Shravasti and the Jetavana Monastery

From here they went north eight yojanas and came to the city of Shravasti in the country of Kosala. Within the city the people are few and scattered, two hundred households and more in all. This is the city that King Prasenajit ruled. The site of Mahaprajapati's old monastery, the wall of the elder Sudatta's well, and the place where Angulimala gained the Way, entered nirvana and had his body burned — later men raised stupas at them, and all of them stand within this city. The Brahmins of the other ways grew jealous and wished to destroy them, but heaven at once sent thunder and lightning and thunderbolts, and in the end they could not.

Twelve hundred paces out of the south gate of the city, on the west of the road, stands the monastery that the elder Sudatta raised. The monastery opens its gate to the east. In the side chambers on either hand of the gate stand two stone pillars: on the left pillar is cut the shape of a wheel, on the right pillar the shape of an ox. The water of the pool is clear and clean, the groves are still thick, and flowers of every color grow so richly that they are worth the seeing. This is what is called the Jetavana monastery.

When the Buddha had gone up to the Trayastrimsha Heaven to preach the law for his mother for ninety days, King Prasenajit longed to see him. He carved ox-head sandalwood into an image of the Buddha and set it in the place where the Buddha used to sit. When the Buddha came back to the monastery afterwards, the image at once moved aside and came out to meet him. The Buddha said, "Go back and sit. After I have entered nirvana, be the pattern for the fourfold assembly." The image went back and sat. This image is the very first of all images, the one that later men have taken for their model. The Buddha then moved to the small monastery on the south side, twenty paces from the place of the image. The Jetavana monastery had seven storeys at first. The kings and the people of many countries vied with one another in making offerings there, hanging silk banners and canopies, scattering flowers, burning incense and lighting lamps to keep the light going, day after day without a break. Then a rat carried off a lamp wick, and the fire caught the flowered banners and canopies and spread to the monastery, and all seven storeys were burned away. The kings and the people of many countries all grieved bitterly, thinking that the sandalwood image had burned with them. But four or five days after, they opened the door of the small monastery on the east, and there of a sudden was the first image. All rejoiced greatly. Together they rebuilt the monastery and made it two storeys, and moved the image back to its old place.

When Faxian and Daozheng first reached the Jetavana monastery, they thought how the World Honored One had dwelt here twenty-five years, and they grieved that they had been born in a border land. With companions of the same mind they had travelled through many countries, and some had gone back and some had passed away; and now today they saw only the empty place where the Buddha had been, and their hearts were sore with sorrow. The monks of that place came out and asked Faxian and his company, "What country have you come from?" They answered, "We have come from the land of Han." Those monks marvelled and said, "How strange! That men of a border country should be able to seek the law and come this far!" Then they said among themselves, "Since our teachers and our preceptors came down one after another, none of us has seen a man of the Way from Han come here."

Four li to the northwest of the monastery there is a grove named Gained Sight (得眼), that is, the grove where sight was regained. There were once five hundred blind men who lived here, leaning upon the monastery. The Buddha preached the law for them, and they all got their sight again. In their joy the blind men stuck their staffs in the ground and bowed head and face to the earth in reverence. The staffs took root and grew tall, and the men of the world held them dear, and none dared cut them, until at last they became a grove. That is why it is named Gained Sight. After the midday meal the monks of the Jetavana often go into that grove and sit in meditation.

Six or seven li to the northeast of the Jetavana monastery, Mother Vishakha built a monastery and invited the Buddha and his monks to it. The place is there still.

The great court of the Jetavana monastery has two gates, one opening east and one opening north. This garden is the ground that the elder Sudatta bought by spreading gold coins upon it. The monastery stands in the middle of it, and the Buddha stayed in this place longest of all. At the places where he preached the law, brought men across, walked and sat, stupas have all been raised, and every one of them has its name. Here too is the place where Sundari gave up her body to slander the Buddha.

Seventy paces north out of the east gate of the Jetavana, on the west of the road, is the place where the Buddha long ago debated with the ninety-six schools of the other ways. The king, the great ministers, the householders and the people gathered like clouds to listen. At that time a woman of the other ways named Cinca Manavika grew jealous. She held clothes bundled in front of her belly so that she seemed to be with child, and in the midst of the assembly she slandered the Buddha, saying he had done what was against the law. At this Shakra, lord of the gods, turned himself into a white rat and gnawed her girdle through, and the clothes she carried fell to the ground. The ground split open at once, and she went down alive into hell. There is also the place where Devadatta, who meant to harm the Buddha with poison on his nails, went down alive into hell. Later men have set up marks at them all. At the place of the debate a monastery was raised as well, some six zhang high, with a seated image of the Buddha inside.

On the east of that road is a temple of the gods (天寺) of the other ways, named Shadow Cover (影覆), that is, it covers with its shadow. It stands across the road facing the monastery at the place of the debate, and it too is some six zhang high. It is named Shadow Cover for this reason: when the sun is in the west, the shadow of the World Honored One's monastery falls over the temple of the other ways; but when the sun is in the east, the shadow of that temple falls only to the north, and it can never reach the Buddha's monastery. The followers of the other ways always sent men to guard their temple, to sweep it and sprinkle it, to burn incense and light lamps in offering. But by the next dawn the lamps had always been moved into the Buddha's monastery. The Brahmin said in anger, "The shramanas take my lamps and make offering with them to their own Buddha." Yet it did not stop. So the Brahmin kept watch himself by night, and he saw the god they serve take up a lamp, go three times round the Buddha's monastery, make his offering to the Buddha, and then of a sudden be seen no more. The Brahmin then knew how great the spirit of the Buddha was, and at once he left his house and entered the Way. It is handed down that this happened lately.

Round the Jetavana monastery there are ninety-eight sangharamas, and monks dwell in all of them; only one place stands empty.

In this Middle Country there are ninety-six schools of the other ways, and all of them say they know this world and the world to come, and each has its own following. They too beg their food; only they do not carry an alms bowl. They too seek merit. Beside the open roads they set up houses of merit (福德舍), and they give room and bed and food there to men on the road, to those who have left the household life, and to guests coming and going. Only what they hope for is different. Devadatta's following also remains. They make offerings to the three buddhas of the past, but to the Buddha Shakyamuni alone they make none.

Four li to the southeast of Shravasti is the place where the World Honored One stood in the road when King Virudhaka was going to strike the country of the Shakyas. A stupa was raised where he stood.

Fifty li west of the city one comes to a town named Duwei, the place where Kashyapa Buddha was born. Stupas have been raised at the place where father and son met and at the place where he entered nirvana. Over the whole-body relics of Kashyapa Tathagata a great stupa was raised as well.