On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c10.s3: Takshaśila
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c10.s3
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Takshaśila
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From this (i. e. Bolor) the pilgrim returned to Utakahantu (Udaka Khaṇḍa) city, went south across the Indus here three or four *li* broad and flowing south-west (in B and C but in D south) pure and clear, to the Takshaśilā country. This was above 2000 *li* in circuit, its capital being above ten *li* in circuit. The chiefs were in a state of open feud, the royal family being extinguished; the country had formerly been subject to Kapis but now it was a dependency of Kashmir; it had a fertile soil and bore good crops, with flowing streams and luxuriant vegetation; the climate was genial; and the people, who were plucky, were adherents of Buddhism. Although the Monasteries were numerous, many of them were desolate, and the Brethren, who were very few, were all Mahāyānists.
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The *Ta-cha-shi-lo* (Takshaśilā or Taxila) of this passage seems to be described by the pilgrim as adjacent to Gandhāra, but Fa-hsien makes Takshaśilā to be seven days' journey east from his Gandhāra.¹ These two travellers treat Takshaśilā as a district separate from Gandhāra, but in several of the Buddhist books it appears as a part or city of that country. Fa-hsien explains the name as meaning "cut off head" as if the second part of the word were śira. Another author translates it by sio-shih (削石) or "severed rock",¹ and another by ts'o-shih (磋石) or "chiseled rock;² it is rendered by "rock-cave",³ and interpreted as meaning "the Rock of the Takkas". The Pali form of the name is Takkasilā. In very old times, it is fabled, a city called Bhadraśilā was on the site afterwards occupied by Takshaśilā,⁴ and in modern times the latter has also had the name Mārikala.⁵ Baron Hügel thought that the site of the old city corresponded with that of the present Rawal-Pindi,⁶ but Cunningham places the site of Takshaśilā at the modern Shahdheri, a mile to the north-east of Kālaka-serai. There seems to be much in favour of Cunningham's identification which has been generally accepted.⁷ According to the statements in the Buddhist books Takshaśilā was at one time an important trading centre, and a great seat of learning specially famed for its medical teachers.⁸ It formed a part of Asoka's empire; and that sovereign, and after him his son, were viceroys appointed to reside at it before they succeeded to the throne.⁹
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¹ Fo-kuo-chi, ch. 11.
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¹ Hsing-chi-ching, *ch.* 38.
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² A-yü-wang-ching, *ch.* 10.
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³ E. g. in A-yü-wang-hsi-huai-mu-yin-yuan-ching (Bun. No. 1367). It is sometimes doubtful whether the name "Rock-cave" is applied to Takshaśilā or to Gandhāra.
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⁴ Bud. Lit. Nep. p. 310.
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⁵ Alberuni Vol. i, p. 302.
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⁶ Travels in Kashmir and the Panjab p. 230 et al.
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⁷ A. G. I. p. 104; Mc Crindle's Invasion of India by Alexander the Great p. 342.
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⁸ Ta-chuang-yen-lun-ching, *ch.* 8, 15.
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⁹ Divyāv. p. 371; A-yü-wang-chuan, *ch.* 1.
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Above 70 *li* to the north-west of the capital was the tank of the *I-lo-po-ta-lo* (Elāpattra) Dragon-king above 100 paces in circuit, its limpid water beautiful with various-coloured lotuses. This dragon was the bhikshu who in the time of Kāśyapa Buddha destroyed an *I-la-pa-ta-la* tree; hence when the natives are praying for rain or fine weather they have to go with a monk to the tank, and when they have cracked their fingers, and spoken the dragon fair, they are sure to have their prayers answered.
