These places
are still there as of old, but inside the city all is emptiness and
desolation; no man dwells in it.
[Footnote 1: One of the five first followers of Sakyamuni. He is also
called Asvajit; in Pali Assaji; but Asvajit seems to be a military
title, "Master or trainer of horses." The two more famous disciples met
him, not to lead him, but to be directed by him, to Buddha.]
CHAPTER XXIX
~Fa-Hien Passes a Night on Gridhra-kuta Hill~
Entering the valley, and keeping along the mountains on the southeast,
after ascending fifteen li, the travellers came to mount Gridhra-kuta.
Three li before you reach the top, there is a cavern in the rocks,
facing the south, in which Buddha sat in meditation. Thirty paces to the
northwest there is another, where Ananda was sitting in meditation, when
the deva Mara Pisuna, having assumed the form of a large vulture, took
his place in front of the cavern, and frightened the disciple. Then
Buddha, by his mysterious, supernatural power, made a cleft in the rock,
introduced his hand, and stroked Ananda's shoulder, so that his fear
immediately passed away. The footprints of the bird and the cleft for
Buddha's hand are still there, and hence comes the name of "The Hill of
the Vulture Cavern."
In front of the cavern there are the places where the four Buddhas sat.
There are caverns also of the Arhats, one where each sat and meditated,
amounting to several hundred in all.
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