The Country of Satanishifaluo薩他泥濕伐羅國

The country of Satanishifaluo is more than seven thousand li around. The great capital city of the country is more than twenty li around. The soil is rich and fat, and what is sown and reaped grows thick and full. The climate is warm and hot, and the customs are shallow and mean. The households are rich, and they vie with one another in luxury. The people are deeply versed in magic arts and greatly honor strange powers. Many follow gain and few work at farming, and rare goods from many regions gather in that country in plenty. There are three monasteries and more than seven hundred monks, and all of them study the Law and teaching of the Lesser Vehicle. There are more than a hundred temples of the gods, and the followers of other ways are very many.

The people of that land call the ground within two hundred li on every side of the great city the land of merit. This is what is heard from the old records. Long ago two kings divided the five countries of India and ruled them. Their borders pressed upon each other, and the fighting did not cease. The two lords planned together and wished to settle it by battle, to decide which was the stronger and to bring peace to the common folk. But the people all resented it and would not follow the command of their lords. The king thought, "With the multitude it is hard to plan a beginning. Yet a marvel can move men, and a device can raise up a work." At that time there was a Brahman known of old for his high skill. The king secretly gave him a bundle of silk and had him brought into the inner court, and there he made a book of the Law, and it was hidden in a cave in the rocks. The years and months grew long, until the trees were all a full arm's span around. Then the king sat in audience and said to his ministers, "I am without virtue, and I hold this great seat unworthily. The Lord of Heaven has looked down upon me and in a dream has given me a holy book. It lies now on such a mountain, hidden on such a ridge." So he gave orders to seek it out, and the book was found beneath the mountain forest. The officials all called it a happy sign and the people rejoiced, and it was made known far and near, so that all should hear and know. In brief it said, "Birth and death have no shore, and the turning round has no end. Living things sink and drown in it, and have no way to save themselves. I, by a rare device, will make them leave all their sufferings. Now the two hundred li around this royal city is the ground of merit and profit from the days of the ancient rulers. The years and months have grown very far off, and the inscriptions have faded away, so that living things do not awake and at last sink into the sea of suffering. If they drown and are not drawn out, what shall be said of it? You who have life, if you meet the foe and die in the fighting, you will be born again among men. If you kill even the guiltless in great number, you will receive the joy and merit of heaven. And obedient grandsons and dutiful sons, who hold up and serve their aged parents and journey across this ground, gain merit without end. The work is little and the merit is great. How should you let such profit go? Once the body of a man is lost, the three paths are dark and far. Therefore, you who have life, let each strive to work at his deeds." At this the people all went to the fighting and looked upon death as a going home. The king then gave the order and called together the bold and the fierce, and the two countries fought, and the heaped corpses were like thick grass. To this day the bones they left cover the fields. Since the time was long ago, the bones of those men are great. In the custom of the country it is handed down from one to another, and they call it the land of merit.

Four or five li northwest of the city there is a stupa more than two hundred feet high, raised by King Wuyou. The bricks are all of a yellow and red color and very bright and clean. Within it there is one sheng of the relics of the Tathagata. A bright light shines from it at times, and its holy signs are of many kinds.

Going more than a hundred li south of the city, one comes to the monastery of Juhuntu. Its storied pavilions join roof ridge to roof ridge, and its terraces rise story above story with spaces between. The monks are pure and grave, and their bearing is calm and refined.

From here one goes northeast more than four hundred li and comes to the country of Suluqinna.