y had sent to Central India and got a slip
of the patra tree,(6) which he planted by the side of the hall of
Buddha, where a tree grew up to the height of about 200 cubits. As it
bent on one side towards the south-east, the king, fearing it would
fall, propped it with a post eight or nine spans round. The tree began
to grow at the very heart of the prop, where it met (the trunk); (a
shoot) pierced through the post, and went down to the ground, where
it entered and formed roots, that rose (to the surface) and were about
four spans round. Although the post was split in the middle, the outer
portions kept hold (of the shoot), and people did not remove them.
Beneath the tree there has been built a vihara, in which there is an
image (of Buddha) seated, which the monks and commonalty reverence and
look up to without ever becoming wearied. In the city there has been
reared also the vihara of Buddha's tooth, on which, as well as on the
other, the seven precious substances have been employed.

The king practises the Brahmanical purifications, and the sincerity
of the faith and reverence of the population inside the city are also
great. Since the establishment of government in the kingdom there
has been no famine or scarcity, no revolution or disorder. In the
treasuries of the monkish communities there are many precious stones,
and the priceless manis. One of the kings (once) entered one of those
treasuries, and when he looked all round and saw the priceless pearls,
his covetous greed was excited, and he wished to take them to himself
by force. In three days, however, he came to himself, and immediately
went and bowed his head to the ground in the midst of the monks,
to show his repentance of the evil thought. As a sequel to this, he
informed the monks (of what had been in his mind), and desired them
to make a regulation that from that day forth the king should not be
allowed to enter the treasury and see (what it contained), and that no
bhikshu should enter it till after he had been in orders for a period
of full forty years.(7)

In the city there are many Vaisya elders and Sabaean(8) merchants,
whose houses are stately and beautiful. The lanes and passages are
kept in good order. At the heads of the four principal streets there
have been built preaching halls, where, on the eighth, fourteenth,
and fifteenth days of the month, they spread carpets, and set forth a
pulpit, while the monks and commonalty from all quarters come tog