On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c10.54

v1.c10.54

In a Buddhist sūtra¹ we read of the Bodhisattva in his birth as Indra becoming a great reptile called Jen-liang-chung (仁良蟲) interpreted as meaning "the reptile benevolent and of healing efficacy". When the Kuru country was afflicted with plague Indra caused a voice from the void to call the people to cut from his (that is, the reptile's) body, and eat the flesh, and be cured. The people flocked to the carcase, and eagerly cut pieces of its flesh which never suffered diminution, new flesh replacing the pieces cut away. A similar story is found in other books; but the inexhaustible benevolent animal is usually a large fish.²