when he came to them; where, sixty paces north from this, he sat with his face to the east, and first turned the wheel of the Law, converting Kaundinya and the four others; where, twenty paces further to the north, he delivered his prophecy concerning Maitreya; and where, at a distance of fifty paces to the south, the dragon Elapattra asked him, “When shall I get free from this naga body?”—­at all these places topes were reared, and are still existing.  In the park there are two monasteries, in both of which there are monks residing.

When you go northwest from the vihara of the Deer-wild park for thirteen yojanas, there is a kingdom named Kausambi.  Its vihara is named Ghochiravana—­a place where Buddha formerly resided.  Now, as of old, there is a company of monks there, most of whom are students of the hinayana.

East from this, when you have travelled eight yojanas, is the place where Buddha converted the evil demon.  There, and where he walked in meditation and sat at the place which was his regular abode, there have been topes erected.  There is also a monastery, which may contain more than a hundred monks.

[Footnote 1:  “The rishi,” says Eitel, “is a man whose bodily frame has undergone a certain transformation by dint of meditation and asceticism, so that he is, for an indefinite period, exempt from decrepitude, age, and death.  As this period is believed to extend far beyond the usual duration of human life, such persons are called, and popularly believed to be, immortals.”  Rishis are divided into various classes; and rishi-ism is spoken of as a seventh path of transrotation, and rishis are referred to as the seventh class of sentient beings.]

[Footnote 2:  This is the only instance in Fa-hien’s text where the Bodhisattva or Buddha is called by the surname “Gotama.”  For the most part our traveller uses Buddha as a proper name, though it properly means “The Enlightened.”  He uses also the combinations “Sakya Buddha,” which means “The Buddha of the Sakya tribe,” and “Sakyamuni,” which means “The Sakya sage.”  This last is the most common designation of the Buddha in China.  Among other Buddhistic peoples “Gotama” and “Gotama Buddha” are the more frequent designations.]

CHAPTER XXXV

Dakshina, and the Pigeon Monastery

South from this two hundred yojanas, there is a country named Dakshina, where there is a monastery dedicated to the by-gone Kasyapa Buddha, and which has been hewn out from a large hill of rock.  It consists in all of five stories;—­the lowest, having the form of an elephant, with five hundred apartments in the rock; the second, having the form of a lion, with four hundred apartments; the third, having the form of a horse, with three hundred apartments; the fourth, having the form of an ox, with two hundred apartments; and the fifth, having the form of a pigeon, with one hundred apartments.  At the very top there