On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c15: Chapter XII
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c15
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Chapter XII
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ŚRĀVASTI TO KUSINĀRĀ.
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From the Viśoka district the pilgrim travelled, he tells us, above 500 *li* (about 100 miles) north-east to the *Shih-lo-fa-si-tí* (Śrāvastī) country. This country was above 6000 *li* in circuit: its "capital" was a wild ruin without anything to define its areas; the old foundations of the "Palace city" were above twenty *li* in circuit, and although it was mostly a ruinous waste yet there were inhabitants. The country had good crops, and an equable climate: and the people had honest ways and were given to learning and fond of good works. There were some hundreds of Buddhist monasteries of which the most were in ruins: the Brethren, who were very few, were Sammatiyas. There were 100 Deva-Temples and the non-Buddhists were very numerous. This city was in the Buddha's time the seat of government of king Prasenajit and the foundations of this king's old palace remained in the old "Palace city". Not far east of these was an old foundation on which a small tope had been built: this was the site of the large chapel (Preaching Hall) which king Prasenajit built for the Buddha. Near the site of the chapel was another tope on old foundations: this marked the site of the nunnery (*ching-shê*) of the Buddha's foster-mother, the bhikshuṇī Prājapati, erected for her by king Prasenajit. A tope to the east of this marked the site of the house of Sudatta the Elder (chief of the non-official laymen). At the side of this was a tope on the spot where Angulimāla gave up his heresy. This Angulimāla, whose name denotes Finger-garland, was a wicked man of Śrāvastī who harried the city and country, killing people and cutting a finger off each person killed, in order to make himself a garland. He was about to kill his own mother in order to make up the required number of fingers, when the Buddha in compassion proceeded to convert him. Finger-garland on seeing the Buddha was delighted, as his Brahmin teacher had told him that by killing the Buddha and his own mother he would obtain birth in Heaven. So he left his mother for the moment, and made a motion to kill the Buddha. But the latter kept moving out of reach, and by admonishing the murderer led him to repentance and conversion. Finger-garland then was admitted into the Order, and by zealous perseverance he attained arhatship.
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In this passage the pilgrim, according to his usual practice, gives the Sanskrit form of the name of the country he describes, viz—Śrāvasti. This was properly not the name of the country, which was Kosala, but of the capital of that country. Fa-hsien uses the old and generally accepted transcription She-wei (舍衛), perhaps for Sevat or Sāvatthi, and he makes the city so called the Capital of Kosala, and eight yojanas south from his Sha-ki¹. This last name, which may have been Sha-k'i, or Sha-ch'i, or Sha-ti, is supposed to represent Saketa, but the restoration of the name and the identification of the place are uncertain. Mr V. Smith would change Fa-hsien's south here to north-east and his eight yojanas to eighteen or nineteen yojanas, changes which seem to be quite inadmissible as the pilgrim evidently made the journey.² In the Vinaya we find the city of Śrāvasti stated to be six yojanas from Sāket, and the former is apparently to the east of the latter.³
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¹ Fo-kuo-chi, ch. 20.
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² J. R. A. S. 1898. p. 528.
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³ Vin. Mah. VII. In another Vinaya treatise (Sêng-ki-lü, ch. 11) from Śrāvasti to Sha-ki is a two days' journey for Upali.
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The site of the Śrāvasti of the present passage was long ago confidently identified by Cunningham with that of "the great ruined city on the south bank of the Rapti, called Sahet-Mahet" in which he discovered a colossal statue of the Buddha with an inscription containing the name "Śrāvasti". This identification has been accepted and defended by other investigators, but there are several strong reasons for setting it aside.⁴ These are set forth by Mr V. Smith who, after careful study and personal examination of the districts, has come to the conclusion that the site of Śrāvastī is in the district of Khajūrā in Nepāl, a short distance to the north of Balāpur and not far from Nepālganj in a north-north-east direction.¹ But this proposed identification also has its difficulties, and must await further developments. No discoveries have been made to support the identification, but there seems to be the usual supply of mounds and ruins.
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⁴ Arch. Sur. India Vol. I. p. 330, XI. p. 78: A. G. 1. p. 409. Set Mahet by W. Hoey, J. A. S. Bengal Vol. LXI (Extra number): An an-
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¹ op. c. p. 527, and J. R. A. S. 1900 Art. I.
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The terms rendered in this passage by "capital" and "palace-city" are respectively tu-ch'êng (都城) and kung-ch'êng (宮城). But by the term tu-ch'êng here we are to understand "the district of the capital", what is called in other books "the Śrāvastī country" as distinguished from "the Kosala country". Kung-ch'êng here is taken by Julien to mean "the palace", and by Beal to mean "the walls enclosing the royal precincts". But we must take the term in this passage to denote "the walled city of Śrāvastī". That this is its meaning in our text is clear from what follows, and from the corresponding passages in the Life and the Fang-chih, and the description in the Fo-kuo-chi. In these treatises the words tu, tu-ch'êng, and ch'êng, all used in the sense of capital, are the equivalents of our pilgrim's kung-ch'êng. His usual term for the chief city of a country is tu-tu-ch'êng, and he seems to use tu-ch'êng here in a peculiar sense. It has been suggested by a learned and intelligent native scholar that the tu-ch'êng of this passage denotes the towns and cities of Kosala which were inferior and subordinate to the capital, the kung-ch'êng. The tu-ch'êng of ancient China were the cities which were the official residences of the subordinate feudal chiefs whose sovereign reigned at the royal capital. According to this interpretation the pilgrim states that the other cities of the country were in such utter de-
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cient inscribed statue from Śrāvastī, by Th. Bloch Ph. D. (J. A. S. Bengal Vol. LXVII. p. 274.)
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solation that their boundaries could not be defined; but the capital, though also in ruins, had old foundations by which its area could be ascertained. But it is perhaps better to take *tu-ch'êng* here as meaning "the Śrāvasti district".
