deeds. Let me now, then, returning to the lower state, enjoy my wealth and do good deeds.'
14. Now the Blessed One perceived in his mind the thought of the heart of the venerable Sona; and as quickly as a strong man can stretch forth his arm, or can draw it back again when it has been stretched forth, he disappeared from the hill of the Vulture's Peak, and appeared in the Sîtavana grove. And the Blessed One, as he was passing through the sleeping-places (of the Bhikkhus), came up, with a multitude of Bhikkhus, to the place where the venerable Sona had walked up and down.
When the Blessed One saw that the place where the venerable Sona had walked up and down was covered with blood, he addressed the Bhikkhus, and said: 'Whose walking-place[1] is this, O Bhikkhus, which is covered with blood, like a slaughter-house for oxen?'
'As the venerable Sona, Lord, was walking up and down here with eager determination, his feet were injured; and so this place has become covered with blood, like a slaughter-house for oxen?'
15. Then the Blessed One went on to the house in which the venerable Sona was living, and sat down there on a seat made ready for him. And the venerable Sona bowed down before the Blessed
That is to say, the state of a layman (Hindy* âvattitvâ).
- ↑ Kaṅkama, for which there is no real equivalent in English. In speaking of later periods the word 'cloister' is sometimes a correct rendering, for the places in which the recluses walked up and down, thinking, were then in some cases paved and even roofed. The Chinese pilgrim I-tsing has a description of such a stone kaṅkama, which he saw at the great monastery at Nâlanda (Indian Antiquary, X, 192). In this passage it only means a narrow, open, space of ground, levelled and cleared for the purpose.
