unknown city holy-site
Monasteries 3 “three monasteries” Four yojanas west; the city of Gaya is empty and desolate, but south of it lie the great sites of Buddha's enlightenment: the place of his six years' austerities, the Gramika girls' rice-gruel offering, and the patra (Bodhi) tree where, seated facing east on the kusa grass, he overcame Mara and attained perfect Wisdom. Three monasteries stand at the enlightenment place, their monks strict in discipline and well supplied. This is the second of the four great topes (where Buddha attained Wisdom).
Stories told of this place Legend The defeat of Mara Mara sent three beautiful women and his demon-soldiers to tempt and assail the Bodhisattva; when he put his toes to the ground the soldiers dispersed and the women were changed into old grandmothers, and he attained Buddhahood.
Legend King Asoka and the Bodhi tree Asoka, who in a former birth had given Buddha a handful of earth and so became a wheel-king, repented his cruel 'naraka' (private hell) under this tree. When his queen had the tree cut down, he poured a hundred pitchers of cows' milk on the stump and vowed not to rise till it lived; it grew again, now nearly 100 cubits high.
came to the city of Gaya;(1) but inside the city all was emptiness and desolation. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms (Legge), Chapters XXXI–XXXII Scholarly notes Modern: Bodh Gaya / Gaya, Bihar Visited c. 408 CE
Legge: Gaya, a city of Magadha; Sakyamuni lived here seven years until he attained Buddhaship. The enlightenment site is modern Bodh Gaya.
These notes come from the translators and later scholarship — they are not the pilgrim’s
words.