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The pilgrim here tells us that Śrāvasti had some hundreds of Buddhist monasteries, very many of which were in ruins. This statement as to the number of Buddhist monasteries in the district is not in agreement with other accounts which represent Śrāvasti as having only two or three Buddhist establishments. It will be noticed that Yuan-chuang mentions by name only one monastery, viz.—the great one of the Jetavana. Fa-hsien, however, tells of 98 (in some texts 18) monasteries, all except one occupied, being round the Jetavana vihāra. The translation which our pilgrim gives for the name Prasenajit (in Pali, Pasenadi) is *Shêng-chün* (勝軍) or "Overcoming army". I-ching, who transcribes the king's name as in the text and also by *P'o-se-ni* (波斯匿), gives our pilgrim's translation and another rendering, *shêng-kuang* (勝光).¹ The latter means "Excelling brightness", and the name is said to have been given to the son born to Brahmadatta king of Kosala on the morning of the birth of the Buddha, on account of the supernatural brightness which then appeared. Another rendering for the name transcribed *P'o-se-ni* is *Ho-yue* (和悅) which means *cheerful, happy-looking*.² The two latter translations seem to require as their original a derivative from *prasad* (the Pali pasidati), and the transcription *P'o-se-ni*, which is the one in general use, seems to point to a dialectic variety like *Pasenid*.
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¹ Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih, *ch*. 20; Rockhill's *Life* p. 16.
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² Shih-êrh-yu-ching (No. 1374)
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Of the old sites in Śrāvasti of which our pilgrim here tells us, the nunnery, the house of Sudatta, and the place of Aṅgulimāla's conversion are mentioned by Fa-hsien. But the earlier pilgrim does not seem to have known of or seen the remains of the king’s palace or those of the chapel built by the king for the Buddha.
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In Julien’s translation of the last paragraph in the above account of the ancient sites of Śrāvastī city we have one of his mischievous glosses, which has been, as usual, followed and adopted by others. He translates— “Ce fut en cet endroit qu’[un des sectaires appelés] Yang-kiu-li-mo-lo (Aṅgouli-malyas), abjura ses erreurs”. There is nothing in the text to warrant the words which I have put within square brackets. If Julien had known the story he would not have written thus, nor of “les Aṅgoulimā-lyas”, and “des scélérats du royaume de Çrāvastī” in the continuation. The pilgrim’s narrative tells of only one man who had obtained the ill-sounding nick-name Angulimāla or Finger-garland. As the pilgrim knew the story this man was only a cruel murderer of Śrāvastī who cut off a finger from each person he killed, and strung the fingers into a garland. He also wanted to kill his own mother and the Buddha to secure him rebirth in Heaven.
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The story of this terrible murderer is told more fully and with several variations of detail in other books. In some versions of the story the original name of the man was Ahimsaka or Innocent, in Chinese Wu-nao (無惱) or Inoffensive. He was at first a brahmin student of marvellous bodily and mental powers, and he was the disciple of a celebrated master. This master had a wife fair and frail, and Ahimsaka was falsely accused by her of having made an attack on her virtue. Fearing to lay violent hands on the troublesome clever disciple the jealous master thought to get rid of him by a terrible task. So he enjoined on Ahimsaka the necessity of attaining to immortality by abstinence from all food for a week, and within that period collecting 1000 fingers from as many human beings, whom he was to slay with a certain sword. The disciple very reluctantly undertook the task, and went about killing people and cutting off a finger from each person he killed, until he had obtained 999 fingers. At this stage his mother having come to him with food he was about to kill her, in order to complete his tale, when the Buddha appeared on the scene. The misguided youth soon yielded to Buddha's power, was converted and ordained, and rapidly attained arhatship.¹ In some of the Buddhist Scriptures Finger-garland is merely a cruel highwayman robbing and murdering, and rendering the roads impassable. The Buddha goes to the district infested by the murderer, and he goes unattended moved by great compassion: he meets with the murderer, calls on him to stay in his evil course and give way to his good karma.²
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¹ M. B. p. 257. Hsien-yü-ching, *ch.* 11, and Der Weise u. d. T. S. 300: Ang-ku-mo-ching (No. 621) where the student has to collect 100 fingers: Tsêng-yi-a-han-ching, *ch.* 31.
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² Rhys Davids Questions of Milinda in S. B. E. Vol. XXXVI, p. 355: J. P. T. S. for 1888 p. 2: Fo-shuo-Ang-ku-chi-ching (No. 622).
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Our pilgrim and Fa-hsien, we have seen, found within Śrāvastī city a memorial of the place where this Finger-garland had been converted, and sanctified, and beatified. But this is against the general testimony of the Buddhist writings. According to these the murders were committed and the sudden conversion effected in the country beyond Śrāvastī³, or at a place very nearly ten yojanas from that city⁴, or in the Angutala country⁵, or in the land of Magadha.⁶
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³ Fo-shuo-ang-ku-chi-ching.
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⁴ Ang-ku-mo-lo-ching (No. 434).
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⁵ Tsa-a-han-ching, *ch.* 38 (Ang-ku-to-lo 揵 陀 羅).
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⁶ Pie-yi-tsa-a-han-ching, *ch.* 1.
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The pilgrim proceeding with his description relates as follows—
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"Five or six *li* south of the city is the *She-to* wood (Jetavana) which is the *kei-ku-tu-yuan* (Anāthapiṇḍadārāma) the temple which king Prasenajit's great Minister Sudatta erected for the Buddha: formerly it was a saṅghārāma (monastery), now it is in desolate ruin."
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According to Fa-hsien the Jetavana vihāra was 1200 *pu* (paces) outside the south gate of Śrāvastī, on the west side of the road, with a gate opening to the east, that is, toward the highway. The 1200 *pu* of this account made above 5000 feet, and so the two pilgrims are in substantial agreement as to the situation of the Jetavana monastery. In other accounts this establishment is represented as being at a convenient distance from the city of Śrāvasti¹, but Nāgārjuna seems to describe it as having been within the city.² The term here, as before, rendered "temple" is *ching-shê*, and Yuan-chuang seems to use it in this passage in the sense of "vihāra". This is the sense in which the term is commonly used by the early Chinese Buddhist writers and translators. Thus Fa-hsien calls the great establishment now under notice the *Ch'i-huan* (for Jetavana)-*ching-shê*. In our text this term is evidently used as the equivalent of *ārāma*, in the sense of monastery, and covers all the buildings of the great establishment.
