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Some followers of the Arya- sammiti school speak of the Piti-mukta-bhaishagya (as being the foul substance), but of course it is a different school from ours, and we have nothing to do with it. Though the Vinaya-dvavimsati-prasannartha- sastra (Nanjio’s Catal., No. 1139) has also a certain reference fo such medicine, this book is not what is studied in the Aryasarvastivada school. CHAPTER XXX. ON TURNING TO THE RIGHT IN WORSHIP. ‘WALKING round towards the right’ is in Sanskrit Pradakshiva. The prefix Pra has many meanings ; and now, as forming a part of this word, it expresses ‘proceeding round.’ Dakshiva means ‘right, and signifies generally any matter respectable and convenient. They (Indians) * Lit. ‘constant mountain ;’ it is a kind of wild tea, according to Kasyapa. ON TURNING TO THE RIGHT IN WORSHIP. 141 call, consequently, the right hand Dakshiza, implying that to follow the tight is respectable and convenient. It is therefore suitable to the cere- mony of walking round. Dakshiva (asa feminine noun) also means ‘ gift, in which case it differs (in signification) from what is mentioned above, as I explained before (see chap. ix, p. 48). Throughout the five divisions of India, they all call the east ‘front’ and the south ‘right,’ though one cannot say the right and left in the same manner (i.e, one cannot say left for north). 4 We should read in the Satras the phrase : ‘walking round towards the right three times!) but it is wrong, if one translates it simply by ‘walking round the Buddha’s side.’ This phrase in the Sitras: ‘ three times walking round towards the right,’ is a full description of the walking ; and there is another curtailed one: ‘a hundred thousand times walking round,’ without saying ‘ towards the right.’ What is walking towards the right or towards the left, however, would seem a little difficult to determine. Is it the walking round towards the right, if a man proceeds towards his own right-hand side? Or is it to step out towards his left-hand side? Once I heard an ex- planation of a learned man in China, that the ‘walking round towards the right’ means to have one’s right hand inside the circle (he makes) 2, and that the ‘walking round towards the left’ means to have one’s left ” E.g. Mahaparinibbana, chap. vi, 46 : padakkhivam katva. * This is no doubt a right explanation according to the Indian custom, but Lising speaks against it. . Kasyapa gives an illustration as follows:— @ MOvject SS: id A Su ao (a) Pradakshivam kr, i.e. ‘turn one’s right hand towards an object.’ (2) Prasavyam ky, i.e. ‘turn one’s lefi hand towards an object.’ 142 A RECORD OF BUDDHIST PRACTICES. XXX. hand inside that circle; and that, in fact, therefore, when one walks round towards one’s left-hand side, the ‘ walking round towards the right’ has been accomplished. This is merely that learned man’s opinion, which is not at all proper. This has made the ignorant puzzled at the proper mode, and misled even some eminent persons who obsequiously agreed to it. Now, how should we settle the matter, inferring by principles alone? It is simply to rely on the Sanskrit texts, and to give up in- dividual inclinations. To proceed towards the right-hand side (i.e. not turning towards the right) is the walking round towards the right !, and to proceed towards the left-hand side is the walking round towards the left. This is the rule se¢ forth by the Buddha, which is beyond our dispute. Next (we shall treat of)‘the time’ and ‘improper time.’ In the Sdtra which treats of ‘the time?’ there are different bearings with regard to times suitable to several circumstances. But, in the Vinaya books of the four schools (Nikdya), it is unanimously affirmed that the noon . (lit. horse-hour, i.e. twelve o'clock) is the proper time (for the meal). If the shadow (of a dial) has passed as little even as a single thread, it is said to be an improper time (for the meal). If a person who guards himself against the fault (of missing the time) wants to get the exact cardinal points, he has to calculate the north star at night, and at once to observe (the quarter of) the south pole (i.e. ‘south star’)*; and, (doing this), he 1 According to I-tsing, Pradakshivam means ‘walking towards one’s own tight, i.e. turning one’s left hand towards an object.’ Kasyapa again shows this as follows :—Pradakshinvam kr7, according to I-tsing. End Start 2 The Sfitra on proper and improper time (Nanjio’s Catal., No. 750). 8 Each observation’ of time requires to see: (1) the direction of the meridian (which is obtained by observing the pole-star); (2) the time when a more southern (and therefore more quickly moving) star goes through the meridian. ON TURNING TO THE RIGHT IN WORSHIP. 