On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c10.36

v1.c10.36

The Monastery of the Great Wood according to Major Deane “was apparently on the western, or north-western, slopes of the present Mahaban. Numerous ruins exist on the lower slopes and also on the higher portions of Mahaban". But Dr Stein thinks that Mahāban is too far away, and that the Mahāvana monastery was at Pinjkoṭai at Sunigram.¹ In the B and D texts the name of the good king is given as *Sa-fo-ta-chih* (薩縛達之), but instead of *chih* the other texts have *ta* repeated. The name is interpreted as meaning "All-giving", and the original was either Sarvadā, as in some places, or Sarvadada as in other passages. Our pilgrim's version of this pretty jātaka agrees with the story in the Buddhist books except that in these the locality is not given.²