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¹ See the She-wei-kuo-Ch'i-huan-ssŭ-t'u-ching (舍衛國祇洹寺圖經); Ssŭ-fên-lü, ch. 50; Sêng-ki-lü, ch. 23.
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² Fu-kai-chêng-hsing-so-chi-ching, ch. 4: Tsêng-yi-a-han-ching, ch. 33.
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The name "Sudatta" is translated by our pilgrim *Shan-shih* (善施) or "Well-bestowed" (also interpreted as "Good-giver"), and his *kei-ku-tu* is the old and common rendering for Anāthapiṇḍada. Yuan-chuang here calls Sudatta a "high official" (ta-ch'ên 大臣), and this title is applied to the man by other writers³, but he was only a seṭṭhi or Householder. He had been engaged in trade, and had enormous wealth; he is said to have been a butcher, but this is probably a late invention.
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³ e. g. in Hsien-yü-ching, ch. 10.
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At the east gate of the Jetavana monastery were two stone pillars, one on each side of the entrance: these, which were 70 feet high, had been erected by king Asoka; the pillar on the left side was surmounted by a sculptured wheel and that on the right side by an ox.
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The statement in this paragraph agrees precisely with Fa-hsien's account of the two pillars. Julien's rendering of it is inexplicable and Beal's is not correct.
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On the site of the Jetavana monastery the pilgrim found only one building standing in solitary loneliness. This building was the brick shrine which contained the image of the Buddha made for king Prasenajit. This image, which was five feet high, was a copy of that made for king Udayana of Kosambī already mentioned.
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This shrine was also the only building which Fa-hsien found in the Jetavana, and according to him it was the image in it which came from its pedestal to meet the Buddha on his return from the Trayastriṃśa Heaven, and which was to serve as a model for all future images of the Buddha.
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We have next Yuan-chuang's version of the oft-told story how the Jetavana, and the Anathapiṇḍada ārama came into the possession of the Buddhists.
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The seṭṭhi Sudatta, noted for his munificent charity, wished to build a vihāra for the Buddha whom he invited to visit him at his home in Śrāvastī. Buddha sent Śāriputra as an expert to act as manager in the matter for Sudatta. The only suitable site that could be found near Śrāvastī was the Park of Prince Jeta. When the Elder asked the prince to sell his park the prince said joking— "Yes, for as many gold coins as will cover it". This answer delighted Sudatta, and he at once proceeded to cover the ground with gold coins from his treasury (not as Julien has it, from the trésor royal). When all the ground except a small piece was covered the prince "asked Sudatta to desist, saying— "The Buddha truly is an excellent field, it is meet I sow good seed": so on the uncovered ground he erected a temple". Then the Buddha said to Ananda that as the ground of the park had been bought by Sudatta, and the trees had been given by Prince Jeta, the two men having like intentions, their merits should be respected and the place spoken of as "Jeta's trees Anāthapiṇḍada's ārama".
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In Julien's rendering of this passage he makes the pilgrim represent Sudatta as *unable* to cover all the Park with gold, but this is not in the text. Then Julien translates the words *Fo-ch'êng-liang-t'ien* (佛 誠 良 田) by "C'est, en vérité, l'excellent champ du Bouddha", but this is not at all the meaning of the expression. The words state plainly that the Buddha is an "excellent field" or generous soil, and this sort of expression is of very common occurrence in the Buddhist Scriptures. To give alms of food or clothing, or do any service to Buddhas, P'usas, or eminent monks or nuns, was to sow good seed in good ground, the crop to be reaped either in this life or in one to come. Hence the beings to whom such meritorious services are rendered are called "excellent fields", and of these the most "excellent field" always is the Buddha. In the present case the Prince wished to share in the reward which Sudatta would have, and in order to secure this result he remitted a portion of the price for the ground and built a "temple" (*ching-shê*) for the Buddha on the space unoccupied by gold coins. Some other accounts represent Jeta as refusing to sell even for as many gold coins as would cover the park; and when Sudatta claims that the mention of a sum makes a bargain, and Jeta maintains it does not, the Judges to whom the matter is referred decide against the Prince. This last is also represented as contributing a porch or vestibule to Sudatta's vihāra, and in no case is he described as building the whole monastery.¹ The statement which Yuan-chuang here makes the Buddha address to Ananda about the trees having been given by the Prince, and the ground purchased by Sudatta, is a stupid invention to account for the common way of designating the vihāra in Chinese translations. It was not the pilgrim, however, who invented the story, as it is found in other accounts of the transaction.²
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¹ Ssŭ-fên-lü 1. c.; Chung-hsü-ching, *ch.* 11 (No. 859).
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² *c. g.* in *Fo-shuo-Po-ching-ch'ao* (No. 379).
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The original Jetavana monastery, which was probably neither very large nor substantial and was not well protected, was destroyed by fire in the Buddha's lifetime.³ After the death of Sudatta the place was neglected as there was no one to look after the grounds and buildings. A new vihāra was afterwards built on a greater scale but this also was burnt to the ground. At one time, we read, the place was utterly abandoned by the Buddhist Brethren and was used as the king’s stables, but the buildings were again rebuilt and reoccupied by Buddhist monks. In its palmy days, before its final destruction and abandonment, the Jetavana monastery must have been a very large and magnificent establishment. We may believe this without accepting all the rather legendary descriptions of it still extant. Some authorities give the extent of the Park as 80 ching or about 130 square acres.¹ Others tell us that the grounds were about ten li (or two miles) in length by above 700 pu (paces) in with, and that they contained 120 buildings, or even several hundred houses of various kinds.² There were chapels for preaching and halls for meditation, messrooms and chambers for the monks, bathhouses, a hospital, libraries and reading-rooms, with pleasant shady tanks, and a great wall encompassing all. The Libraries were richly furnished, not only with orthodox literature but also with Vedic and other non-Buddhist works, and with treatises on the arts and sciences taught in India at the time. The monastery was also well situated, being conveniently near the city, and yet away from the distracting sights and noises of the streets. Moreover the Park afforded a perfect shade, and was a delightful place for walking in during the heat and glare of the day; it had streams and tanks of clear cool water; it was also free from noxious stinging creatures; and it was a favourite resort of the good and devotional people of all religions. The native beauties and advantages of the place had been greatly improved by its first Buddhist occupants, for the Buddha directed his disciples to plant trees in the grounds and by the roadside. He also caused the grounds to be protected from goats and cattle, and had a supply of water brought in by artificial means.³
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³ Shih-sung-lü, *ch.* 61.
