The Country of Central India中天竺國
1The five Indias resemble one another
又即從此彼羅痆斯國。□□月至中天竺國王住城。名葛那。及自此中天王境界極寬。百姓繁閑。王有九百頭象餘大首領各有三二百頭。其王每自領兵馬鬪戰。常與餘□天戰也。天中王常勝。彼國法。自知象少兵少。即請和。每年輸稅。不交陣相殺也。衣著言音。人風法用。五天相似。唯南天村草百姓。語□差別。仕□之類。中天不殊。
Then from this country of Varanasi I went on, and after □□ months I reached the city where the king of Central India lives. It is named Gallageup (葛那及). The borders of this king of Central India are very wide, and the people are many and thriving.
The king has nine hundred head of elephants, and the other great chiefs have two or three hundred head each. The king always leads out his troops himself and gives battle. He is always at war with the other four Indias (□天), and the king of Central India always wins. It is the law of that country that when a king knows of himself that his elephants are few and his soldiers are few, he at once sues for peace and sends tribute every year, and they do not join battle and kill one another.
Dress and speech, the manners of the people and the usages of law are alike in the five Indias. Only the speech of the country people of South India is □ different. Those in office are no different from Central India.
2A land without prisons
五天國法。無有枷棒牢獄。有罪之者。據輕重罰錢。亦無刑戮上至國王。下及黎庶。不見遊獵放鷹走犬等事。道路雖有足賊取物即放。亦不殤殺。如若情物。即有損也。土地甚暖。百卉恒青。無有霜雪。食唯粳糧餅麨蘇乳酪等。無醬有鹽。總用土鍋煮飯而食。無鐵釜等也。百姓無別庸稅。但抽田子五石與王。王自遣人運將田主□不為送也。彼土百姓。貧多富少。王官屋裏。及富有者。著㲲一雙。自□一隻。貧者半片。女人亦然。
In the law of the five Indias there is no cangue, no rod and no prison. One who has committed a crime is fined according as the offence is heavy or light, and there is no putting to death as a punishment. From the king above down to the common people below, one does not see such things as going out to hunt, loosing hawks or running dogs.
There are bandits enough on the roads, but they take a man's goods and let him go at once, and they do not wound or kill him. Only if he grudges his goods and holds on to them does he come to harm.
The land is very warm. Every plant is green the year round, and there is no frost or snow. Their food is only polished rice, cakes, barley flour, boiled-down milk (蘇), milk and curds. They have no sauce, but they have salt. They all cook their rice in earthen pots and eat it, and they have no iron cauldrons.
The people have no separate labour service and no taxes. They give only five bushels of the grain of their fields to the king, and the king sends his own men to carry it away. The owner of the field does not deliver it.
Among the people of that land the poor are many and the rich are few. The king, those in office and those who have wealth wear a pair of wool cloths (㲲). Those below them wear □ a single piece, and the poor wear half a piece. It is the same for women.
3One word from the king ends a lawsuit
其王每坐衙處。首領百姓。總來遶王四面而坐。各諍道理。訴訟紛紜。非常亂鬧。王聽不嗔。緩緩報云。汝是汝不是。彼百姓等。取王一口語為定。更不再言。其王首領等。甚敬信三寶。若對師僧前。王及首領等。在地而坐不肯坐床。王及首領。行坐來去處。自將床子隨身。到處即坐。他床不坐。寺及王宅。竝皆三重作樓從下第一重作庫。上二重人住。諸大首領等亦然。屋皆平頭。塼木所造。自外□竝皆草屋似於漠屋雨下作也。又是一重。
Whenever the king sits in his hall of audience, the chiefs and the common people all come and sit around him on the four sides, and each argues his own right. The pleadings are tangled and the noise is very great. Yet the king listens and does not grow angry. Slowly he answers, "You are in the right, and you are in the wrong." The people take that one word of the king as settled and say no more.
The king and his chiefs revere and believe the Three Jewels (三寶) deeply. Before a monk who is their teacher, king and chiefs alike sit on the ground and will not sit on a couch. Wherever the king and the chiefs go and sit, they carry their own couch with them, and where they come they sit on that and on no other man's couch.
The monasteries and the king's house are all built three storeys high. The first storey below is used as a storehouse, and people live in the two above. It is the same with the great chiefs. The roofs are all flat, and they are built of brick and wood. Apart from these, □ all the houses are thatched, built to shed the rain like the houses of Han (漢), and these too are of one storey.
4A land that raises only white cattle
土地所出。唯有㲲布象馬萬物。當土不出金銀。竝從外國來也。亦不養駝騾驢猪等畜。其牛總白。萬頭之內。希有一頭赤黑之者。羊馬全少。唯王有三二百口六七十匹。自外首領百姓。總不養畜。唯愛養牛。取乳酪蘇也。土地人善。不多愛殺□市店間。不見有屠行賣肉之處。
What the land yields is only wool cloth, elephants, horses and the like. Gold and silver do not come out of this land, and all of it comes from other countries. Neither do they raise such beasts as camels, mules, asses or pigs.
The cattle are all white, and among ten thousand head there is scarcely one that is red or black. Sheep and horses are very few. Only the king has two or three hundred sheep and sixty or seventy horses. The chiefs and the common people beyond him raise no beasts at all, and love to raise cattle only, for the milk, the curds and the boiled-down milk they take from them.
The people of that land are good and do not much love to kill, and □ even in the shops of the market one sees no place where beasts are slaughtered and meat is sold.
5The four great stupas
此中天大小乘俱行。即此中天界內有四大塔。恒河在北岸有三大塔。一舍衛國給孤薗中。見有寺有僧。二。毘耶離城菴羅薗中。有塔見在。其寺荒廢無僧。三。迦毘耶羅國。即佛本生城。無憂樹見在。彼城已廢。有塔無僧。亦無百姓。此城最居比。林木荒多。道路足賊。往彼禮拜者。甚難方迷。四。三道寶階塔。在中天王住城西七日程。在兩恒河間。佛當從刀利天變成三道寶階。下閻浮提地處。左金右銀。中吠瑠璃佛於中道梵王左路。帝釋右階侍佛下來。即於此處置塔。見有寺僧有。
In this Central India both the Great Vehicle and the Lesser Vehicle are practised. Within the borders of this Central India there are four great stupas, and three of them stand on the north bank of the Ganges.
The first is in the Garden of Anathapindada (給孤薗) in the country of Shravasti (舍衛國). There is a monastery there now, and there are monks.
The second is in the Mango Grove (菴羅薗) at the city of Vaishali (毘耶離城). The stupa still stands, but the monastery lies waste and has no monks.
The third is the country of Kapilavastu (迦毘耶羅國), the city where the Buddha was born. The ashoka tree (無憂樹) still stands, but that city is already a ruin. The stupa is there, but there are no monks and no people. This city lies furthest north. The woods are wild and there are bandits enough on the road, so that one who goes there to worship very easily loses the way.
The fourth is the Stupa of the Three Jewelled Stairways (三道寶階塔). It stands seven days' journey west of the city where the king of Central India lives, between the two Ganges. It is the place where the Buddha made three jewelled stairways from the Trayastrimsha Heaven (刀利天) and came down to the land of Jambudvipa (閻浮提). The left stairway was of gold, the right of silver, and the middle of beryl (吠瑠璃). The Buddha came by the middle way, Brahma (梵王) by the left path and Indra (帝釋) by the right stairway, attending the Buddha as he came down. A stupa was raised at this very place, and there is a monastery there and there are monks.