Behold! ten days after this,
Buddha's tooth will be brought forth, and taken to the Abhayagiri
-vihara. Let all and each, whether monks or laics, who wish to amass
merit for themselves, make the roads smooth and in good condition,
grandly adorn the lanes and by-ways, and provide abundant store of
flowers and incense to be used as offerings to it."
When this proclamation is over, the king exhibits, so as to line both
sides of the road, the five hundred different bodily forms in which the
Bodhisattva has in the course of his history appeared:--here as Sudana,
there as Sama; now as the king of elephants, and then as a stag or a
horse. All these figures are brightly colored and grandly executed,
looking as if they were alive. After this the tooth of Buddha is brought
forth, and is carried along in the middle of the road. Everywhere on the
way offerings are presented to it, and thus it arrives at the hall of
Buddha in the Abhayagiri-vihara. There monks and laics are collected in
crowds. They burn incense, light lamps, and perform all the prescribed
services, day and night without ceasing, till ninety days have been
completed, when the tooth is returned to the vihara within the city. On
fast-days the door of that vihara is opened, and the forms of ceremonial
reverence are observed according to the rules.
Forty li to the east of the Abhayagiri-vihara there is a hill, with a
vihara on it, called the Chaitya, where there may be two thousand monks.
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