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¹ Fo-shuo-Poh-ching-ch'ao.
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² Shê-wei-kuo-Ch'i-huan-ssŭ-t'u-ching: Shih-êrh-yu-ching (No. 1374 tr. A. D. 392).
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³ Ssŭ-fên-lü, ch. 50.
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Continuing his description Yuan-chuang tells us that at the north-east of the Anāthapiṇḍadārāma was a tope to mark the spot at which the Buddha washed a sick bhikshu. This was a Brother who was suffering pain and living in isolation. The Master seeing him asked him what was his malady and why he was living alone. The Brother replied— I am of an indolent disposition and intolerant of medical treatment, so I am now very ill and have no one to attend on me. Then the Buddha was moved with pity and said to him— Good sir, I am now your medical attendant. Thereupon he stroked the patient with his hand, and all the man's ailments were cured. The Buddha then bore him outside the chamber, changed his bed, washed him and dressed him in clean clothes, and told him to be zealous and energetic. Hearing this the Brother felt grateful and became happy in mind and comfortable in body.
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This story is related in several of the Buddhist Scriptures with some variations of detail. According to the Vinaya, and some other authorities, the Buddha and Ānanda one day going the rounds of the Jetavana establishment found a Brother lying in a chamber apart from all the others, and suffering from a troublesome and unpleasant malady. The sick man, who was apparently quite helpless, explained to Buddha that the Brethren left him to himself because he had been useless to them. This means that he had been a selfish lazy man refusing to help others or do his proper share of work. In the Vinaya the incident is made the occasion of the Buddha drawing up rules for the care to be taken of a sick bhikshu by the Brethren.¹ In one book the Buddha is represented as telling the neglected sick Brother that his present misfortunes were the result of ill conduct in a previous existence.² In two treatises the scene of the incident is laid at Rājagaha, and these have other differences of detail.³
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¹ Vin. Mah. VIII. 26: Sêng-ki-lü, ch. 28. See also the story in Vibhāshā-lun, ch. 11 (scene not given).
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² Fo-shuo-shêng-ching, ch. 3 (No. 669 tr. A. D. 285).
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³ Tsêng-yi-a-han-ching, ch. 40; P'u-sa-pên-shêng-man-lun, ch. 4 (No. 1312 tr. cir. A. D. 970).
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To the north-west of the ārāma, we are next told, was a small tope which marked the spot at which Maudgala-putra (Maudgalyāyana or Moggallāno) made an ineffectual attempt to raise the girdle (or belt) of Śāriputra against the will of the latter. Once, the pilgrim relates, when the Buddha was at the Anavatapta Lake with a congregation of men and devas he discovered that Śāriputra was absent, and he sent Maudgalaputra through the air to summon him to the meeting. In a trice Maudgalaputra was in the Jetavana Vihāra where he found Śāriputra mending his canonical robes. When the Master's request was communicated to him Śāriputra said he would go as soon as his mending was finished, but Maudgalaputra threatened to carry him off by his supernormal powers. Śāriputra then cast his girdle on the floor and challenged his friend to lift it. Maudgalaputra tried all his magical powers; but although he produced an earthquake he could not move the girdle. So he went back alone through the air to Buddha, and on his arrival found Śāriputra already seated in the congregation. Thereupon Maudgalaputra declared that he had learned from this occurrence that the potency of *riddhi* (possession of supernormal physical powers) was inferior to that of *prajñā* (spiritual intuition or transcendental wisdom).
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This little story is told in several Buddhist treatises with considerable additions. In the "Ts'êng-yi-a-han-ching"¹ it is the Dragon-king of the Anavatapta Lake who misses Śāriputra from the congregation, and asks Buddha to send for him. Here the legend is given with ridiculous wild exaggerations and, in Yuan-chuang's version, there is the presence of an unfriendly feeling between the two great disciples. In the "Ta-chih-tu-lun"² the Buddha and his arhats are assembled at the Anavatapta Lake for the purpose of hearing jātakas told, and Śāriputra is missed. Maudgalyāyana is sent to bring him, and in order to hasten matters he finishes the mending of Śāriputra's garment by magic, a procedure which suggests to Śāriputra the idea of the trial of *prajñā* against *riddhi*. When Maudgalyāyana saw that he could not even lift his friend's girdle from the ground against the owner's will, he knew it was useless to think of taking the man himself by the ear, or the shoulder, through the air to the Anavatapta Lake. The Buddha used this incident, as he used certain other events, to teach the superiority of high spiritual attainments over the possession of great magical powers.
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¹ *Ch. 29.*
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² *Ch. 45.*
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Near the "Raising-the girdle Tope", the pilgrim proceeds, was a well from which water had been drawn for the use of the Buddha. Close to it was an Asoka tope containing a relic of the Buddha, and there were in the vicinity, at places where he took exercise and preached, memorial topes at which there were miraculous manifestations with divine music and fragrance. At a short distance behind the Jetavana monastery was the place at which certain non-Buddhist Brahmachārins slew a harlot in order to bring reproach on the Buddha. These men, as Yuan-chuang's story goes, hired this harlot to attend the Buddha's discourses and thus become known to all. Then they secretly killed her and buried her body in the Park. Having done this they proceeded to appeal to the king for redress, and he ordered investigation to be made. When the body was discovered at the monastery the heretics exclaimed that the great Śramana Gautama, who was always talking of morality and gentleness, after having had illicit intercourse with the woman had murdered her to prevent her from talking. But thereupon the devas in the air cried out that this was a slander of the heretics.