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The story here alluded to of the very ancient Buddhist monk who was afterwards reborn as the Elāpattra Dragon-king is told with slight variations in several Buddhist books. The monk was a very pious good ascetic living in a lonely hermitage among Cardamon (Elā) plants or "Ilā trees". He was much given to ecstatic meditation, and on one occasion he remained absorbed in thought all the morning and until it was the afternoon. He then arose, took his bowl, and went in the usual manner into the town or village, to beg his daily food. The people, seeing him beg for food out of hours, upbraided him, and made disagreeable remarks about his violation of the rules of his Order. The monk became annoyed and irritated by these remarks, and went back to his hermitage. Here he paced up and down as usual, but being in a bad temper he could not endure the touch of the leaves of the Elā (or "Ilā trees"). So he tore them off and angrily strewed them on the ground. When the Buddha Kāśyapa came to remonstrate with him for injuring the plants, and tried to bring him to a proper frame of mind, the monk was rude to the Buddha, and refused to take his reproof. For the two offences, eating food in the afternoon and breaking off the Elā leaves (or scorning the Buddha's reproof for doing so), the monk was reborn as a Dragon-king. In this form he had a monstrous, hideous, and distressing body with seven heads from each of which grew an "Ilā tree", and so long was his body that it reached from Benares to Takshaśilā, a distance of above 200 Yojanas. While the Buddha was at Benares this Elāpattra dragon came thither seeking for the explanation of an incomprehensible verse, and having assumed the form of a universal sovereign, he presented himself in the congregation of the Buddha. The latter, however, caused the dragon to resume his proper form, and then informed him that at the advent of Maitreya he would be released from the dragon existence. Elāpattra then undertook to lead a life of gentleness and mercy not doing harm to any creature.¹ In all the Chinese transcriptions the name Elā (or Ilā)-pattra is given both to the tree which the bhikshu injured and to the dragon-king, but there does not seem to be any plant or tree with the name Elā-pattra. I-ching transcribes the name of the dragon I-lo-po as if for Elapat, and he uses a different transcription for the name of the great Treasure.
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¹ Fu-kai-chêng-so-chi-ching (福 蓋 正 所 集 經), *ch.* 11; Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih, *ch.* 21; J. B. T. S. Vol. ii, P. 1, p. 2; Rockhill Life p. 46.
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From the Dragon-Tank Yuan-chuang proceeded south-east for above thirty *li* to a place between two ranges of hills where there was an Asoka tope above 100 feet high. This marked the spot at which, according to the Buddha's prediction, when Maitreya comes as Buddha one of the four great natural Treasures of valuables will be in existence.
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The four great Treasures here alluded to are those of Elāpattra in Gandhāra, Pāṇḍuka in Mithila, Piṅgala in Kaliṅga, and Śaṅkha in the Kasi (Benares) country.² According to some authorities it was at Sāvatthi that the Buddha made to Anāthapiṇḍaka the announcement of the existence of these four hidden Treasures to be revealed at the time when Maitreya comes to be Buddha, but other versions of the story differ.³ So also some accounts represent the Treasures as being already made use of by the people who every seventh year, on the seventh day of the seventh month, drew at will from the Treasures, which did not experience any diminution.⁴ When Maitreya comes as Buddha the Elāpattra, Pāṇḍuka, and Piṅgala Treasures are to be transferred to that of Śaṅkha. In the Tsêng-yi-a-han-ching we find the terms dragon and dragon-king applied to Elāpattra in connection with the Treasure at Takshaśilā in Gandhāra, but in the other accounts there is no reference to a dragon. Some think that Elāpattra was the name of a king, but it was probably the name of the place afterwards extended to the Tank and the dragon of the Tank. It was undoubtedly this Elāpattra Treasure which our pilgrim here mentions as a sacred spot divinely protected and marked by a tope.
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² See Divyāv. p. 61.
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³ Anāthapiṇḍada-hua-ch'i-tzŭ-ching (No. 649); Tsêng-yi-a-han-ching, *ch.* 49.
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⁴ Upasaka-chie-ching, *ch.* 5 (No. 1088). See also Sar. Vin. Yao-shih, *ch.* 6.
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Above twelve *li* to the north of Takshaśilā city, the pilgrim continues, was an Asoka tope which on fast days sent forth a brilliant light accompanied by divine flowers and heavenly music. Yuan-chuang learned at the place that within recent times a miracle had occurred in connection with this tope. A woman afflicted with a repulsive skin-disease had come to it for purposes of worship; finding the building in a very filthy state she set to work to cleanse it, and having succeeded in this she presented flowers and incense. Thereupon her disease left her, and she became a beautiful woman, breathing a perfume of blue lotus. At the site of this tope, Yuan-chuang tells us, the P'usa as Chandraprabha (Moon-brightness) king cut off his own head as an act of charity, and did this in 1000 similar births.
