There are difficulties in connection with the roads; but those who know
how to manage such difficulties and wish to proceed should bring with
them money and various articles, and give them to the king. He will then
send men to escort them. These will, at different stages, pass them over
to others, who will show them the shortest routes. Fa-hien, however, was
after all unable to go there; but having received the above accounts
from men of the country, he has narrated them.
CHAPTER XXXVI
~Fa-Hien's Indian Studies~
From Varanasi the travellers went back east to Pataliputtra. Fa-hien's
original object had been to search for copies of the Vinaya. In the
various kingdoms of North India, however, he had found one master
transmitting orally the rules to another, but no written copies which he
could transcribe. He had therefore travelled far and come on to Central
India. Here, in the mahayana monastery, he found a copy of the Vinaya,
containing the Mahasanghika [1] rules--those which were observed in the
first Great Council, while Buddha was still in the world. The original
copy was handed down in the Jetavana vihara. As to the other eighteen
schools, each one has the views and decisions of its own masters. Those
agree with this in the general meaning, but they have small and trivial
differences, as when one opens and another shuts.
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