On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c7.s9: Fo-Ho (Balkh)
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c7.s9
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Fo-Ho (Balkh)
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The narrative in the Records proceeds to relate that West (i. e. from *Hu-lin*) you reach *Fo-ho*. This country was above 800 *li* from east to west and 400 *li* north to south, reaching on the north to the Oxus. The capital, which all called "Little Rajagriha city," was above twenty *li* in circuit, but though it was strong it was thinly peopled. In natural products the district was rich and the land and water flowers were too many to enumerate. There were above 100 Buddhist monasteries with more than 3000 Brethren all adherents of the 'Small Vehicle' system.
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Outside the capital on the south-west side was the *Na-fo* (Nava)-Sangharama or New Monastery built by a former king of the country. This was the only Buddhist establishment north of the Hindu-Kush in which there was a constant succession of Masters who were commentators on the canon. The image of the Buddha in this monastery was artistically made of (according to one reading, studded with) noted precious substances, and its halls were adorned with costly rarities, hence it was plundered for gain by the chiefs of the various states. In the monastery was an image of Vaisravana deva which had bona fide miracles and in mysterious ways protected the establishment. The pilgrim tells how not long before the time of his visit this deva had frustrated an armed attempt of the Turkish *She-hu* or governor name *Ssi*, the son of a governor, to invade and plunder the monastery.
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In the South Buddha-Hall of this establishment were Buddha's washing-basin about one *tou* in capacity: so bright and dazzling was the blending of colours in this basin that one could not well tell whether it was of stone or metal. There was also a tooth of the Buddha an inch long and 8/10ths of an inch broad, and there was his broom made of *kāśa* grass above two feet long and about seven inches round, the handle being set with pearls. On the six festival days these relics were exhibited to the assembled lay and clerical worshippers. On such occasions the relics moved by the "thorough sincerity" of a worshipper may emit a brilliant light.
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To the north of the New Monastery was a tope above 200 feet high which was plastered with diamond-cement. This tope was also ornamented with various precious substances, and it contained relics which sometimes shone with supernatural light.
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South-west from the New Monastery was a *ching-lü* (精廬) or Buddhist temple. This had been built long ago, and had been the resort of Brethren of high spiritual attainments from all quarters. It had been found impossible to keep a record of those who here realized the Four Fruits (that is, became arhats). So topes were erected for those arhats who when about to die made a public exhibition of their miraculous powers; the bases of these topes were very close together and were some hundreds odd in number. But no memorial erection was made in the case of those Brethren, about 1000 in number, who although arhats had died without exhibiting miracles. In this establishment were above 100 Brethren, who were "day and night assiduous at their duties," and one could not tell which was common monk and which was arhat.
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The *Fo-ho* (縛喝) of this passage has been identified with the city and district of Balkh and the identification is probably quite correct. But we cannot properly regard the Chinese word as a transcription of the word Balkh, or of its variant Pahl, or of Vahlika the name in the Brihat-samhitā and supposed to be the original form.¹ In the Life the name is given as *Fo-ho-lo* and I-ching writes it *Fo-ho-lo*.² These transcriptions seem to require an original like Bokhar or Bokhara, the name of the country which included Balkh. The *Fo-ho* or Balkh of our pilgrim was evidently not very far west or north-west from *Huo* (Kunduz) and it was under the same Turkish governor with that State. The pilgrim, the Life tells us, beheld Balkh as a "Better Land", with its cities and their surroundings in bold relief, and its vales and country districts rich and fertile. The description which he gives of the capital and the surrounding district agrees with the accounts of later travellers.¹
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¹ Julien III. p. 289: Alberuni Vol. I. p. 300: Fleet Ind. Ant. Vol. XXII. p. 192.
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² Hsi-yü-ch'iu, ch. 1 and Chavannes Mémoires pˢ. 23, 48.
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¹ Cf. Q. Curtius B. VII. *ch*. 18; Burnes' Travels into Bokhara *ch*. VIII.