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Fa-hsien simply relates that the P'usa here once gave his head in charity to a man, and adds that this act gave its name to the country, as if Taksha-śira or "Severed head".¹ In another treatise it is the king of the Kan-yi (乾夷) country who agrees to give his head to a wicked and importunate petitioner, but when the latter draws his sword to cut off the king's head, a deity intervenes and saves the king's life.² In this Jātaka the king is the P'usa, and the cruel petitioner is Devadatta. This story is told with some variations in the "Divyāvadāna Mālā" where the king is Chandraprabha, and his head is actually cut off by the petitioner.³ In one book we read of Prince Moon-brightness (Chandraprabha) giving his blood and marrow to heal a poor distressed man.⁴ It is rather curious to find the story which Yuan-chuang here tells about the woman afflicted with a loathsome skin disease cleansing the sacred building and offering flowers and in consequence becoming healed and endowed with beauty and a sweet breath quoted in an Abhidharma-vibhāsha-śāstra.¹
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¹ Fo-kuo-chi l. c.
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² Liu-tu-chi-ching, ch. 1.
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³ Bud. Lit, Nep. p. 310.
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⁴ Ta-chih-tu-lun, ch. 12.
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¹ Abhi-ta-vib., *ch.* 114. Here Asoka had built a Chaitya at the place where king Chandraprabha had given 1000 heads (his own head 1000 times).
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Near the Head-giving Tope, Yuan-chuang relates, was an old ruinous Monastery occupied by a few Brethren. It was in this monastery that the Sautrāntika Doctor in Buddhism by name Kou-mo-lo-to (Kumāralabdha) once composed expository treatises.
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The name of this learned Buddhist Śāstra-master as given here is translated in a Chinese note by Tung-shou (童受) or "Received from the Youth", that is from Kumāra, the god of war, the name being Kumāralabdha. In the Life the name is given as Ku(Kou)-mo-lo-to and translated wrongly by "youth's life". Kumāralabdha, we learn from another part of the Records, was a native of this country, but he was taken by force to Kabandha where the king of the country gave him a splendid monastery in the old palace grounds. He was, we are told elsewhere, the founder of the Sautrāntika School, and he was celebrated over all the Buddhist world for his genius, his great learning, and his controversial abilities. He was one of the "Four Suns illuminating the world", the three others being Aśvaghosha, Deva, and Nāgārjuna.² Kumāralabdha is mentioned by Tāranātha as a Sautrāntika Master by the name Gzon-nu-len or "Youth-obtained", but he seems to be little known in Buddhist literature and history.³ He may perhaps be the great Kin(Ku)-mo-lo-t'o who is the 18th (or 19th) in the list of Buddhist Patriarchs.⁴
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² *Ch.* 12; J. Vol. iii, p. 213.
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³ Tār. S. 78.
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⁴ Fu-fa-tsang-yin-yuan-chuan, *ch.* 6 (No. 1340).
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On the north side of the south hill to the south-east of the capital was a tope above 100 feet high erected by king Asoka on the spot where his son Prince Ku-lang-na (for Ku-na-lang), or Kunāla, had his eyes torn out by the guile of his step-mother; the blind came here to pray, and many had their prayers answered by restoration of sight. Our pilgrim then proceeds to tell his version of the story of Kunāla's career; of Asoka on the advice of his wicked second queen sending his son to govern Takshaśilā, of the blinding of this prince there by the cruel deceitful action of this queen, of the return of the prince and his princess to the king's palace, and of the restoration of the prince's eyesight effected by the Buddhist arhat Ghosha.
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Some versions of this pathetic story represent Asoka as sending his son to restore order in Takshaśilā on the advice of a Minister of state and without any interference on the part of Tishyarakshā, the cruel, vindictive, libidinous queen, and in some accounts the prince dies after his return home without having any miracle to restore his eyes. His name was Dharmavivardhana, and his father gave him the sobriquet Kunāla because his eyes were small and beautiful, precisely like those of the Himavat bird with that name. The blinding of this pious and virtuous prince was the consequence of bad Karma wrought in a far-past existence. He had blinded 500 deer, according to one story; or an arhat, according to another version; or he had taken the eyes out of a chaitya, according to the Avadāna-kalpalatā. Ghosha, the name of the arhat who restored eyesight to Kunāla, was also the name of a physician of this district who was celebrated as an oculist.¹
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¹ A-yü-wang-chuan, ch. 3; A-yü-wang-hsi-huai-mu-yin-yuan-ching (the Prince is sent on the advice of Yasa); Fa-yi-ching (法益經). where the story is like that told by Yuan-chuang; Divyāv. p. 416; Bur. Int. p. 404; Bud. Lit. Nep. p. 61.