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Fa-hsien and other authorities give the name of the unfortunate harlot of this story as Sundarī. This, it will be remembered, was the name of the fair charmer who once led astray a wise and holy ascetic. The word means *beautiful woman*, and it is rendered in some Chinese translations by *Huo-shou* or "Good-Head".¹ The woman of our story is also called Sundaranandī,² which is the name of a nun in the primitive Buddhist church. She is represented as the disciple (and apparently, the mistress) of one of the old non-Buddhist teachers of Kosala (or of another district). Seeing these teachers distressed at the growing preeminence of Gautama Buddha, she suggested to them the expedient here described for ruining Gautama and restoring her master and the other teachers to their former position of influence. But some authorities like Yuan-chuang and Fa-hsien represent the harlot as having been forced by the Brahmins to attend the Buddha's sermons, and afterwards submit to be murdered. According to one account the Buddha had in ages before been an actor, and the woman a harlot at the same time and in the same place: the actor had then killed the harlot for her ornaments, and buried her body at the hermitage of a Pratyeka Buddha.¹ In another old story this Sundari had been in a former birth a wicked queen, and the Buddha had been the wise and faithful servant of the king her husband.²
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¹ Fo-shuo-yi-tsu-ching, *ch.* 1 (No. 674).
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² P'u-sa-ch'u-t'ai-ching, *ch.* 7 (No. 433).
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¹ Hsing-ch'i-hsing-ching (No. 733).
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² Fo-shuo-Poh-ching-ch'ao.
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Continuing his narrative the pilgrim states that above 100 paces to the east of the Jetavana monastery was a deep pit through which Devadatta, for having sought to kill the Buddha by poison, went down alive into Hell. Devadatta, the son of Hu-fan-wang ("Peck-food-king"), had in the course of twelve years by zealous perseverance acquired the 80,000 compendia of doctrine; and afterwards, for the sake of its material advantages, he had sought to attain supernormal power. He associated with the irreligious (lit. wicked friends) and reasoned with them thus— "I have all the outward signs of the Buddha except two, a great Congregation attends me, and I am as good as the Ju-lai". Putting these thoughts in practice he broke up the Brotherhood (that is, by alluring disciples from the Buddha to himself). But Maudgalyaputra and Sariputra, under Buddha's instructions and by his power, won the strayed Brethren back. Devadatta, however, kept his evil mind, put poison in his finger-nails with a view to kill Buddha in the act of doing him reverence, and fared as in the story.
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The temporary "breaking up" of the Brotherhood instituted by Gautama Buddha by the schism caused by his cousin Devadatta is a famous incident in the history of the primitive Buddhist Church. The story of the schism is narrated in several books at greater or less length and with a few variations of detail.³ According to some accounts there were 500 weak young Brethren seduced from the Buddha by Devadatta, and after a short time brought back again by Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana. These 500 men then misled by the great schismatic had been his dupes many ages before. In one of their former births they had all been monkeys forming a band of 500 with a chief who was Devadatta in his monkey existence. On the advice of their chief these simple monkeys set themselves to draw the moon out of a well, and were all drowned in the attempt by the breaking of the branch by which they were swinging.¹
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³ Vin. Chul. VII. 3; Rockhill Life p. 94; Dh. p. 145; Ssu-fên-lü, ch 46.
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¹ Sêng-ki-lü, ch. 7.
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It is worthy of note in connection with Yuan-chuang's description that Fa-hsien did not see any pit here. The latter describes the spots at which the wicked woman and Devadatta went down into Hell as having marks of identification given to them by men of subsequent times. The design and attempt to murder the Buddha by poison here described by Yuan-chuang are mentioned also by Fa-hsien, and they are found in the Tibetan texts translated by Mr Rockhill,² but they are not in all the accounts of Devadatta's proceedings. The great learning and possession of magical powers here ascribed to Devadatta are mentioned in some of the canonical works, and his claim to be the equal of his cousin in social and religious qualifications is also given.³ But his abrupt bodily descent into Hell is generally ascribed to other causes than merely the abortive attempt to poison the Buddha.
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² Rockhill Life p. 107.
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³ Shih-sung-lü, ch. 36; Tsêng-yi-a-han-ching, ch. 47; Abhi-ta-vib., ch. 116.
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Our pilgrim here, as we have seen, calls Devadatta's father Hu-fan-wang which is a literal rendering of Droṇodanarāja. This Droṇodanarāja was a brother of king Suddhodana the father of Gautama Buddha. By a strange slip of the pen Julien makes the pilgrim here describe Devadatta as "le fils du roi Ho-wang", and the mistake is of course repeated by others. We are to meet with this troublesome man Devadatta again in the Records.
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To the south of Devadatta's fosse, Yuan-chuang continues, was another pit through which the bhikshu *Ku-ka-li* (Kokālika) having slandered the Buddha went down alive into Hell.
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This man Kokālika is better known as a partisan of Devadatta than as an enemy of the Buddha. He was, we learn from other sources, an unscrupulous friend and follower of Devadatta, always praising his master and calling right wrong and wrong right in agreement with him. They had met in a former state of existence when Kokālika was a crow and Devadatta a jackal. The latter had scented the corpse of an unburied eunuch, and had nearly devoured its flesh, when the hungry crow, eager to get bones to pick, praised and flattered the jackal in fulsome lying phrases. To these the latter replied in a similar strain, and their feigning language brought on them a rebuke from a rishi who was the P'usa.¹
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¹ Fo-shuo-shêng-ching, *ch*. 3; Sar. Vin. P'o-sêng-shih, *ch*. 18.
