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On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c9: Chapter VI

On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c9

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Contents

Chapter VI

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LAMPA TO GANDHĀRA.

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Our pilgrim has now reached the territory which he, like others before and after him, calls India. But it is important to remember that the countries which he describes from Lan-p'o to Rajpur both inclusive were not regarded by the people of India proper as forming part of their territory. It was only by foreigners that these districts were included under the general name India. To the inhabitants of India proper the countries in question were "border lands" inhabited by barbarians. This was a fact known to Yuan-chuang, but he named and described these States mainly from information obtained as he travelled. The information was apparently acquired chiefly from the Buddhist Brethren and believing laymen resident in these countries. To these Buddhists Jambudvipa was India and the miracles and ministrations of the Buddha extended over all the great region vaguely called Jambudvipa. Moreover the great foreign kings who had invaded India from the north had included these States in their Indian empire and the memory of these kings survived in the Buddhist religious establishments.

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LAN-P'O (LAMPA).

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From Kapis the pilgrim continued his journey going east above 600 *li* through a very mountainous region; then crossing a black range he entered the north of India and arrived in the Lan-p'o country.

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Yuan-chuang writes this name 濫波, and this apparently is for him the name both of the country and its capital. Some other authors write 嵐婆,¹ and the local pronunciation was perhaps something like Lampa or Lumba. The word is supposed to represent the old Sanskrit Lampā, and the Lambatai of Ptolemy,² and the district has been identified with the modern Laghman (or Lughman), the Lamghanat of Baber. This emperor mentions the curious tradition which derives the name Lamghanat from Lam, father of Noah, whose tomb was supposed to be in the country.³ But no probable explanation of the name Lampa (or Lumba) seems to have been given, and the word is probably foreign, that is, non-Indian.

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¹ See e. g. Sung-Shih, *ch.* 490.

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² A. G. I. p. 42: Mc Crindle's India from Ptolemy p.p. 104, 106.

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³ Baber p. 141-143.

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Lampa is described by the pilgrims as being above 1000 *li* in circuit, having on the north the Snow mountains and on the other sides black ranges.

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Another writer of the T'ang period represents this country as of much greater dimensions than those here given and as extending on the north to Kunduz and lying west of the Wu-je-chih or Anavatapta Lake.⁴ So also in Baber's time Lamghanat was a large region of much greater extent than Yuan-chuang's Lampa or the modern Lughman.

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⁴ Fang-chih, *ch.* 1.

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The capital, Yuan-chuang tells us, was above ten *li* in circuit. For several centuries the native dynasty had ceased to exist, great families fought for preeminence, and the state had recently become a dependency of Kapis. The country produced upland rice and sugar-cane, and it had much wood but little fruit; the climate was mild with little frost and no snow; the inhabitants were very musical but they were pusillanimous and deceitful, ugly and ill-mannered; their clothing was chiefly of cotton (*pai-tieh*) and they dressed well. There were above ten Buddhist monasteries and a few Brethren the most of whom were Mahāyānists. The non-Buddhists had a score or two of temples and they were very numerous.

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In the common texts here the author is made to state that the non-Buddhists were *very few*, but the old reading is found in the A text, viz. to, "many" and it is evidently the right one. This reading moreover is confirmed by the Fang-chih which quoting from our pilgrim's account of this country tells us that in it "the non-Buddhists were remarkably numerous".

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This country does not seem to have ever been much known to the Chinese generally; and it is rarely mentioned even in the translations of the Buddhist books, or in the accounts of the travels and in the biographies of eminent worthies of the Buddhist religion. There was, however, at least one distinguished Buddhist scholar who is called a Brahmin from the Lampa country and who is recorded as having visited China. This pious and learned Brother, we are informed, in the year A.D. 700 assisted in the translation from Sanskrit into Chinese of a celebrated treatise of magical invocations.¹ Lampa was evidently a district of some importance and it may have been known by some native or local name.

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¹ The title of this treatise is "Pu-k'ung-chüan-so-t'o-lo-ni-ching" (Bun. No. 314). The translator's name is given as Li-wu-t'ao and he is called a brāhmin of Lan-p'o in "North India". It is doubtful, however, whether the Chinese text of No. 314 was actually the work of this man; see the note appended to the work. See also Su-ku-chin-yi-ching-t'u-chi (No. 1488).

Nagar

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The pilgrim, according to the narrative in the Records, proceeded from Lampa south-east above 100 *li*, crossing a high mountain and a large river, and reached the *Na-kie(ka)-lo-ho* country.

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The Life here represents Yuan-chuang as going south from Lampa and crossing a small range on which a tope to commemorate the spot at which the Buddha having travelled on foot from the south rested on arriving in these regions. Then the Life makes the pilgrim continue his journey from this range still southward for above twenty *li*, descending the hills and crossing a river into the *Na-ka-lo-ho* country.

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This country, which we may suppose to have been called by a name like Nagar, is one of considerable interest; and as the account given of it in the Records and the Life is peculiar, and rather puzzling, it may be useful to examine the account at some length.

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In the Records Yuan-chuang describes Nagar as being above 600 *li* (about 120 miles) from east to west and 250 or 260 *li* (about 50 miles) from north to south. The country was surrounded on all sides by high mountains steep and difficult of passage. Its capital was above 20 *li* in circuit, but there was no king and the State was a province of Kapis. Grain and fruits were produced in abundance, the climate was mild, the people were of good character, courageous, slighting wealth and esteeming learning, reverencing Buddha and having little faith in other religious systems. But although there were many Buddhist establishments the Brethren were very few. There were five Deva-Temples and above 100 professed non-Buddhists.