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The Takshaśilā city and region were celebrated from old times, and we read of the king of the country who was contemporary with the Buddha coming to Rājagaha on the invitation of king Bimbisāra to see Buddha. This king became a convert and was ordained, but he died by an unhappy accident before he could return to his kingdom. With reference to this country in later times we have the following interesting passage in Cunningham's "Ancient Geography of India"—"At the time of Asoka's accession the wealth of Taxila is said to have amounted to 36 *kotis* or 360 millions of some unnamed coin, which, even if it was the silver *tanka*, or six pence, would have amounted to nine *crores* of rupees, or £ 9,000,000. It is probable, however, that the coin intended by the Indian writer was a gold one, in which case the wealth of this city would have amounted to about 90 or 100 millions of pounds. I quote this statement as a proof of the great reputed wealth of Taxila within fifty years after Alexander's expedition" (p. 106). The whole of this statement is based on Burnouf's translation of a passage in the Asokāvadāna in the "Introduction à l'histoire du Buddhisme Indien" (p. 373) which reads—"Le roi (i. e. Asoka) fit fabriquer quatre-vingt-quatre mille boîtes d'or, d'argent, de cristal et de lapis-lazuli; puis il y fit enfermer les reliques. Il donna ensuite aux Yakchas et déposa entre leurs mains quatre-vingt-quatre mille vases avec autant de bandelettes, les distribuant sur la terre tout entière jusqu'aux rivages de l'océan, dans les villes inférieures, principales, et moyennes, où [la fortune des habitants] s'élevait à un koṭi [de Suvarṇas]. Et il fit établir, pour chacune de ces villes, un édit de la Loi.
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En ce temps-là on comptait dans la ville Takchaśilâ trente-six koṭis [de Suvarṇas]. Les citoyens dirent au roi: Accorde-nous trente-six boîtes. Le roi réfléchit qu'il ne le pouvait pas, puisque les reliques devaient être distribuées. Voici donc le moyen qu'il employa: Il faut retrancher, dit-il, trente-cinq koṭis. Et il ajouta: Les villes qui dépasseront ce chiffre, comme celles qui ne l'atteindront pas, n'auront rien".
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It will be observed that in this passage the words "la fortune des habitants" and "de Suvarṇas" are introduced by the learned translator to supplement the language and complete the meaning of his author. But these words do not seem to be warranted by the Sanskrit original, which apparently refers to inhabitants, and not to coins. This interpretation is supported by two out of the three Chinese translations, the third translation being apparently from a different text. The passage translated by Burnouf would thus mean something like the following—The king had 84 000 boxes made to hold Buddha's relics. These boxes he gave to Yakshas to distribute among all large, medium, and small towns having a koṭi of inhabitants. But the people of Takshaśila said—We are thirty-six koṭis in number and we want thirty-six boxes. The king seeing he could not give a box for every koṭi of inhabitants in his dominions said to the Takshaśilans—No, you must knock off thirty-five koṭis for the rule is to be that a box is to be given only to those places which have exactly a koṭi of inhabitants neither more nor less.¹
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¹ Divyāv. p. 381. In A-yü-wang-chuan, *ch.* 1 and in Tsa-a-han-ching, *ch.* 23 it is a matter of population, and in A-yü-wang-ching, *ch.* 1 it is a question of money. The particular form of expression used seems to be susceptible of both these interpretations.
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According to one story the people of Takshaśila accepted the king's conditions and received a box of relics. But from other accounts it is to be inferred that they did not obtain any of the relics. Neither Fa-hsien nor our pilgrim refers to the presence in this country of one of the 84 000 boxes containing Buddha's relics distributed by Yakshas for Asoka.
Cites (4)
- Abhidharmavibhāṣāśāstra — Classical Chinese
- Divyāvadāna — Sanskrit
- Aśokāvadāna — Sanskrit
- Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā — Kṣemendra, Sanskrit