d there was nobody to sprinkle and sweep (about the tope); but
a herd of elephants came regularly, which brought water with their
trunks to water the ground, and various kinds of flowers and incense,
which they presented at the tope. (Once) there came from one of the
kingdoms a devotee(5) to worship at the tope. When he encountered
the elephants he was greatly alarmed, and screened himself among the
trees; but when he saw them go through with the offerings in the most
proper manner, the thought filled him with great sadness--that there
should be no monastery here, (the inmates of which) might serve
the tope, but the elephants have to do the watering and sweeping.
Forthwith he gave up the great prohibitions (by which he was
bound),(6) and resumed the status of a Sramanera.(7) With his own
hands he cleared away the grass and trees, put the place in good
order, and made it pure and clean. By the power of his exhortations,
he prevailed on the king of the country to form a residence for
monks; and when that was done, he became head of the monastery. At the
present day there are monks residing in it. This event is of recent
occurrence; but in all the succession from that time till now, there
has always been a Sramanera head of the establishment.

NOTES

(1) Rama or Ramagrama, between Kapilavastu and Kusanagara.

(2) See the account of the eightfold division of the relics of
Buddha's body in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist
Suttas, pp. 133-136.

(3) The bones of the human body are supposed to consist of 84,000
atoms, and hence the legend of Asoka's wish to build 84,000 topes, one
over each atom of Sakyamuni's skeleton.

(4) Fa-Hsien, it appears to me, intended his readers to understand that
the naga-guardian had a palace of his own, inside or underneath the
pool or tank.

(5) It stands out on the narrative as a whole that we have not here
"some pilgrims," but one devotee.

(6) What the "great prohibitions" which the devotee now gave up
were we cannot tell. Being what he was, a monk of more than ordinary
ascetical habits, he may have undertaken peculiar and difficult vows.

(7) The Sramanera, or in Chinese Shamei. See chap. xvi, note 19.

CHAPTER XXIV

WHERE BUDDHA FINALLY RENOUNCED THE WORLD, AND WHERE HE DIED.

East from here four yojanas, there is the place where the
heir-apparent sent back Chandaka, with his white horse;(1) and there
also a