assist the burning. When
the cremation was over, they collected and preserved the bones, and
proceeded to erect a tope. Fa-Hsien had not arrived in time (to see the
distinguished Shaman) alive, and only saw his burial.

At that time the king,(5) who was a sincere believer in the Law of
Buddha and wished to build a new vihara for the monks, first
convoked a great assembly. After giving the monks a meal of rice,
and presenting his offerings (on the occasion), he selected a pair of
first-rate oxen, the horns of which were grandly decorated with
gold, silver, and the precious substances. A golden plough had been
provided, and the king himself turned up a furrow on the four sides
of the ground within which the building was supposed to be. He then
endowed the community of the monks with the population, fields, and
houses, writing the grant on plates of metal, (to the effect) that
from that time onwards, from generation to generation, no one should
venture to annul or alter it.

In this country Fa-Hsien heard an Indian devotee, who was reciting
a Sutra from the pulpit, say:--"Buddha's alms-bowl was at first in
Vaisali, and now it is in Gandhara.(6) After so many hundred years"
(he gave, when Fa-Hsien heard him, the exact number of years, but he
has forgotten it), "it will go to Western Tukhara;(7) after so
many hundred years, to Khoten; after so many hundred years, to
Kharachar;(8) after so many hundred years, to the land of Han; after
so many hundred years, it will come to Sinhala; and after so many
hundred years, it will return to Central India. After that, it will
ascend to the Tushita heaven; and when the Bodhisattva Maitreya sees
it, he will say with a sigh, 'The alms-bowl of Sakyamuni Buddha
is come;' and with all the devas he will present to it flowers and
incense for seven days. When these have expired, it will return to
Jambudvipa, where it will be received by the king of the sea nagas,
and taken into his naga palace. When Maitreya shall be about to attain
to perfect Wisdom (and become Buddha), it will again separate into
four bowls,(9) which will return to the top of mount Anna,(9) whence
they came. After Maitreya has become Buddha, the four deva kings will
again think of the Buddha (with their bowls as they did in the case
of the previous Buddha). The thousand Buddhas of this Bhadra-kalpa,
indeed, will all use the same alms-bowl; and when the bowl
has disappeared, the Law of Buddha will go on gradually to be
exti