ent offerings
to the Prajna-paramita,(21) to Manjusri,(22) and to Kwan-she-yin.(23)
When the monks have done receiving their annual tribute (from the
harvests),(24) the Heads of the Vaisyas and all the Brahmans bring
clothes and other such articles as the monks require for use, and
distribute among them. The monks, having received them, also proceed
to give portions to one another. From the nirvana of Buddha,(25)
the forms of ceremony, laws, and rules, practised by the sacred
communities, have been handed down from one generation to another
without interruption.

From the place where (the travellers) crossed the Indus to Southern
India, and on to the Southern Sea, a distance of forty or fifty
thousand le, all is level plain. There are no large hills with streams
(among them); there are simply the waters of the rivers.

NOTES

(1) Muttra, "the peacock city;" lat. 27d 30s N., lon. 77d 43s E.
(Hunter); the birthplace of Krishna, whose emblem is the peacock.

(2) This must be the Jumna, or Yamuna. Why it is called, as here, the
P'oo-na has yet to be explained.

(3) In Pali, Majjhima-desa, "the Middle Country." See Davids'
"Buddhist Birth Stories," page 61, note.

(4) Eitel (pp. 145, 6) says, "The name Chandalas is explained by
'butchers,' 'wicked men,' and those who carry 'the awful flag,' to
warn off their betters;--the lowest and most despised caste of India,
members of which, however, when converted, were admitted even into the
ranks of the priesthood."

(5) "Cowries;" {.} {.}, not "shells and ivory," as one might suppose;
but cowries alone, the second term entering into the name from the
marks inside the edge of the shell, resembling "the teeth of fishes."

(6) See chapter xii, note 3, Buddha's pari-nirvana is equivalent to
Buddha's death.

(7) See chapter xiii, note 6. The order of the characters is different
here, but with the same meaning.

(8) See the preparation of such a deed of grant in a special case, as
related in chapter xxxix. No doubt in Fa-Hsien's time, and long before
and after it, it was the custom to engrave such deeds on plates of
metal.

(9) "No monk can eat solid food except between sunrise and noon,"
and total abstinence from intoxicating drinks is obligatory (Davids'
Manual, p. 163). Food eaten at any other part of the day is
called vikala, and forbidden; but a weary traveller might receive
unseasonabl