Going from this to the southeast for twelve yojanas, they came to the
place where the Lichchhavis wished to follow Buddha to the place of his
pari-nirvana, and where, when he would not listen to them and they kept
cleaving to him, unwilling to go away, he made to appear a large and
deep ditch which they could not cross over, and gave them his alms-bowl,
as a pledge of his regard, thus sending them back to their families.
There a stone pillar was erected with an account of this event engraved
upon it.
[Footnote 1: A Brahman of Benares, said to have been one hundred and
twenty years old, who came to learn from Buddha the very night he died.
Ananda would have repulsed him; but Buddha ordered him to be introduced;
and then putting aside the ingenious but unimportant question which he
propounded, preached to him the Law. The Brahman was converted and
attained at once to Arhatship.]
CHAPTER XXV
~The Kingdom of Vaisali~
East from this city ten yojanas, the travellers came to the kingdom of
Vaisali. North of the city so named is a large forest, having in it the
double-galleried vihara where Buddha dwelt, and the tope over half the
body of Ananda. Inside the city the woman Ambapali [1] built a vihara in
honor of Buddha, which is now standing as it was at first. Three li
south of the city, on the west of the road, is the garden which the same
Ambapali presented to Buddha, in which he might reside.
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