He is said to drive away falsehood and ignorance from the minds of all living beings, and on this ground the lama who compiles the books prays to him for knowledge in reverential terms.

The Hwa-yen-king, called in Mongol Olanggi sodar, is cited in this work as recording an assembly of numberless Bodhisattwas at Wu-t'ai, among whom Manjusiri is conspicuous in power and in honour. To faithful Buddhists, the mention, in a discourse of Buddha, of a Chinese mountain, is evidence of the superhuman knowledge of the sage. But as we know that Nagarjuna was the real writer of this work, we look upon it rather as proof that the geography of China was known to the translators of the works of this copious author, and that they lived in a time when this mountain had already become a favourite abode of the devotees of this religion in that country.

In another book quoted by the author, Manjusiri is informed by Buddha, that it is his duty to seek the instruction and salvation of the Chinese by making his home at Wu-t'ai, and there causing the wheel of the law to revolve incessantly on the five mountains of the five different colours, and crowned by five variously-shaped pagodas.

The lotus will not grow at Wu-t'ai. It is too cold. How shall Manjusiri be born from its ample couch of leaves? The magical power of Buddha causes a lotus to grow from the seed of a certain tree. Thus he was without father or mother, and was not stained with the "pollution of the common world" (orchilang).

The legend of Manjusiri at Wu-t'ai seemed to require the authority of Buddha. The translators of the Mahayana Sutras in the T'ang dynasty--in order to supply this want--did not scruple to insert what they pleased in their translations. Certainly Wu-t'ai was not a Buddhist establishment till some centuries after Nagarjuna. If some Sanscrit scholar would consult the Nepaulese Hwa-yen-king, he would probably find nothing there about Wu-t'ai shan. It would be curious to note what the original says in those passages where China is introduced by the translators.

Footnotes

^229:1 Vide Burnouf's account of the third Buddhist council held in Cashmere, in his Introduction a l'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien.

^231:1 The dictionary Yi-ts'ie-king-yin-i adds, that this word, used for "land or "kingdom," is the root of the word Kshatrya, the second of the four castes, to which belong the royal families of India, the Kshatryas being Lords of the soil.