ජන්බුද්වීපයේ රජකළ අශෝක නම් අධිරාජයා -Rajagala-Rajagahanuwara (Ampara )
Having crossed the river,and descended south for a yojana,(Fa-Hsien)came to the town of Partaliputhra,in the kingdom of Magadha,the city where king Ashoka ruled.The royal palace and halls in the midst of the city,which exist now as of old,were all made by spirits which he employed,and which piled up the stones, reared the walls and gates,and executed the elegant carving and inlaid sculpture-work,-in a way which no human hands of this world could accomplish.
King Ashoka had a younger brother who had attained to be Arhath,and resided on Gijja-kuta hill,finding his delight in solitude and quite.The king,who sincerely reverenced him,wished and begged him (to come and live)in his family,where he could supply all his wants.The other,however,through his delight in the stillness of the mountain,was unwilling to accept the invitation,on which the king said to him,'Only accept my invitation, and I will make a hill for you inside the city'.'Accordingly,he provided the materials of a feast,called to him the spirits,and announced to them,'To-morrow you will all receive my invitation;but as there are no mats for you to sit on,let each one bring (his own seat)'.Next day the spirits came,each one bringing with him a great rock,(like) a wall,four or five paces square,(for a seat).When their sitting was over,the king made them form a hill, with the large stones piled on one another and also at the foot of the hill,with five large square stones,to make an apartment,which might be more than thirty cubits long,twenty cubits wide,and more than ten cubits high.
In this city there had resided a great Brahman,named Radhasami a professor of the mahayana,of clear discernment and much wisdom,who understand everything,living by himself in spotless purity.The king of the country honored and reverenced him,and served him as his teacher.If he went to inquire for and greet him,the king did not presume to sit down alongside of him;and if,in his love and reverence,he took hold of his hand, as soon as he let it go,the Brahman made haste to pour water on it and wash it.He might be more than fifty years old,and all the kingdom looked up to him.By means of this one man ,the Law of Buddha was widely made known,and the followers of other doctrines did not find it in their power to persecute the body of monks in any way.
By the side of the tope of Asoka,there has been made a mahayana monastery, very grand and beautiful;There is also a hinayana one,the two together containing six or seven hundred monks.The scholastic arrangements in them are worthy of observation.
Shamans of the highest virtue from all quarters,and students,inquirers wishing to find out truth and the grounds of it,all resort to these monasteries.There also resides in this monastery a Brahman teacher,whose name also is Manjusri, whom the shamans of greatest virtue in the kingdom,and the mahayana Bhikshus honor and look up to.
The cities and towns of this country are the greatest of all the in the Middle kingdom.The inhabitants are rich and prosperous,and vie with one another in the practice of benevolence righteousness.Every year on the eighth day of the second month they celebrate a procession of images.They make a four-wheeled car,and on it erect a structure of four storeys by means of bamboos tied together .This is supported by king-post,with poles and lances slanting from it.and is rather more than twenty cubits high,having the shape of a tope. White and silk-like cloth of hair is wrapped all round it,which is then painted in various colors.They make figures of devas,with gold,siver,and lapis lazuli grandly blended and having silken streamers and canopies hung out over them.On the four sides are niches,with a Buddha seated in each,and a Bodhisattva standing in attendance on him. There may be twenty cars,all grand and imposing,On the day mentioned ,the monks and laity within the borders all come together;they pay their devotion with flowers and incense.The Brahmans come and invite the Buddhas to enter the city.These do so in order,and remain two nights in it.All through the night they keep lamps burning,have skillful music,and present offerings. This is the practice in all the other kingdoms as well.The head of the Vaisya families in them establish in the cities houses for dispensing charity and medicines. All the poor and destitute in the country,orphans, widowers, and childless men,maimed people and cripples,and all who are diseased, go to those houses,and are provided with every kind of help,and doctors examine their diseases.They get the food and medicines which their cases require,and are made to feel at ease; and when they are better, they go away of themselves.
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 le to the south of the 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 janbudvipa to the general body of all the monks, and then redeem it from them with money.This he did three times.' North from the tope 300 or 400 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.
