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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE MOST SACRED SPOT ON EARTH; OR, BUDDH GAYA AND BUDDHISM Section I.? Buddh Gaya And Its Associations F it were possible to ascertain, by any means, what particular spot on earth is the most sacred in the opinion of mankind, there is reason to think that the majority of votes would be given in favour of Buddh Gaya, which is held in high veneration by both Buddhists and Hindus. Such a spot is certainly worth a visit. Leaving the busy town of Bankipore one afternoon in April, I travelled some fifty-seven miles to Gaya, by the branch railway, over a level uninteresting looking country, unredeemed in its drear monotony except by picturesque groups of slender palmtrees, which, always and everywhere, lend grace and beauty to the landscape they adorn. I arrived at Gaya after dark. It was quite an early hour; but the town, with its population of 76,000 souls, was already beginning to retire to rest. The atmosphere was oppressive, and the dimly-lighted streets, which were being turned into dormitories for the night, presented anything but agreeable pictures. Here and there a perspiring half-clad halwdi, who had not yielded to the early- closing movement, squatted listlessly in his " fly-swarmed sweetmeat shop'' behind a few trays of uninviting confectionery ; or a drowsy baniyd, with his knees drawn up to his chin, dozed over his uncovered heaps of rice, ddl, dtd, and ghi. These half-awake shopmen were apparently the principal, if not the only, representatives of trade in Gaya at that hour. Charpoys in scores were already occupying the main thoroughfare in very un- picturesque disorder. On some of these rickety beds, unprovided with mattresses or pillows, the owners were stretched full-length; on others, two or three almost naked men sat silently fanning themselves...