法苑珠林 29.35

29.35

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.