On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s3.9

v1.c8.s3.9

The Sanskrit term for the Retreat is Varshā (in Pali Vassa) which means simply rains, the *rainy season*, from *varsha* which denotes, along with other things, *rain* and *a year*. The usual expression for "keeping Retreat" is *varshām vas* (in Pali, *vassam vasati*) or *varshām sthā*, meaning respectively to reside, and to rest, during the rainy season. For these terms the Chinese give various equivalents such as the *Tso-hsia* and *Tso-la* of some, and the *Tso-an-chü* or *Tso-yü-an-chü* of Yuan-chuang and others. For the Buddhists of India as for the other people of that country the "rainy season" began on the 16th of the month Ashādha (the fourth of their year), and continued for four months. This was chiefly for religious purposes, but to the non-Buddhists of India three months of this period formed also their summer. This may help to explain the use of the phrase *Tso-hsia* which is a short form for the full expression *Tso-hsia-yü-an-chü* meaning "to observe the Summer Rain Retreat". Then *Tso-hsia* and Tso-la mean also to pass a year as an ordained monk, the precedence of a brother being settled by his "years in religion". The phrase Tso-la or Tso-la-an-chü is used specially of the strict anchorite who observed two Retreats, one in the summer and one in the winter. It might be also applied to brethren in strange lands, Tokhara for example, whose Rainy season occurred at the end of the winter. Yuan-chuang seems to think that the terms Tso-Hsia and Tso-La are not correct renderings from the Sanskrit and they certainly are not literal translations. He supposes the mistakes to have arisen either from the translators having been natives of countries remote from Mid-India, and so ignorant of the correct term and its proper pronunciation, or from the use of an expression which had only local application and currency. But the "non-harmonizing of provincialisms" denotes not only the misuse of local terms, but also ignorance of the idioms in one language which should be used to represent the corresponding idioms of another. Thus a Chinese or Indian scholar translating a Sanskrit book into Chinese without a thorough knowledge of the Sanskrit and Chinese idioms would not harmonize the countries' languages. Julien takes "Mid-kingdom" here to mean China but it certainly denotes Mid-India. In that region people called the Rainy season Varshā, but in other places the word was pronounced vasso, or barh, or barkh, or barsh. So translators, Yuan-chuang thinks, may have in some cases mistaken the word, or they may have misunderstood either the original, or the Chinese term they were using in translation. Thus the important fact that the Retreat was ordained on account of the Rains is put out of view by the renderings Tso-Hsia and Tso-La. There was not, however, any ignorance of Sanskrit or Chinese in the use of these terms, and good scholars in the two languages such as Fa-hsien and I-ching use Tso-hsia and An-chü indifferently. In countries in which there was no long regular Rainy season the Retreat became of importance as a time for spiritual improvement by study of the sacred books and prolonged meditation, and as giving a year's seniority to the brother among his brethren.