Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c29.15

c29.15

The city of Śrāvastī was famous for the Jetavana Vihāra, originally of seven storeys, which the kings and people of the countries around vied with one another in decorating, and built in the centre of a large park. "Here Buddha lived for a longer time than at any other place," "for twenty-five years;" "preaching his Law and converting men." Fa-Hien saw the monastery in a flourishing condition with a crowd of monks coming out to greet him and expressing their surprise¹ that "men of a border country should be able to come here in search of the Law" and saying to one another: "During all the time that we, preceptors and monks, have succeeded to one another, we have never seen men of Han, followers of our system, arrive here." Indeed, this ideal succession of preceptors and monks in the Jetavana monastery carried on its history for nearly 1,000 years up to the time of this visit of Fa-Hien!