History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c16.2.2

v1.c16.2.2

Yuan Chwang states that the people loved learning and were indefatigable students in those days, a characteristic which has lost ground in more recent times. In the middle of the 7th century, the majority of the inhabitants of the country were Buddhists. There were very nearly one hundred Buddhist monasteries and about ten thousand monks, all of whom were followers of the Mahāyāna. Deva temples or Hindu temples numbered nearly fifty, in which followers of different sects worshipped together. Yuan Chwang mentions a famous monastery called Pu-sie-p'o-k'i-li, i.e., Pushpagiri, which has not been satisfactorily identified as yet. Dr. L. A. Waddell's extremely unwise suggestions about modern Jajpur have not been accepted by the majority of scholars. This Pushpagiri appears to be the monastery, the ruins of which can be seen above the big undeciphered rock inscription at Udayagiri in the Cuttack district. Yuan Chwang states that "to the north-east of this tope in a hill-monastery was another tope like the preceding." This appears to refer to the ruins on Ratnagiri. The Chinese pilgrim mentions a city on the sea-shore in the south-east of this country named Che-li-fa-lo. This has been rendered into *Charitra* in Sanskrit and identified with Puri. In fact, with the exception of Puri there is no other city or port in South-Eastern Orissa with which it can be identified.