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The *Nava-sanghārāma* or New Monastery of this passage is the Nava-vihāra and *Hsin-ssŭ* (with the same meaning) of I-ching, who also represents the establishment as being occupied by Brethren of the Hinayāna system.² In the Life the Buddha's washing basin in this monastery is of a capacity of two *tou*, and another account makes it to have held only a *shêng*. The *tou* of the T'ang period was a little more than nine quarts, and the *shêng* was only about a pint. The basin and the tooth and the broom were exhibited to the worshippers on the sacred days. On these occasions the "thorough sincerity," the full-hearted earnestness of devotees sometimes had power to move the relics to shed a brilliant light. For "thorough sincerity" the term in the text is *Chih-ch'êng* (至誠) a classical expression derived from the "Chung-yung."³ The Confucianist believed that this "thorough sincerity" enabled its possessor to have a subtle influence over external nature. But to the pilgrim, a Confucianist converted to Buddhism, its power in a believing worshipper extended to the mysterious powers associated with the sacred objects of his adopted religion. This New Monastery, Yuan-chuang tells us, was under the protection of Vaiśravaṇa-deva who kept guard over the establishment. It was to this deva that Indra on the death of the Buddha entrusted the defence of Buddhism in the northern regions, and it was in this capacity that he had charge of the monastery. Here at the time of Yuan-chuang's visit was a very genial learned Brother from the *Che-ka* country from whom our pilgrim received much kindness and assistance in his studies. With this Brother, named Prajñākara, Yuan-chuang read certain Abhidharma treatises and also the Vibhāṣa-śāstra. There were also in the monastery at the time two learned and esteemed Doctors in Buddhism who treated the Chinese pilgrim with great courtesy.
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² Hsi-yü-ch'iu, l. c.
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³ *Ch*. 22.
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The term which the Records and the Life use for the Buddhist establishment to the south-west of the New Monastery is, it will be observed, Ching-lü. This phrase means "the cottage of the essential," and it is perhaps a synonym of Ching-shê, an old and common term with a similar meaning. Our pilgrim may have taken it over from a previous writer who used it in the sense of Vihāra, as Julien translates it here. It is to be observed that the Life does not know anything of the invidious distinction in the treatment given to the relics of the arhats of this temple who died after miraculous exhibitions, and that of the relics of those arhats who passed away without such exhibitions. The pilgrim, as we have seen, describes the 100 Brethren in the establishment at his time as "day and night assiduous at their duties." The words within inverted commas are a quotation with the alteration of one character from a wellknown passage in the Shih-ching and they are a stock literary phrase.¹ He adds that one cannot distinguish among them the ordinary Brother from the arhat. Instead of this last clause Julien has—"Il est difficile de scruter le cœur des hommes vulgaires et des saints," but this platitude cannot be forced out of the text. This simply tells us that all the Brethren were so zealous in the observances of their religion that one could not tell which was common monk and which was arhat.
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¹ The sentence in the original runs—今僧徒百餘人夙夜匪懈凡聖難測.
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At a distance of above 50 *li* north-west from the capital was Ti-wei's city and above 40 *li* to the north of that was Po-li's city. In each of these towns was a tope above thirty feet high. Now the story of these topes was this. As soon as Ju-lai long ago attained Buddhahood he went to the Bodhi Tree and thence to the Deer Park (near Benares). At this time two householders meeting him in his majestic glory gave him of their travelling provisions parched grain and honey. Bhagavat expounded to them what brings happiness to men and devas, and these two householders were the first to hear the Five Commandments and Ten Virtues. When they had received the religious teaching they requested something to worship, and Julai gave them of his hair and nail(-pairings). The two men being about to return to their native country begged to have rule and pattern for their service of worship. Julai thereupon making a square pile of his saṅghāṭi, or lower robe, laid it on the ground, and did the same with his uttarāsaṅga or outer robe and his Saṃkachelikam, the robe which goes under the arm-pits, in succession. On the top of these he placed his bowl inverted, and then set up his mendicant's staff, thus making a tope. The two men, accepting the Julai's instructions, returned each to his city, and according to the pattern thus taught by the Buddha they proceeded to erect these two topes, the very first in the dispensation of Śākyamuni Buddha. Above 70 *li* west of the capital was a tope which had been built in the time of Kāśyapa Buddha.
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The *Ti-wei* (提謂) and *P'oli* (波利) of this very curious passage are the names of men not of cities. They stand for Trapusha (or Tapassu) and Bhallika (or Bhalluka) and are the transcriptions used by some of the early translators.¹ The former is sometimes translated as *Huang-kua* (黃瓜) "a gourd" or "melon" and in Tibetan as Ga-gong with similar meaning: Bhallika is translated *Ts'un-lo* (村落), "a village," but the Tibetan rendering means "good" or "fortunate" (Bhalluka).² These two men were travelling merchants or caravan-chiefs from a far land.³ The story of their giving the Buddha his first food after he attained Buddhahood is told in many books with some variations. In a late Sinhalese text these pious merchants erected a tope over the precious hair- and nail-cuttings in Ceylon;¹ in a Burmese story the monument was erected in Burmah;² and in the account which Yuan-chuang gives in Chüan VIII a monument was erected at the place where the incident occurred.³ Some versions represent the two traders as being men from the north, some represent them as brothers, and in some versions there is only one man. The ridiculous story told here of the Buddha’s extemporized model of a tope does not seem to be found in any other account of the incident. It gives us, however, the plain outline of the original or early Buddhist tope or pagoda,—a square base surmounted by a cylinder on which was a dome topped by a spire. Julien evidently misunderstood the passage and he had a faulty text. He makes the pilgrim state that Julai took off his saṅghāṭi “formé de pièces de coton carrées”. He had the Ming text reading *tieh* meaning “cotton” but the C and D texts have the *tieh* which means to *double, fold, pile*. The topes which these two merchants erected in their respective native places are not represented as the first structures of the kind, but only as the first in the Buddhadom of Sākyamuni. The very next sentence, as we have seen, tells of a Kāśyapa Buddha tope in the same district.
