Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.103

c6.103

The Chinese pilgrim, Fa-Hien, who visited Ayodhyā in the 5th century A.D., saw the Buddhists and the Brāhmaṇas not in good terms. He also saw a tope there where the four Buddhas walked and sat.¹ Another Chinese pilgrim, Yuan Chwang, who visited India in the 7th century A.D., after travelling more than 600 li and crossing the Ganges to the south, reached the Ayudha or Ayodhyā country. According to him, Ayodhyā was the temporary residence of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu. He says that Ayudha is Sāketa, i.e., Ayodhyā. The country yielded good crops, was clothed with luxuriant vegetation and had rich fruit orchards and genial climate. The people had good manners and active habits and devoted themselves to practical learning. There were more than 100 Buddhist monasteries and more than 3,000 brethren, who were students of Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna. There were 10 deva temples and the non-Buddhists were few in number. Within the capital was the old monastery in which Vasubandhu composed various śāstras. There was a hall in ruins where Vasubandhu explained Buddhism to princes and monks who used to come from other countries. Close to the Ganges was a large Buddhist monastery with an Aśoka tope to mark the place where the Buddha preached his excellent doctrine. Four or five li west from this monastery was a Buddha relic tope and to the north of the tope were the remains of an old monastery where the Sautrāntika-vibhāṣā-śāstra was composed. In a mango grove 5 or 6 li to the south-west of the city was the old monastery where Asaṅga learnt and taught. The three Buddhist treatises referred to by Yuan Chwang were communicated to Asaṅga by Maitreya. Above 100 paces to the north-west of the mango-grove was a Buddha relic tope. Asaṅga, according to the pilgrim, began his religious career as a Mahīśāsaka and afterwards became a Mahāyānist. Vasubandhu began his career in a school of the Sarvāstivādins. After the death of Asaṅga, Vasubandhu who composed several treatises, expounding and defending Mahāyānism, died at Ayodhyā at the age of 83.²