On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c15.3

v1.c15.3

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