On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c15.53

v1.c15.53

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.