Report on the Excavations at Pātaliputra (Patna): The Palibothra of the Greeks |
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AJATASATRU ancient Appendix ASOKA Raja Asoka-pillar Bankipur BEAL beams Bharhut sculptures Bhikna border Brahmanical brick ruins brick-work Buddha Buddhist Buddhist railing buildings built Bulandhi Calcutta called capital centre century CHANDRA-GUPTA Chhoti Pahari Chinese pilgrim colossal coping stone Dargah dynasty east erected excavation five flowers foundation fragments Ganges Ganges river genii Greek hell hermitage HIAN hill Hindu HIUEN TSIANG inches India indicated inscription Jain Jambudvipa King ASOKA Kumrahar L. A. WADDELL legend lingam Magadha mahāyāna MEGASTHENES Mendicant Prince MESSRS miles monasteries monks monuments mound Muhammadan NANDA naraka north-west old city old palace Panch Patali Pataliputra Patna pillar plate portions posts priests probably Rāja Rajgir reference relic-stupa relics remains river ROCKHILL'S royal precinct sacred SANDRAKOTTOS sculptures seems SELEUKOS side spot Sthavira STRABO stupa stūpas surface temple Thero Tibetan Tisso traces translated trenches trough village Vinaya walls wooden Yaksha yards
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Page 70 - The cities and towns of this country are the greatest of all in the Middle Kingdom. The inhabitants are rich and prosperous, and vie with one another in the practice of benevolence and righteousness. Every year on the eighth day of the second month they celebrate a procession of images. They make a four-wheeled car, and on it erect a structure of five storeys by means of bamboos tied together. This is supported by a king-post, with poles and lances slanting from it, and is rather more than twenty...
Page 76 - ... boiling water. There was a look of joyful satisfaction, however, in the bhikshu's countenance. The fire was extinguished, and the water became cold. In the middle (of the caldron) there rose up a lotus flower, with the bhikshu seated on it. The lictors at once went and reported to the king that there was a marvellous occurrence in the naraka, and wished him to go and see it; but the king said, • I formerly made such an agreement that now I dare not go (to the place).
Page 70 - Shamans of the highest virtue from all quarters, and students, inquirers wishing to find out truth and the grounds of it, all resort to these monasteries.
Page 69 - Gridhra-kuta hill, finding his delight in solitude and quiet. The king, who sincerely reverenced him, wished and begged him to come and live in his family, where he could supply all his wants. The other, however, through his delight in the stillness of the mountain, was unwilling to accept the invitation, on which the king said to him, "Only accept my invitation, and I will make a hill for you inside the city.
Page 21 - How far this wall extended beyond the limits of the excavation — probably more than a hundred yards — it is impossible to say. Not far from the wall, and almost parallel to it, was found a line of palisades ; the strong timber of which it was composed inclined slightly towards the wall. In one place there appeared to have been some sort of outlet, for two wooden pillars rising to a height of some 8 or 9 feet above what had evidently been the ancient level of the place, and between which no trace...
Page 69 - The royal palace and halls in the midst of the city, which exist now as of old, were all made by the spirits which he employed, and which piled up the stones, reared the walls and gates, and executed the elegant carving and inlaid sculpture work in a way which no human hands of this world could accomplish.
Page 20 - At the meeting of this river and another is situated Palibothra, a city eighty stadia in length and fifteen in breadth. It is of the shape of a parallelogram, and is girded with a wooden wall, pierced with loopholes for the discharge of arrows.
Page 71 - Fahien'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...
Page 70 - All the poor and destitute in the country, orphans, widowers, and childless men, maimed people and cripples, and all who are diseased, go to those houses, and are provided with every kind of help, and doctors examine their diseases. They get the food and medicines which their cases require, and are made to feel at ease ; and when they are better, they go away of themselves.
Page 71 - The door of it faces the north, and on the south of it there is a stone pillar, fourteen or fifteen cubits in circumference, and more than thirty cubits high, on which there is an inscription, saying, ' As'oka gave the jambudvipa to the general body of all the monks, and then redeemed it from them with money. This he did three times2.