Indra's City and Gardens

Abstract

Indra _??__??__??_is the ruler on the summit of Mt. Sumeru _??__??__??_. He lives in his city Sudarsana _??__??__??_ at the center of the summit. The city is the most circumstantially and systematically depicted in the scripture Foshuo-lishiapitanlun _??__??__??__??__??__??__??__??_, which was translated into Chinese in 559 CE by the Indian monk, Zhendi _??__??_(499-569 CE), and which can be regarded as one of the scriptures containing the most precise and systematic explanations of cities and their gardens in the Indian Buddhist world. Analyzing and interpreting the scripture, this paper illustrates that the city is square and has a splendid building serving as an assembly hall and has many beautiful gardens with sguare ponds as the main design element but neither artifical islands nor artificial mountains, unlike in the case of the East Asian traditional gardens.