬七日七夜競申供養。凡有兩意。謂覩光瑞及取樹葉。其樹青翠冬夏不改。每至入涅槃日及以夏末。一時彫落。通夕新抽。與舊齊等。後為無憂王妃伐截。於西數十步聚而燒之。用以祠天。煙焰未止。忽生兩樹。猛火之中茂葉同榮。因謂號為灰菩提樹。王覩生信。以香乳溉。餘根者至旦樹生如本。王妃忿之。又夜重伐。王重祈請以乳灌之。不日還生。壘石周垣。其高丈餘。近為金耳國月王又伐此樹。掘至泉水不盡根底。乃縱火焚之。又以甘蔗澆之。令其爛絕其本也。數月之後為補剌拏伐摩王。此言滿胄。即先無憂王之玄孫也。聞樹被誅舉身投地。請僧七日經行繞樹大坑。以數千牛乳灌之。六日夜樹生丈餘。恐後剪伐周峙石垣。高二丈四尺。樹今出於石壁上二丈餘。圍三尺餘。樹東青甎精舍。高百六十餘尺。基廣二十餘步。上有石鉤欄繞之。高一丈。層龕皆有金像。四壁鏤諸天仙。上頂金銅阿摩勒迦果（此謂寶瓶及寶臺也）東却接為重閣三層。簷宇特異並金銀飾鏤。三重門外龕中。左觀自在。右慈氏像。並鑄銀成。高一丈許。是無憂王造精舍。初小後巨廣之。

Traveling further south for one hundred and fifty li and crossing the Gaṅgā River, one reaches the country of Magadha. It belongs to Central India. Few people dwell in the city, but villages and hamlets are exceedingly numerous. The ancient city lies two hundred and forty li northeast of the mountains of Rājagṛha, overlooking the Gaṅgā River to the north. North of the old palace there is a stone pillar several tens of feet high, which is where King Aśoka of old made a hell. He was the great-grandson of King Bimbisāra. The king was the son-in-law of Śīlāditya. The city he governed was named Pāṭaliputra; because there were many flowers in the royal palace, it was named on that account. South of the stone pillar is a great stūpa, which is one of the eighty-four thousand stūpas. It enshrines one sheng of the Buddha's śarīra and occasionally shows auspicious lights; it was built by King Aśoka and constructed by the arhat Upagupta, who commanded ghosts and spirits. Beside it, within a vihāra, is a great stone on which are the pair of footprints the Buddha trod upon when, approaching nirvāṇa, he went north toward Kuśi[nagara] and looked back south toward Magadha. They are one foot eight inches long and six inches wide, with wheel markings and flower patterns, distinct on all ten toes. Recently, the evil king of Karṇasuvarṇa vandalized the Buddha's footprints: having chiseled them away, they became smooth again, their patterns as before. He then threw them into the Gaṅgā River, but they immediately returned to their original place. In the twenty-third year of Zhenguan, an envoy came and made a drawing of the footprints. Next to it is a stūpa marking the walking and sitting traces of the four Buddhas. Southeast of the old city is the place where Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna subdued the non-Buddhists. Further north is a stūpa of the ghost's eloquence, which pertains to Aśvaghoṣa. Traveling southwest across the Nirañjanā River, there is the town of Gayā. With few people, it has only around a thousand households. About six li southwest of the town, one reaches Mount Gayā. Its ravines and valleys are dark and deep; worldly people call it a sacred peak, where monarchs since antiquity have reported the completion of their tasks. At the summit is a stone stūpa over one hundred feet high, which occasionally emits marvelous light. Here the Buddha preached such sūtras as the Ratnamegha. Slightly less than two li southeast of the mountain along the Nirañjanā River, one reaches Mount Prāgbodhi. It means 'Prior to Awakening'; because the Buddha, when about to realize awakening, climbed it first, it was named on that account. When the Buddha, from the northeast ridge, was at the summit wishing to enter the vajrasamādhi, the earth quaked and the mountain shook. Frightened, the spirit informed the Buddha. When he reached midway along the southwest cliff face and sat upon a stone, the earth and mountain quaked again. The Śuddhāvāsa gods informed him, saying: 'Fifteen li southwest of here, near the place of austerities, beneath the pippala tree at the vajrāsana, is the bodhimaṇḍa. The Buddhas of the three periods all attained saṃbodhi here.' The Buddha then proceeded there. A stone chamber was made, where the dragon retained his shadow. The world calls it a celebrated site. As for the Bodhi Tree, a surrounding wall of stacked bricks was built to elevate and strengthen it. It is wide from east to west, about five hundred and forty paces in circumference. Rare trees and famous flowers are planted in rows casting continuous shade. The main gate opens to the east, facing the Nirañjanā River; the south gate adjoins a great flower pool; the west is constricted, steep, and secure; the north gate leads to the great monastery. Within its precinct are many stūpas marking sacred traces. The