When he encountered the elephants he was greatly alarmed, and screened himself among the trees; but when he saw them go through with the offerings in the most proper manner, the thought filled him with great sadness--that there should be no monastery here, (the inmates of which) might serve the tope, but the elephants have to do the watering and sweeping.
Forthwith he gave up the great prohibitions (by which he was bound),( 6) and resumed the status of a Sramanera.( 7) With his own hands he cleared away the grass and trees, put the place in good order, and made it pure and clean.

By the power of his exhortations, he prevailed on the king of the country to form a residence for monks; and when that was done, he became head of the monastery.

At the present day there are monks residing in it.

This event is of recent occurrence; but in all the succession from that time till now, there has always been a Sramanera head of the establishment.
NOTES (1) Rama or Ramagrama, between Kapilavastu and Kusanagara.
(2) See the account of the eightfold division of the relics of Buddha's body in the Sacred Books of the East, vol.xi, Buddhist Suttas, pp.

133-136.
(3) The bones of the human body are supposed to consist of 84,000 atoms, and hence the legend of Asoka's wish to build 84,000 topes, one over each atom of Sakyamuni's skeleton.
(4) Fa-Hsien, it appears to me, intended his readers to understand that the naga-guardian had a palace of his own, inside or underneath the pool or tank.
(5) It stands out on the narrative as a whole that we have not here "some pilgrims," but one devotee.
(6) What the "great prohibitions" which the devotee now gave up were we cannot tell.