evadatta, and at a distance of fifty paces
from it there is a large, square, black rock. Formerly there was a
bhikshu, who, as he walked backwards and forwards upon it, thought
with himself:--"This body(8) is impermanent, a thing of bitterness and
vanity,(9) and which cannot be looked on as pure.(10) I am weary of
this body, and troubled by it as an evil." With this he grasped a
knife, and was about to kill himself. But he thought again:--"The
World-honoured one laid down a prohibition against one's killing
himself."(11) Further it occurred to him:--"Yes, he did; but I now
only wish to kill three poisonous thieves."(12) Immediately with
the knife he cut his throat. With the first gash into the flesh he
attained the state of a Srotapanna;(13) when he had gone half through,
he attained to be an Anagamin;(14) and when he had cut right through,
he was an Arhat, and attained to pari-nirvana;(15) (and died).

NOTES

(1) Karanda Venuvana; a park presented to Buddha by king Bimbisara,
who also built a vihara in it. See the account of the transaction in
M. B., p. 194. The place was called Karanda, from a creature so named,
which awoke the king just as a snake was about to bite him, and thus
saved his life. In Hardy the creature appears as a squirrel, but Eitel
says that the Karanda is a bird of sweet voice, resembling a magpie,
but herding in flocks; the _cuculus melanoleucus_. See "Buddhist Birth
Stories," p. 118.

(2) The language here is rather contemptuous, as if our author had no
sympathy with any other mode of disposing of the dead, but by his own
Buddhistic method of cremation.

(3) The Chinese characters used for the name of this cavern serve also
to name the pippala (peepul) tree, the _ficus religiosa_. They make us
think that there was such a tree overshadowing the cave; but Fa-Hsien
would hardly have neglected to mention such a circumstance.

(4) A very great place in the annals of Buddhism. The Council in the
Srataparna cave did not come together fortuitously, but appears
to have been convoked by the older members to settle the rules and
doctrines of the order. The cave was prepared for the occasion by
king Ajatasatru. From the expression about the "bringing forth of the
King," it would seem that the Sutras or some of them had been already
committed to writing. May not the meaning of King {.} here be extended
to the Vinaya rules, as well as