On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c13.6

v1.c13.6

The whole of this passage about the "Place of Religious Merit" is curious and interesting, giving, as has been pointed out by others, the story which our pilgrim heard on the spot about the wars of the Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas. It reads like an extract from the Bhagavadgītā. The passage which, in the present rendering of it, is treated as being the sum of the inspired teaching of the sūtra, is made by Julien, in his version, to be a proclamation by the king of Sthāneśvara. The last clause of the passage is treated by him as a separate sentence and he translates it thus—"Là-dessus, tous les hommes combattirent avec ardeur et coururent joyeusement à la mort", that is, before the king called on the people to enlist in his service. This treatment of the text seems to be a very unfortunate one as Yuan-chuang makes a clear distinction between the counsel of the Dharmasūtra (Fu-ching 法經), and the king's proceedings after the promulgation of the counsel.