On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c10.22

v1.c10.22

From Mangkil, the pilgrim tells us, a journey north-east of about 250 *li* brought him to a mountain in which was the A-p'olo-lo (Apalāla)-Dragon Spring, the source of the Swāt river. This river flows away from its source south-west; it keeps its coldness through spring and summer, and morning and evening (in one text, every evening) the flying spray, rainbow-tinted, sheds brightness on all sides. The dragon of the spring in the time of Kaśyapa Buddha was a man named King (or Keng)-ki (Gaṅgi? Julien), able by his magical exorcisms to control dragons and prevent them from sending violent rains. For his services in this way the inhabitants had given him fixed yearly contributions of grain. But the contributions fell off, and the magician, enraged at the defaulters, expressed a wish to be in his next birth a wicked malicious dragon, and in consequence he was reborn as the dragon of this spring, the white water from which ruined the crops. Sakyamuni Buddha came to this district to convert the dragon; on this occasion the Vajrapāṇi god struck the cliff with his mace, and the dragon becoming terrified took refuge in Buddhism. On his admission to the church the Buddha forbade him to injure the crops, and the dragon asked to be allowed to have these once every twelve years for his maintenance; to this petition Buddha compassionately assented. And so once every twelve years the country has the "white water" infliction.¹