When king Asoka destroyed the seven topes, intending to make eighty-four
thousand, the first which he made was the great tope, more than three li
to the south of this city. In front of this there is a footprint of
Buddha, where a vihara has been built. The door of it faces the north,
and on the south of it there is a stone pillar, fourteen or fifteen
cubits in circumference, and more than thirty cubits high, on which
there is an inscription, saying, "Asoka gave the Jambudvipa to the
general body of all the monks, and then redeemed it from them with
money. This he did three times." North from the tope three hundred or
four hundred paces, king Asoka built the city of Ne-le. In it there is a
stone pillar, which also is more than thirty feet high, with a lion on
the top of it. On the pillar there is an inscription recording the
things which led to the building of Ne-le, with the number of the year,
the day, and the month.
[Footnote 1: The modern Patna. The Sanscrit name means "The city of
flowers." It is the Indian Florence.]
CHAPTER XXVIII
~Rajagriha, New and Old--Legends Connected with It~
The travellers went on from this to the southeast for nine yojanas, and
came to a small solitary rocky hill, at the head or end of which was an
apartment of stone, facing the south--the place where Buddha sat, when
Sakra, Ruler of Devas, brought the deva-musician, Panchasikha, to give
pleasure to him by playing on his lute.
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