The monks said it was the most precious thing in their possession, and that if they opened it, as I begged them to do, there would be a convulsion that would destroy the whole establishment.

See E.H., p.166.The name of the province of Behar was given to it in consequence of its many viharas.
(4) According to the characters, "square, round, four inches." Hsuan-chwang says it was twelve inches round.
(5) In Williams' Dictionary, under {.}, the characters, used here, are employed in the phrase for "to degrade an officer," that is, "to remove the token of his rank worn on the crown of his head;" but to place a thing on the crown is a Buddhistic form of religious homage.
(6) The Vaisyas, or bourgeois caste of Hindu society, are described here as "resident scholars." (7) See Eitel's Handbook under the name vimoksha, which is explained as "the act of self-liberation," and "the dwelling or state of liberty." There are eight acts of liberating one's self from all subjective and objective trammels, and as many states of liberty (vimukti) resulting therefrom.

They are eight degrees of self-inanition, and apparently eight stages on the way to nirvana.

The tope in the text would be emblematic in some way of the general idea of the mental progress conducting to the Buddhistic consummation of existence.
(8) This incense would be in long "sticks," small and large, such as are sold to-day throughout China, as you enter the temples.
(9) "The illuminating Buddha," the twenty-fourth predecessor of Sakyamuni, and who, so long before, gave him the assurance that he would by-and-by be Buddha.

See Jataka Tales, p.