Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha - 89
32. Thus he uttered his discourse full of various arguments, and the
sun went down into the west; then he entered the grove where
penances had now ceased and whose trees were gray with the smoke
of the (evening) oblations;
33. Where the sacred fires had been duly transferred when kindled to
other spots, – all crowded with the holy hermits who had performed
their ablutions, and with the shrines of the gods murmuring with the
muttered prayers, – it seemed all alive like the full service of religion
in exercise.
34. He spent several nights there, himself like the moon, examining
their penances; and he departed from that penance-field, feeling that
he had comprehended the whole nature of penance.
35. The dwellers of the hermitage followed him with their minds
fixed on the greatness of soul visible in his person, as if they were
great seers beholding Religion herself, withdrawn from a land
invaded by the base.
36. Then he looked on all those ascetics with their matted hair, bark
garments, and rag-strips waving, and he stood considering their
penances under an auspicious and noble tree by the way-side.
37. Then the hermits having approached stood surrounding the best of
men; and an old man from among them thus addressed him
respectfully in a gentle voice: