On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c14.43

v1.c14.43

Instead of "500 Hungry (餓) Demons" in this passage, the reading of the D text and the Fang-chih, the common texts have "more than (餘) 500 Demons". This latter is doubtless a copyist's error and the D reading is the correct one. From another source we learn that the Five Hundred Hungry Demons came to the Buddha and implored his pity: he thereupon requested Maudgalyayana to feed them. The Buddha had to enlarge their needle-throats to enable them to swallow the food: having eaten they burst, died, and went to Heaven. The Buddha explained that these creatures had once been so many lay Buddhists, and in that capacity had spoken rudely to bhikshus, calling them "Hungry Demons" when the bhikshus called on their morning rounds begging their daily food. The karma of this sin produced the rebirth of the upāsakas 500 times as Hungry Demons, and their faith in the Buddha, and prayer to him, obtained their release from misery and their birth in Heaven.¹