LEGEND OF KING ASOKA, IN A FORMER BIRTH AND HIS NARAKA
When king Asoka,in a former birth, was a little boy and played on the road,he met Kasyapa Buddha walking.(The stranger) begged food, and the boy pleasantly took a handful of earth and gave it to him.The Buddha took the earth,and returned it to the ground on which he was walking;but because of this (the boy) received the recompense of becoming a king of the iron wheel, to rule over Jambudvipa.(Once)when he was making a judicial tour of inspection through Jambudvipa,he saw,between the iron circuit of the two hills,a naraka(hell) for the punishment of wicked man. Having thereupon asked his ministers what sort of a thing it was, they replied,'It belongs to Yama,(king of demons),for punishing wicked people.' The king thought withing himself:-'(Even) the king of demons is able to make a naraka in which to deal with wicked men;why should not I,who am the lord of men,make a naraka in which to deal with wicked men?'He forthwith asked his ministers who could make for him a naraka and preside over the punishment of wicked people in it.They replied that it was only a man of extreme wickedness who cold make it;and the king thereupon sent officers to seek everywhere for (such)a bad man;and they saw by the side of a pond a man tall and strong,with a black countenance, yellow hair,green eyes,hooking up the fish with his feet,while he called to him birds and beasts,and ,when they came,then shot and killed them,so that not one escaped.Having got this man,they took him to the king,who secretly charged him,;You must make a square enclosure with high walls.Plant in it all kinds of flowers and fruits;make it grand and imposing in every way,so that men shall look to it with thirsting desire;make its gates strong and sure;and when any one enters,instantly seize him and punish him as a sinner,not allowing him to get out.Even if I should enter,punish me as a sinner in the same way,and do not let me go.I now appoint you master of that naraka'.
Soon after this a bhikshu,pursuing his regular course of begging his food,entered the gate(of the place).When the lictors of the naraka saw him,they were about to subject him to their tortures;but he,frightened,begged them to allow him a moment in which to eat his midday meal.Immediately after,there came in another man,whom they thrust into a mortar and pounded till a red froth overflowed.As the bhikshu looked on,there came to him the thought of the impermanence, the painful suffering and instantly of this body,and how it is but as a bubble and as foam;and instantly he attained to Arahathship. Immediately after,the lictors seized him,and threw him into a caldron of boiling water.There was a look joyful satisfaction,however , in the bhikshu;s countenance.The fire was extinguished,and the water became cold.In the middle (of the caldron)there rose up a lotus flower,with the bhikshu seated on it. The lictors at once went reported to the king that there was a marvelous occurrence in the naraka,and wished him to go and see it;but the king said ,'I formerly made such an agreement that now I dare not go (to the place).The clitors said,'This is not a small matter.Your majesty ought to go quickly.Let your former agreement be altered.' The king thereupon followed them,and entered(the naraka),when the bhikshu preached the Law to him,and he believed, and was made free. Forthwith he demolished the naraka, and repented of all the evil which he had formerly done.From this time he believed in and honored the Three Precious Ones, and constantly went to a patra tree ,repenting under it,with self -reproach,of his errors,and accepting the eight rules of abstinence .
The queen asked where the king was constantly going to, and the ministers replied that he was constantly to be under (such and such)a patra tree.She watched for a time when the king was not there,and then sent men to cut the tree down.When the king came saw what had had been done,he swooned away with sorrow,and fell to the ground.His ministers sprinkled water on his face,and after a considerable time he revived.He then built all round(the stump) with bricks,and poured a hundred pitchers of cows' milk on the roots;and as he lay with his four limbs spread out on the ground,he took this oath,'If the tree do not live ,I will never rise from this.' When he had uttered this oath,the tree immediately began to grow from the roots,and it has continued to till now,when it is 100 cubits in height.
RAJAGAHA ,NEW AND OLD .
The travelers went on from this to the south-east for nine yojanas, and came to a small solitary rocky hill,(indrasila guhawa)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,Pancha-(sikha), to give pleasure to him by playing on his lute. Sakra then asked Buddha about forty-two subjects,tracing (the questions)out with his finger one by one the rock.(sakkhapanha suthraya )The prints of his tracing are still there;and here also there is a monastery.
A yojana south-west from this place brought them to the village of Nalanda,where Sariputta was born,and to which also he returned,and attained here his pari-nirwana. Over the spot (where his body was burned)there was built a tope,which is still in existence.
Another yojana to the west brought them to New Rajagaha,(Ampara) the new city which was built by king Ajasatta. There were two(Weluwanaramaya) monasteries in it.Three hundred paces outside the west gate,king Ajasatta,having obtained one portion of the relics of Buddha, built (over them) a tope,high,large,grand,and beautiful.Leaving the city by the south gate, and proceeding south four le, one enter a valley, and comes to a circular space formed by five hills(රජගල---- නිල්ගල, බුද්ධංගල, සමන්ගල, පියන්ගල හා නුවරගල ),which stand all round it,and have the appearance of the suburban wall of a city. Here was the old city of king Bimbisara;from east to west about five or six le,and from north to south seven or eight.It was here that Sariputta and Moggallana first saw Assaji ; that the Nirgratha made a pit of fire and poisoned the rice,and then invited Buddha(to eat with them);that king Ajasaththa made a black elephant intoxicated with liquor,wishing him to injure Buddha; and that at the north-east corner of the city in a(large)curving (space) Jivaka built a vihara in the garden of Ambapali, and invited Buddha with his 1250 disciples to it,that he might there make his offerings to support them.(These places)are still there as of old,but inside the city all is emptiness and desolation ;no man dwells in it.
විශේෂ ස්තුතිය -ජනිත් හර්ෂ මහතාට .
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