vajrāsana in the exact center of the tree's enclosure was formed at the beginning of the Bhadrakalpa together with the great earth. Within the trichiliocosm, it reaches down to the golden wheel below and up to the surface of the earth; made of diamond, it is over one hundred paces in circumference. Because a thousand Buddhas sat together upon it to enter the vajrasamādhi, it was named on that account. It is the place where the Path was realized, also called the bodhimaṇḍa. When the great earth quakes, it alone does not shake. As for the day on which the Tathāgata attained the Path, different traditions vary: some say the eighth day of the third month, others the fifteenth day. Outside the north gate of the enclosure is the Mahābodhi Monastery. It has six courtyards and three stories, with walls four zhang high built of stacked bricks. The king of Siṃhala bought this site and erected this monastery. Its monastic assembly is nearly a thousand, maintained by the Mahāyāna Sthaviras. There are bone relics shaped like the joints of a human finger; the [gem-like] śarīras are as large as genuine pearls. The thirtieth day of the twelfth month in that land corresponds to the fifteenth day of the first month in this realm; the world calls it the Month of Great Miracles. When that evening arrives, auspicious lights are always emitted, and the heavens rain marvelous flowers that fill the tree courtyard. According to the customary rule of that land, when this time arrives, tens of thousands of monastics and laypeople compete to make offerings for seven days and seven nights. There are generally two purposes: namely, to view the auspicious lights and to gather leaves of the tree. The tree is blue-green, unchanging in winter and summer. Every year on the day of [the Buddha's] entering nirvāṇa and at the end of summer, it withers and sheds its leaves all at once, and throughout the night new ones shoot forth, equal to the old. Later, it was chopped down by the queen of King Aśoka; gathered several tens of paces to the west, it was burned to sacrifice to the gods. Before the smoke and flames ceased, two trees suddenly grew up; amidst the fierce fire, their luxuriant leaves flourished together. On this account, it was called the Ash Bodhi Tree. Seeing this, the king gave rise to faith and watered the remaining roots with scented milk; by morning, the tree had grown back as before. Enraged by this, the queen chopped it down again at night. The king prayed again and irrigated it with milk; within a few days, it grew back once more. He stacked stones to surround it with a wall over a zhang high. Recently, King Śaśāṅka of the country of Karṇasuvarṇa again chopped down this tree; digging down to the spring water, he could not exhaust the roots, so he set fire to burn it and poured sugar-cane juice over it, intending to rot and destroy its roots. Several months later, King Pūrṇavarman (which translates as 'Full Armor'), who was the great-great-grandson of the former King Aśoka, heard that the tree had been destroyed and threw his entire body to the ground. He invited monks to circumambulate the great pit of the tree for seven days, practicing walking meditation, and poured the milk of several thousand cows upon it. In six days and nights, the tree grew over a zhang. Fearing that it would later be cut down, he erected a surrounding stone wall twenty-four feet high. The tree now rises over twenty feet above the stone wall, with a circumference of more than three feet. East of the tree is a blue-brick vihāra, over one hundred and sixty feet high, with a base over twenty paces wide. Above, a stone balustrade surrounds it, one zhang high. The tiered niches all contain golden statues, and the four walls are carved with various devas and ṛṣis. At its summit is a gilded bronze āmalaka fruit (which refers to the precious vase and precious platform). Receding eastward, it joins a multi-storied pavilion of three tiers, its eaves and chambers extraordinarily distinct and adorned and carved with gold and silver. In the niches outside the triple gate are statues of Avalokiteśvara on the left and Maitreya on the right, both cast in silver, about one zhang high. This is the vihāra built by King Aśoka, originally small, and later enlarged and expanded.