“...  When the lake was dessicated (by the sword of Manjusri says the myth—­probably earthquake) Karkotaka had a fine tank built for him to dwell in; and there he is still worshipped, also in the cave-temple appendant to the great Buddhist shrine of Swayambhu Nath....

“...  The Bodhisatwa above alluded to is Manju Sri, whose native place is very far off, towards the north, and is called Pancha Sirsha Parvata (which is situated in Maha China Des).  After the coming of Viswabhu Buddha to Naga Vasa, Manju Sri, meditating upon what was passing in the world, discovered by means of his divine science that Swayambhu-jyotirupa, that is, the self-existent, in the form of flame, was revealed out of a lotos in the lake of Naga Vasa.  Again, he reflected within himself:  ’Let me behold that sacred spot, and my name will long be celebrated in the world;’ and on the instant, collecting together his disciples, comprising a multitude of the peasantry of the land, and a Raja named Dharmakar, he assumed the form of Viswakarma, and with his two Devis (wives) and the persons above-mentioned, set out upon the long journey from Sirsha Parvata to Naga Vasa.  There having arrived, and having made puja to the self-existent, he began to circumambulate the lake, beseeching all the while the aid of Swayambhu in prayer.  In the second circuit, when he had reached the central barrier mountain to the south, he became satisfied that that was the best place whereat to draw off the waters of the lake.  Immediately he struck the mountain with his scimitar, when the sundered rock gave passage to the waters, and the bottom of the lake became dry.  He then descended from the mountain, and began to walk about the valley in all directions.”—­The Phoenix, Vol.  II., pp. 147-148.]

[Footnote 21:  Jap.  Kwannon, god or goddess of mercy, in his or her manifold forms, Thousand-handed, Eleven-faced, Horse-headed, Holy, etc.]

[Footnote 22:  Or, The Lotus of the Good Law, a mystical name for the cosmos.  “The good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric.”  See Bernouf and Kern’s translations, and Edkin’s Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 214.  Translations of this work, so influential in Japanese Buddhism, exist in French, German, and English.  See Sacred Books of the East, Vol.  XXI., by Professor H. Kern, of Leyden University.  In the Introduction, p. xxxix., the translator discusses age, authorship, editions, etc.  Bunyiu Nanjio’s Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, pp. 132-134.  Beal in his Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, pp. 389-396, has translated Chapter XXIV.]

[Footnote 23:  At the great Zenk[=o]ji, a temple of the Tendai sect, at Nagano, Japan, dedicated to three Buddhist divinities, one of whom is Kwannon (Avalokitesvara, the rafters of the vast main hall are said to number 69,384, in reference to the number of Chinese characters contained in the translation of the Saddharma Pundarika.]

[Footnote 24:  “The third (collection of the Tripitaka) was ... made by Manjusri and Maitreya.  This is the collection of the Mahayana books.  Though it is as clear or bright as the sun at midday yet the men of the Hinayana are not ashamed of their inability to know them and speak evil of them instead, just as the Confucianists call Buddhism a law of barbarians, without reading the Buddhist books at all.”—­B.N., p. 51.]