Rajagriha and Mount Gridhrakuta

Going southeast from here nine yojanas, one comes to a small lone hill of rock. On the top of the hill is a stone chamber facing south. This is the place where the Buddha sat within it, and Shakra, lord of the gods, brought the heavenly musician Pancashikha to play the lute and gladden the Buddha. Shakra asked the Buddha forty-two things, and the Buddha drew the answer to each of them on the stone with his finger. The marks of the drawing are there still. Here too is a sangharama.

Going southwest from here one yojana, one comes to the village of Nala, the village where Shariputra was born. Shariputra came back to this village and entered nirvana, and so a stupa was raised in this very place, and it is there to this day.

Going west from here one yojana, they came to the New City of Rajagriha. The new city is the one King Ajatashatru built, and there are two sangharamas within it. Three hundred paces out of the west gate of the city is the stupa that King Ajatashatru raised when he got one share of the Buddha's relics; it is high and great, grand and fair.

Four li south out of the city, going south into a valley, one comes within five hills. The five hills stand round about in the shape of a city wall, and this is the old city of King Bimbisara. The city is some five or six li from east to west and seven or eight li from north to south. There are the place where Shariputra and Maudgalyayana first met Ashvajit (頞鞞); the place where the Nirgrantha made a fire pit and invited the Buddha with poisoned rice; and the place where King Ajatashatru gave wine to a black elephant to harm the Buddha. In the bend at the northeast corner of the city is the place where Jivaka (耆舊) raised a monastery in the Amra garden and invited the Buddha and his twelve hundred and fifty disciples and made offering to them; it is standing to this day. The inside of that city is empty and waste, and no one lives there.

Entering the valley and climbing southeast along the hills fifteen li, one comes to Mount Gridhrakuta. Three li short of the top there is a stone cave facing south, and the Buddha sat in meditation in this cave. Thirty paces to the northwest there is another stone cave, and Ananda was sitting in meditation within it when Mara Papiyas, the demon of the heavens, turned himself into a vulture, perched before the cave and frightened Ananda. The Buddha, by his spiritual power, reached out his hand through the rock and stroked Ananda's shoulder, and his fear stopped at once. The bird's footprints and the hole for the hand are all there to this day, and that is why it is called the Mount of the Vulture's Cave. Before the cave are the seats of four buddhas. The arhats too have each a stone cave where they sat in meditation, and there are some hundreds of them. At the place where the Buddha walked east and west before the stone chamber, Devadatta threw a stone sideways from a steep cleft on the north of the hill and hurt the Buddha's toe; the stone is there still. The hall where the Buddha preached the law has fallen down, and only the foundations of its brick walls are left. The peak of that hill is fine and upright and grand, and it is the highest of the five hills.

Faxian bought incense and flowers and oil and lamps in the new city, and asked two monks who had long dwelt there to take him up Mount Gridhrakuta. He made offering of flowers and incense and lit the lamps to keep the light going, and grief rose in him. He wiped away his tears and said, "The Buddha dwelt here long ago and preached the Shurangama. Faxian was not born in the Buddha's time, and sees only the places where his traces are left." Then before the stone cave he recited the Shurangama sutra. He stayed there one night and went back toward the new city.

Going north out of the old city three hundred paces and more, on the west of the road, the monastery of the Karanda Bamboo Garden is standing to this day, and the monks sweep it and wash it. Two or three li north of the monastery is a shimashana. A shimashana, in the language of Han, is the burial field where the dead are cast away. Going west three hundred paces along the south hill, there is a stone chamber named the Pippala cave, where the Buddha used to sit in meditation after his meal. Going five or six li further west, in the shade on the north of the hill, there is a stone chamber named Chedi. This is the place where five hundred arhats gathered the sutras after the Buddha entered nirvana. When they brought the sutras forth, they spread three empty seats and decked them out grandly, Shariputra on the left and Maudgalyayana on the right. Of the five hundred, one arhat was wanting. Mahakashyapa was in the chief seat, and at that time Ananda was outside the door and could not come in. A stupa was raised at that place, and it is there to this day. Along the hills there are very many stone caves as well where the arhats sat in meditation.

Going north out of the old city and down east three li, there is Devadatta's stone cave. Fifty paces from it is a great squared black stone. Long ago a monk was walking upon it, thinking deeply that this body is without lasting, is suffering and is empty. He gained the contemplation of impurity, and he grew sick of this body, and he took a knife at once to kill himself. Then he thought again that the World Honored One had laid down the precept that one must not kill oneself. Then he thought again: even so, all I mean to kill now are the three poisonous thieves. And so he cut his own throat with the knife. When the flesh was first cut he gained the fruit of srotapanna; when he was halfway through he gained the fruit of anagamin; and when he had cut through he reached the fruit of an arhat, and entered nirvana.