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Still farther south above 800 *paces*, the pilgrim proceeds, was a third deep pit or trench. By this *Chan-che*, the Brahmin woman, for having calumniated the Buddha, passed alive into Hell. Yuan-chuang then tells his version of the story of Chan-che whom he calls a disciple of the Non-Buddhists. In order to disgrace and ruin Gautama, and bring her masters into repute and popularity, she fastened a wooden basin under her clothes in front. Then she went to the Jetavana monastery and openly declared that she was with child, illicitly, to the preacher, and that the child in her womb was a Sakya. She was believed by all the heretics; but the orthodox knew she was speaking slander. Then Indra, as a rat, exposed the wicked trick, and the woman went down to "Unremitting Hell" to bear her retribution.
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The loyal bad woman of this story, called by the pilgrim "Chan-che the Brahmin woman", is the *Chincha-mānavikā* of the Pali Scriptures². This Pali name may also be the original for the *Chan-che-mo-na* of Fa-hsien and others, another form of transcription of the name being *Chan-che-mo-na-k'i* with *nü*, "woman", added.³ But we find the original name translated by *Pao-chih* (暴志) or "Fierce-minded", that is, Caṇḍamānā, which was apparently the early form of the name.¹ In a Chinese translation of a Buddhist work the woman is designated simply the "Many-tongued Woman".² According to one authority she was a disciple of the Tirthika teacher Keśakambala, and it was at the instigation of this teacher that she pretended to be with child to the Buddha in the manner here described. Another version of the story, and perhaps the earliest one, makes Chan-che (or Caṇḍā) a Buddhist nun led astray by evil influences. When her trick with the basin is discovered she is sentenced to be buried alive, but the Buddha intercedes for her, and she is only banished. Then the Buddha gives a very satisfactory explanation of the woman's conduct. She had come in contact with him long ago in his existence as a dealer in pearls, and he had then incurred her resentment. They had also met in another stage of their previous lives when the P'usa was a monkey, and Chanche was the relentless wife of the Turtle (or the Crocodile) and wanted to eat the monkey's liver. So her desire to inflict injury on the Buddha was a survival from a very old enmity.³ The Pali accounts and Fa-hsien agree with Yuan-chuang in representing Chan-che as going down alive into Hell, but, as has been stated, Fa-hsien differs from Yuan-chuang in not making mention of the pit by which she was said to have passed down.⁴
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² Dh.p. 338; Jāt. 3.298; 4.187. Chinchi in Hardy M. B. p. 284.
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³ P'u-sa-ch'ü-t'ai-ching, *ch*. 7.
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¹ Fo-shuo-shêng-ching, ch. 1 (Here Chan-che is a nun).
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² I-tsing-ch'i-hsing-ching, ch. 1.
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³ Fo-shuo-shêng-ching, ch. 1: Jātaka (tr. Chalmers) Vol. I. p. 142.
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⁴ In some of the books e. g. in the Ch'ü-t'ai-ching and the Fo-shuo-shêng-ching the woman does not undergo any punishment; in the former treatise moreover the occurrence takes place at Vesālī.
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The narrative next tells us that 60 or 70 paces to the east of the Jetavana Monastery was a temple (ching-shê) above sixty feet high which contained a sitting image of the Buddha with his face to the east. At this place the Julai had held discussion with the Tirthikas (wai-tao). To the east of this ching-shê was a Deva-Temple of the same dimensions which was shut out from the western sun in the evening by the Buddhist temple, while the latter in the morning was not deprived of the rays of the sun by the Deva-Temple.
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Fa-hsien also saw these two temples, and he has given a similar account of them. But he applies the name Ying-fu (影覆) or "Shadow Cover" to the Deva-temple while Yuan-chuang gives it to the Buddha-temple: in the former case the term means *Overshadowed* and in the latter it means *Overshadowing*.
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Three or four *li* east from the *Overshadowing* Temple, Yuan-chuang continues, was a tope at the place where Sāriputta had discussed with the Tīrthikas. When Sāriputta came to Śrāvastī to help Sudatta in founding his monastery the six non-Buddhist teachers challenged him to a contest as to magical powers and Sāriputta excelled his competitors.
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The contest of this passage took place while Sāriputta was at Śrāvastī assisting Sudatta in the construction of the great monastery. But the competition was not with the "six great teachers": it was with the chiefs of the local sects, who wished to have the young and successful rival in religion excluded from the district. In our passage it will be noted that the pilgrim writes of Sāriputta discussing with the non-Buddhists, and this seems to be explained as meaning that he fought them on the point of magical powers. This is in agreement with the story as told in some of the Buddhist books. All the leading opponents of the Buddha were invited to meet Sāriputta at an open discussion: they came and when all were seated the spokesman of the Brahmins, Red-eye by name, was invited to state the subject of discussion.¹ He thereupon intimated that he wished to compete with Sāriputta in the exhibition of magical powers: this was allowed and the result was that Sāriputta came off conqueror.
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¹ Chung-hsü-ching, *ch.* 12; Rockhill Life p. 48. This tope to Sāriputra is not mentioned by Fa-hsien; it is perhaps the tope to Sāriputra in the Jetavana pointed out to Asoka in the Divyāv. p. 394; A-yü-wang-chuan, *ch.* 2.
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Beside the Sāriputra Tope was a temple (*ching-she*) in front of which was a tope to the Buddha. It was here that the Buddha worsted his religious opponents in argument, and received Mother Visākhā's invitation.
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The spot at which the Buddha silenced his proud and learned opponents at Śrāvastī was supposed to have been marked by a special tope. This was one of the Eight Great Topes, already referred to, associated with the Buddha's career. We cannot regard the tope of this paragraph, or the temple of a previous passage, as the celebrated Great Tope of Śrāvastī.¹
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¹ Dr. Hoey proposes to identify the *ching-shê* with its tope of this passage with "the ruins named Baghaha Bári" near Sahet Mahet, and he thinks that this may be the site of "Visākha's Pūrvarāma". But this is quite impossible, and the pilgrim does not note, as Dr. Hoey says he does, that the *ching-shê* was "in strict dependence on the Sanghārāma (of the Jetavana)", op. c. p. 38.
