There Buddha came to them, had
their wounds dressed, and preached to them the Law. They died in the
faith, and were reborn in the region of the four Great Kings. Thence
they came back and visited Buddha at Jetavana in the night, and there
they obtained the reward of Srotapanna.]
[Footnote 4: Fa-hien does not say that he himself saw any of these white
elephants, nor does he speak of the lions as of any particular color. We
shall find by and by, in a note further on, that, to make them appear
more terrible, they are spoken of as "black."]
CHAPTER XXIII
~Legends of Rama and its Tope~
East from Buddha's birthplace, and at a distance of five yojanas, there
is a kingdom called Rama. The king of this country, having obtained one
portion of the relics of Buddha's body, returned with it and built over
it a tope, named the Rama tope. By the side of it there was a pool, and
in the pool a dragon, which constantly kept watch over the tope, and
presented offerings at it day and night. When king Asoka came forth
into the world, he wished to destroy the eight topes over the relics,
and to build instead of them eighty-four thousand topes. [1] After he
had thrown down the seven others, he wished next to destroy this tope.
But then the dragon showed itself, and took the king into its palace;
when he had seen all the things provided for offerings, it said to him,
"If you are able with your offerings to exceed these, you can destroy
the tope, and take it all away.
Pages:
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285