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¹ They are used in the Hsiu-hsing-pên-ch'i-ching (No. 664. tr. A.D. 197); in the Fo-shuo-t'ai-tzŭ-sui-ying-pên-ch'i-ching, *ch.* 1 (No. 665, tr. cir. A.D. 250). The two merchants' names are also given as Bhadrasena and Bhadralik (Yin-kuo-ching, *ch.* 3. No. 666 tr. cir. A.D. 450), and as Kua or "Melon" (Trapusha) and Upali in the Ssŭ-fên Vinaya, *ch.* 31 where the men are brothers.
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² Sar. Vin. P'o-sêng-shih, *ch.* 5 (No. 1123): Rockhill Life p. 34.
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³ The village of the great alms-giving is also located on the way between Bodhigaya and Benares and its name given as Tapussa-bhalik (多謂婆 for 娑跋利).
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¹ Hardy M. B. p. 186.
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² Bigandet Legend vol. i. p. 108.
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³ The version in the Lalitavistara Ch. XXIV, and some other versions of the story do not make mention of the hair and nails relics and the topes.
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The narrative continues.
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South-west from the capital [of Balkh] coming into a corner of the Snowy mountains you arrive at the Yue-mei (or mo)-t'ê country. This was 50 or 60 *li* long by 100 *li* wide, and its capital was above ten *li* in circuit.
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Julien who transliterates the Chinese characters for the name of this country by *Jui-mo-tho*, suggests Jumadha as the foreign word transcribed. But the first character (銳)
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was read *yue* and the name was probably something like Yumadha. Our author in this passage uses the mode of description which is supposed to indicate that he is giving a second-hand report not the result of a personal visit. But we know from the Life that the pilgrim did go to this country at the pressing invitation of its king who shewed him great kindness.
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To the south-west [of *Yue-mei-t'ê*] was the *Hu-shih-kan* country. This was above 500 *li* long and above 1000 *li* broad, and its capital was above 20 *li* in circuit: it had many hills and vales and yielded good horses.
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This country, according to the *T'ang-Shu*, extended on the south-east to Bamian. M. Saint Martin thinks that the *Hu-shih-kan* of this passage may be the district called by the Persians *Juskān* which was "entre Balkh et le district de Méroü-er-Roūd". The pilgrim made a short visit to this country also, we learn from the Life.¹
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¹ Julien III. p. 290. Cf. Yule in J. R. A. S. Vol. vi, p. 102.
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North-west [from *Hu-shih-kan*] was *Ta-la-kan*. This country was above 500 *li* long by 50 or 60 *li* wide, and its capital was more than ten *li* in circuit: on the west it adjoined *Po-la-ssü* (Persia).
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M. Saint-Martin thinks that this name *Ta-la-kan* "nous conduit indubitalement à la *Talekān* du Ghardjistān, ville située à trois petites journées au-dessus de Méroü-er-Roūd, dans la direction de Herat."² The name which he has here transcribed may have been Talakan or Tarkan, but it is not likely that the characters were used to represent a word like Talikan or Talekan.
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² Julien III. p. 289. Cf. Yule, l. c.; Med. Res. Vol. ii. p. 98.
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The pilgrim now resumes his journey towards India.
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From Balkh he went south more than 100 *li* to *Kie(Ka)-chih*. This country was above 500 *li* long and 300 *li* wide, and its capital was five or six *li* in circuit. It was a very stony, hilly country with few fruits and flowers but much pulse and wheat; the climate was very cold; the people's ways were hard and brusque. There were more than ten monasteries with 300 Brethren all attached to the Sarvāstivādin school of the "Small Vehicle" system.
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The word here transcribed *Ka-chih* has been restored as Gachi and Gaz, and Yule took the country to be "the Darah or Valley of Gaz".¹
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¹ Yule l. c.
Cites (2)
- Bṛhatsaṃhitā — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit
- Vibhāṣāśāstra — Sanskrit