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Of the lady here called "Mother Visākhā" we have to make mention presently. The *invitation* or request here mentioned was probably connected with the Hall she made for the Buddha and his disciples.²
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² Or the request which the Buddha accepted may have been Mother Visākhā's petition to be allowed to present robes to the Brethren.
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To the south of the Accepting-invitation Tope, the pilgrim proceeds, was the place at which king Virūḍhaka, on his way to destroy the Sakyas, saw the Buddha, and turned back with his army. When Virūḍhaka ascended the throne, Yuan-chuang relates, he raised a great army and set out on the march [from Śrāvastī to Kapilavastu] to avenge a former insult. A bhikshu reported the circumstance to the Buddha; who thereupon left Śrāvastī, and took his seat under a dead tree by the roadside. When the king came up he recognized Buddha, dismounted, and paid him lowly reverence. He then asked the Buddha why he did not go for shade to a tree with leaves and branches. "My clan are my branches and leaves", replied Buddha, "and as they are in danger what shelter can I have?" The king said to himself—"The Lord is taking the side of his relatives — let me return". So he looked on Buddha moved with compassion, and called his army home.
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Near this place, the pilgrim goes on, was a tope to mark the spot at which 500 Sakya maidens were dismembered by this same king's orders. When Virūḍhaka had taken his revenge on the Sakyas he selected 500 of their maidens for his harem. But these young ladies were haughty, and refused to go, "abusing the king as the son of a slave" (li-ch'i-wang-chia-jen-chih-tzŭ 詈其王家人之子). When the king learned what they had done, he was wroth, and ordered that the maidens should be killed by mutilation. So their hands and feet were cut off, and their bodies were thrown into a pit. While the maidens were in the agonies of dying they called on the Buddha, and he heard them. Telling his disciples to bring garments (that is, for the naked maidens) he went to the place of execution. Here he preached to the dying girls on the mysteries of his religion, on the binding action of the five desires, the three ways of transmigration, the separation from the loved, and the long course of births and deaths. The maidens were purified and enlightened by the Buddha's teaching, and they all died at the same time and were reborn in Heaven. Indra in the guise of a Brahmin had their bodies collected and cremated, and men afterwards erected the tope at the place.
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Not far from this tope, the pilgrim tells us, was a large dried-up pond, the scene of Virūḍhaka's extinction. The Buddha had predicted that at the end of seven days from the time of the prophecy the king would perish by fire. When it came to the seventh day the king made up a pleasure party by water and remained in his barge with the ladies of his harem on the water in order to escape the predicted fate. But his precautions were in vain, and on that day a fierce fire broke out on his barge, and the king went alive through blazes into the Hell of unittermitting torture.
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We are to meet with this king Virūḍhaka again presently in connection with his sack of Kapilavastu. Fa-hsien, without mentioning the dead tree, makes the place at which the Buddha waited for Virūḍhaka to have been four li to the south-east of Śrāvastī city and he says there was a tope at the spot. In Buddha's reply to the king about his kindred being branches and leaves there was probably in the original a pun on the words śākhā, a branch, and Śākya. By the answer of the Buddha the king knew that he was speaking from an affectionate interest in his relatives, and the king was accordingly moved to recall his army. The Buddha repeated the interview with the king twice and then left the Śākyas to the consequences of their karma.
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The number of Śākya maidens carried off by Virūḍhaka is reduced to six in the Vibhāshā-lun¹, but some other treatises have the 500 of our text.² In one treatise the number of the maidens is raised to 12 000, and they are all made whole by Buddha, and become bhikshunīs.³
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¹ Ch. 11.
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² Tsêng-yi-a-han-ching, ch. 26; Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih, ch. 9; Rockhi Life p. 121.
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³ Ta-pan-nie-p'an-ching, ch. 14 (No. 114).
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The Chinese words here rendered "abusing the king as a son of a slave" are translated by Julien— "accablèrent d'injures les fils de la famille royale". But this cannot be accepted; and the meaning seems clearly to be that the young ladies called their king insultingly "son of a slave", that is, of a slave mother. Virūḍhaka's mother, we know, had actually been a household slave, but "son of a female slave" seems to have been among the Sakyas a favourite term of abuse for the king of Kosala.
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By the "three ways of transmigration" of Buddha's address to the maidens the pilgrim probably meant us to understand the way of pain, the way of perplexity, and the way of moral action. These three "ways" are the agents which by their constant interaction produce the ceaseless revolutions of life and death.⁴ But the term san-t'u (or its equivalent san-tao) is also used by the Buddhists in several other senses.
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⁴ Ta-ming-san-tsang-fa-shu, ch. 12 (No. 1621).
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Continuing his narrative the pilgrim relates that three or four li to the north-west of the Jetavana Vihāra was the "Wood of obtained eyes (T'ê-yen-lin 得眼林) in which were traces of an exercise-place of the Buddha, and scenes of arhats' samādhi, all marked by memorial topes. The story was that once 500 brigands had harried this country. When these criminals were arrested king Prasenajit caused their eyes to be torn out, and the men to be abandoned in a deep wood. Here they cried in their sufferings on the Buddha who, in the Jetavana monastery, heard their cry, and was moved with pity. A genial breeze blew healing from the Snow-Mountains, and the men regained eyes and sight. When they saw the Buddha before them they became converted, paid joyful homage to the Buddha, and went away leaving their sticks which took root.
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Fa-hsien, who also places the "Wood of obtained eyes" four *li* to the north-west of the Jetavana Vihāra, does not know of brigands, and the 500 who receive their sight and plant their sticks were blind men resident at the monastery. Julien suggests "Āptanetravana" as possibly the Sanskrit original for "Wood of obtained eyes", but we know that the name was Andhavana. This means the *dark* or *blind wood*, and it was translated by *An-lin* (闇林) with the same meaning, or by *Chou-an-lin*, the "Wood of day-darkness". "Obtained Eyes" and "Opened Eyes" (*kai-yen*) are names which must have been given long after the Buddha's time, and it is possible that they exist only in translations. The Andhavana, as we learn from the pilgrims and the Buddhist scriptures, was a favourite resort of the Buddhist Brethren for meditation and other spiritual exercises. Here the early bhikshus and bhikshunīs spent a large portion of their time in the afternoons sitting under the trees on the mats which they had carried on their shoulders for the purpose. The Wood was very cool and quiet, impervious to the sun's rays, and free from mosquitoes and other stinging torments.¹
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¹ See Sêng-ki-lü, *ch.* 9; Tsông-yi-a-han-ching, *ch.* 33; Vibhāshā-lun, *ch.* 13; Sam. Nik. Vol. I. p. 128, 135 (P. T. S.). In the Sêng-ki-lü (*ch.* 29) we find the rendering "opening eyes wood", and so in other places.
