On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c15.57

v1.c15.57

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