143 is enabled to determine the exact line? (of the south and the north), Again he has to form a small earthen elevation at a suitable place. This mound is to be made round, of one foot diameter, and five inches high, at the centre part of which a slender stick is to be fixed. Or, on a stone stand, a nail is to be fixed, as slender as a bamboo chop-stick, and its height should be four fingers’ width long. At the exact moment ° of the horse-hour (noon) a mark is to be drawn along the shadow (of the stick, fallen on the stand). If the shadow has passed the mark, one should not eat. In India such (dials) are made almost everywhere, which are called Velazakras, i.e. time-wheels. The way of measuring the shadow is to obsérve the shadow of the stick, when it is shortest: this is exact midday. But in the Gambudvipa, the length of the shadows differs, owing to different situation of places. In the province of Lo 2, for instance, there falls no shadow ; but the case is different in other places. Again, for instance, in the Sribhoga country, we see the shadow of the dial-platg neither become long nor short, in the middle of the 8th month (i.e. about the time of the autumnal equinox). At midday no shadow falls from a man who stands on that day. The case is the same in the middle of spring (i.e. about the time of the vernal equinox) eee ae] wh in Chinese, which is the hour in which the sun is in the position By, Ssii (Serpent or Virgo) and our 9-11 a.m. The point of the compass corre- sponding to this is SSE. } E. * The province of Lo is probably Central India. Lo was the capital of China and the centre of ‘all under heaven’ (i RK a0 z rh), and I-tsing may have once for all used it as meaning Central India, though very strange. ° If I-tsing’s ‘middle of the 8th nionth’ and ‘middle of spring (2nd month)’ were exactly the autumnal and vernal equinoxes respectively, it would have been easy to settle where Sribhoga was. In the old Japanese calendar, which is practically the same as that of China, the ‘ middle of the 8th month’ or ‘middle of spring’ does not mean the 15th day of the 8th and 2nd months respectively, but simply the day on which the day and night are of equal length. But we are ignorant whether it was so in China in I-tsing’s time or not; we are not safe in taking them as exact equinox days. Besides, I-tsing may be writing according to a calendar then current in Sumatra or India. All we can say with certainty is that the equinoxes fall on a day either before or after the rsth of the 2nd and 1444. A RECORD OF BUDDHIST PRACTICES. XXX. The sun passes just: above the head twice in a year. When the sun travels in the south, the shadow (of a man) falls northwards, and becomes as long as two or three feet, and when the sun is in the north, the shadow is the same at the south side (of a man). In China the shadow in the northern part differs in length from that in the southern part; the doors in the north country are always made to face the sun. When it is midday in the eastern sea coast of China (Hai-tung) it is not yet so in Kwan-hsi (i.e. the region on the west of Shen-si in China). Thus since there are natural differences, one cannot insist on one case being universal. Therefore it is said in the Vinaya: ‘the hour is determined according to midday in regpective places.’ As every priest is desirous to act according to the holy laws, and as eating is necessary every day, so he must be careful in measuring the shadow in order to eat at the fixed time. If he fails (even) in this, how can he carry out other precepts? Eminent men therefore, who preach and carry out the laws, and who are not surprised at the minute and complicated rules, should take a dial with them even when travelling by sea, much more so, when they are on the land. The following is a saying in India: ‘He who observes the water as fo insects and thé time as to midday is called a Vinaya-teacher,’ Besides, clepsydrae are much used in great monasteries in India. These together with some boys who watch them are gifts from kings of many generations, for the purpose of announcing hours to the monastics. Water is filled in a copper vessel, in which a copper bow! floats. This bowl is thin and delicate, and holds two Shang (prasthas) of water (about two pints). In its bottom a hole is pierced as small as a pin-hole, through which the water springs up; this hole is to be made larger or smaller 8th months, according to the Chinese calendar. According to Ltsing, the 8th month is Karttika, in which the autumnal equinox generally fails. See my additional note to p. 85 at the end. Now as tothe position of Srtbhoga. If the present Palembang were Sribhoga in I-tsing’s time, the ‘middle of the 8th month’ would be six days after the autumnal equinox in Sumatra. But, on the other hand, if the ‘middle of the 8th month’ were exactly the equinox day in autumn, then Sribhoga must be sought somewhere on the Equator or some 2°5 degrees north of Palembang. Professor Lamp of Kiel Observatory kindly helped me in these points.