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Before we pass on to the next city in our pilgrim's narrative we may notice some of the more important omissions from his list of the interesting sights of the Śrāvastī district. There were two mountains in this district, one called the *T'a-shan* or Pagoda Hill, that is perhaps, Chaityagiri, and the other called the *Su* (in some texts *P'o-lo-lo* or Salar (?) mountain, and of neither of these have we any mention.² Some of the serious Brethren in the early church resorted to these mountains, and lived on them for several months. Then our pilgrim does not notice the *A-chi-lo* (阿耆 (or 𡈼) 羅) or Aciravatī River which flowed south-eastwards past the Śrāvasti city: nor does he mention the Sundara (or Sun-t'ê-li) or Sundarikā River.¹ We read in other books also of the "Pond of Dismemberment", and this is not mentioned by the pilgrim. It was the basin of water near which the Sakya maidens were mutilated and left to perish. This is apparently the Pu-to-li, the "celebrated water of Śrāvasti", also called Patali and Patala. The Tibetan translators apparently had Patali which they reproduce literally by "red-coloured". But the original was perhaps Pātala which is the name of a Hell, and it will be remembered that Yuan-chuang places the pond or lake through which Virūḍhaka went down into Hell close to the spot at which the maidens were mutilated. Then the lake is said to have received a name from this dismemberment. In the Avadāna Kalpalatā it is called the Hastagarbha or "Hand-containing" Lake, and this is apparently the meaning of the Tibetan name which Rockhill seems to translate "the pool of the severed hand".² Then that one of the Eight Great Topes of the Buddha which was at Śrāvasti is not mentioned, unless we are to regard it as the tope at Buddha's shrine already noticed. But the strangest and most unaccountable omission is that of the Pūrvārāma or East monastery. This great and famous establishment was erected by Visākhā known in religion as "Mrigāra's Mother". She was actually the daughter-in-law of Mrigāra; but after she converted that man, and made him a devout Buddhist, she was called his mother. In Pali her monastery is called Pubbārāma Migāramātu Pāsāda, that is, the East Monastery the Palace of Migāra's mother. This name is translated literally into Chinese, but the translators also render Migāramātu by Lu-mu or "Deer-mother", and Migāra is "Deer-son". This monastery which was second only to the Jetavana Vihāra was in a disused royal park. There were buildings at it for the residence of the bhikshus and bhikshuṇīs, and there were quiet halls for meditation and for religious discourse. Fa-hsien makes mention of this famous establishment and places its site six or seven *li* to the north-east of the Jetavana Vihāra. This agrees with references to the monastery in other books which place it to the east (or in the east part) of the city, and not far from the Jetavana.¹
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² Sêng-ki-lü, *ch.* 32 (*T'a-shan*); Chung-a-han-ching, *ch.* 8 (So or *P'o-lo-lo shan*).
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¹ Sêng-ki-lü, *ch.* 15 et al. (A-chi-fo river); Chung-a-han-ching, *ch.* 29; Tsông-yi-a-han-ching, *ch.* 6; Tsa-a-han-ching, *ch.* 47; Sam. Nik. Vol. I. p. 167; Fa-chü-pi-yü-ching, *ch.* 1.
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² Sêng-ki-lü, *ch.* 3; Shih-sung-lü, *ch.* 46; Rockhill Life p. 121.
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¹ M. B. p. 233; Angut. Nik. Vol. III. p. 344 (P. T. S.); Tsa-a-han-ching, *ch.* 36; Chung-a-han-ching, *ch.* 29; Ta-chih-tu-lun, *ch.* 3. The term Pūrvārāma (or Pubbārāma) is sometimes interpreted as meaning "what was formerly an ārāma", or "a former ārāma", but this does not seem so suitable as "East ārāma". In the Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih, *ch.* 11, 1-ching has *Lu-tzŭ-mu-chiu-yuan* (鹿子母講園) or "the old ārāma of Migaramata".
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Above sixty *li* to the north-west of Śrāvastī, the pilgrim narrates, was an old city, the home of Kaśyapa the previous Buddha. To the south of this old city was a tope where this Buddha after attaining bodhi met his father, and to the north of the city was a tope with his bodily relics; these two topes had been erected by king Aśoka.
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Fa-hsien, who places Kāśyapa Buddha’s natal city 50 *li* to the west of Śrāvastī, calls the city *Tu-wei* (都維). These characters probably represent a sound like Topi, and the city is perhaps that called *Tu-yi* in a Vinaya treatise.² Fa-hsien also mentions topes at the places where Kāśyapa Buddha met his father, where he died, and where his body was preserved, but he does not ascribe any of these topes to Aśoka. Hardy’s authority makes Benares to have been the city of this Buddha and this agrees with several sūtras in Chinese translations. In a Vinaya treatise Benares is the city, and the king *Ki-li-ki* (吉利基) erects a grand tope at the place of Kassapa Buddha’s cremation.³
First 111 of 121 passages. Read on
Linked texts (10)
- Jātaka — Pāli
- 阿毘達磨大毘婆沙論 — Classical Chinese
- Divyāvadāna — Sanskrit
- Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra — Sanskrit
- Dhammapada — Pāli
- Ekottarāgama (Sanskrit fragments) — Sanskrit
- Vinayapiṭaka — Pāli
- Sarvāstivāda-vinaya — Classical Chinese
- Vibhāṣāśāstra — Sanskrit
- Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra (sixteen assemblies) — Sanskrit