Fa-hien,
however, was after all unable to go there; but having received the
(above) accounts from men of the country, he has narrated them.
NOTES
[1] Said to be the ancient name of the Deccan. As to the various
marvels in the chapter, it must be borne in mind that our author, as
he tells us at the end, only gives them from hearsay. See "Buddhist
Records of the Western World," vol. ii, pp. 214, 215, where the
description, however, is very different.
[2] Compare the account of Buddha's great stride of fifteen yojanas in
Ceylon, as related in chapter xxxviii.
[3] See the same phrase in the Books of the Later Han dynasty, the
twenty-fourth Book of Biographies, p. 9b.
CHAPTER XXXVI
IN PATNA. FA-HIEN'S LABOURS IN TRANSCRIPTION OF MANUSCRIPTS, AND
INDIAN STUDIES FOR THREE YEARS.
From Varanasi (the travellers) went back east to Pataliputtra.
Fa-hien's original object had been to search for (copies of) the
Vinaya. In the various kingdoms of North India, however, he had found
one master transmitting orally (the rules) to another, but no written
copies which he could transcribe. He had therefore travelled far and
come on to Central India. Here, in the mahayana monastery,[1] he found
a copy of the Vinaya, containing the Mahasanghika[2] rules, - those
which were observed in the first Great Council, while Buddha was still
in the world.
