Among them there is a Sramana of great virtue, named Dharma-gupta,
honored and looked up to by all the kingdom. He has lived for more than
forty years in an apartment of stone, constantly showing such gentleness
of heart, that he has brought snakes and rats to stop together in the
same room, without doing one another any harm.
[Footnote 1: This would be what is known as "Adam's peak," having,
according to Hardy, the three names of Selesumano, Samastakuta, and
Samanila. There is an indentation on the top of it, a superficial
hollow, 5 feet 3 3/4 inches long, and 2 1/2 feet wide. The Hindus regard
it as the footprint of Siva; the Mohammedans, as that of Adam; and the
Buddhists, as in the text--as having been, made by Buddha.]
[Footnote 2: We naturally suppose that the merchant-offerer was a
Chinese, as indeed the Chinese texts say, and the fan such as Fa-hien
had seen and used in his native land.]
[Footnote 3: A Kalpa, we have seen, denotes a great period of time; a
period during which a physical universe is formed and destroyed.
Asankhyeya denotes the highest sum for which a conventional term
exists--according to Chinese calculations equal to one followed by
seventeen ciphers; according to Thibetan and Singhalese, equal to one
followed by ninety-seven ciphers. Every Maha-kalpa consists of four
Asankhye-yakalpas.
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