The hall where Buddha preached his Law has been destroyed, and only the foundations of the brick walls remain.  On this hill the peak is beautifully green, and rises grandly up; it is the highest of all the five hills.  In the New City Fa-hien bought incense-sticks, flowers, oil and lamps, and hired two bhikshus, long resident at the place, to carry them to the peak.  When he himself got to it, he made his offerings with the flowers and incense, and lighted the lamps when the darkness began to come on.  He felt melancholy, but restrained his tears and said, “Here Buddha delivered the Surangama Sutra.  I, Fa-hien, was born when I could not meet with Buddha; and now I only see the footprints which he has left, and the place where he lived, and nothing more.”  With this, in front of the rock cavern, he chanted the Surangama Sutra, remained there over the night, and then returned towards the New City.

CHAPTER XXX

Srataparna Cave, or Cave of the First Council

Out from the old city, after walking over three hundred paces, on the west of the road, the travellers found the Karanda Bamboo garden, where the old vihara is still in existence, with a company of monks, who keep the ground about it swept and watered.

North of the vihara two or three li there was the Smasanam, which name means in Chinese “the field of graves into which the dead are thrown.”

As they kept along the mountain on the south, and went west for three hundred paces, they found a dwelling among the rocks, named the Pippala cave, in which Buddha regularly sat in meditation after taking his mid-day meal.

Going on still to the west for five or six li, on the north of the hill, in the shade, they found the cavern called Srataparna, [1] the place where, after the nirvana of Buddha, five hundred Arhats collected the Sutras.  When they brought the Sutras forth, three lofty seats had been prepared and grandly ornamented.  Sariputtra occupied the one on the left, and Maudgalyayana that on the right.  Of the number of five hundred one was wanting.  Mahakasyapa was president on the middle seat.  Ananda was then outside the door, and could not get in.  At the place there was subsequently raised a tope, which is still existing.

Along the sides of the hill, there are also a very great many cells among the rocks, where the various Arhans sat and meditated.  As you leave the old city on the north, and go down east for three li, there is the rock dwelling of Devadatta, and at a distance of fifty paces from it there is a large, square, black rock.  Formerly there was a bhikshu, who, as he walked backwards and forwards upon it, thought with himself:—­“This body is impermanent, a thing of bitterness and vanity, and which cannot be looked on as pure.  I am weary of this body, and troubled by it as an evil.”  With this he grasped a knife, and was about to kill himself.  But he thought again:—­“The World-honored