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About two *li* to the east (in the Life, south-east) of the capital stood a great stone tope above 300 feet high which had marvellous sculptures. Close to this tope on the west side was a vihāra and adjoining the vihāra on the south was a small tope. The former of these two topes was said to have been built by king Asoka at the place where Sakya P'usa, having spread in the mud his deer-skin mantle and his hair for Dīpankara Buddha, received from the latter the prediction of Buddhahood. At the periodic annihilations and restorations of the world the traces of this incident are not effaced, and on fast days showers of flowers descend on the spot, which is regarded with great reverence. The small tope was at the spot where the mantle and hair were spread on the mud, [the other tope] having been erected by king Asoka in a retired place off the highway.

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Yuan-chuang next takes us into "the city" and tells us of the foundations which still remained of the grand tope which, he was informed, had once contained a tooth-relic of the Buddha. Close to these was a remarkable small tope of unknown origin, and popularly supposed to have come down out of space. The narrative in our text next takes us to a tope above ten *li* south-west of "the city". This tope marked the spot at which the Buddha alighted from his aerial voyage from Mid-India to this country. Near the tope of the Descent on the east side was another tope to commemorate the spot at which, on the occasion of the meeting, the P'usa bought five lotus flowers for an offering to Dīpankara Buddha.

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Continuing in a south-western direction from "the city", and at a distance of above twenty *li* from it, the pilgrim takes us to a small range of rocky hills containing a stone monastery with lofty halls and tiers of chambers all silent and unoccupied. Within the grounds of this establishment was a tope 200 feet high built by king Asoka.

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Going on again south-west from this monastery we come to a ravine with a torrent the banks of which were steep rocks. In the east bank was the cave inhabited by the Gopāla dragon, very dark and with a narrow entrance, and with water trickling from the rock to the path. In this cave the Buddha had left his shadow or rather a luminous image of himself in the rock, once a clear and perfect resemblance, but at the period of our pilgrim's visit to the district the wonderful likeness was only dimly visible and only at certain times and to certain persons. Outside the Shadow Cave were two square stones on one of which was a light-emitting impress of the Buddha's foot. On either side of the Shadow Cave were other caves which had been used by the Buddha's great disciples as places for ecstatic meditation (samādhi). In the immediate neighbourhood of the Shadow Cave also the pilgrim found various topes and other objects associated with the Buddha's personal visit to this district.

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Following the narrative in the Records we have now to return to "the city". Starting again from it and going in a south-east direction for above thirty *li* we come to a city called *Hi-lo* (or *He-lo*). This city, which was four or five *li* in circuit had a strong elevated situation with charming gardens and ponds. Within it was a two-storeyed building in which were carefully preserved the Ushṇīsha-bone of the Buddha, his skull, one of his eyes, his mendicant's staff, and one of his clerical robes. To the north of this Relic-house was a wonder-working tope which could be shaken by a touch of the finger.

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There are one or two discrepancies between the account here given and that in the Life. Thus in the Records the Buddha comes to Nagar country through the air and alights at a spot ten *li* south-west from "the city", but in the Life he arrives on foot at a place north of Nagar. Then as to Hilo, the Life differs from the Records in placing this city at about 12 *li* distance south-east from the Flowers Tope.

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The Nagar of our text, it is agreed, is represented by the region in modern times called Nungnehar, that is, Nine Rivers. In Baber's time Nungnihar, "in many histories written Nekerhar", was a tuman of Lamghan (Lampa).¹ The Nagar country thus included the present district of Jelalabad, the valley of the Cabul River from Darunta on the west to Mirza Kheyl on the east and, according to Mr Simpson, it "might reach from about Jugduluck to the Khyber".² Our text makes Yuan-chuang visit two cities of this country, the capital and Hilo the former capital. As to the latter all investigators seem to be agreed that the Hilo of Yuan-chuang and the other pilgrims is represented by the modern Hidda (or Heida or Hada), a place situated about five miles south of Jelalabad.

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¹ Baber p. 141.

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² J. R. A. S. Vol. xiii. Art. VII.

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As to the site of the city called Nagar supposed to have been the capital of the country "in the Buddhist period" there is some diversity of opinion. The Na-kie (ka)-lo-ho of Yuan-chuang is evidently the Na-kic(ka) of Fa-hsien who uses the name for city and country. It is also the Na-kie city and the Na-ka-lo-ho of the Sung-yun narrative in the "Ka-lan-chi", and also the Na-kie of a Vinaya treatise translated in A.D. 378.³

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³ Fo-kuo-chi, ch. 13; Ka-lan-chi, ch. 5; Pi-ni-ye-ching (the "Chie-yin-yuan-ching". Bun. No. 1130).

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Julien makes Na-ka-lo-ho stand for Nagarahāra, and in a note he tells us that in the Sung annals we find Nang-go-lo-ho-lo which answers exactly to the Indian orthography furnished by the inscription discovered by Captain Kittoe. Julien is of course followed, and his identification accepted, by subsequent writers; and on his and Lassen's authority the P. W. gives Nagarahāra as the name of a kingdom. But this word cannot be made out of Yuan-chuang's four characters which apparently give the full name. Then as to Nang-go-lo-ho-lo the writer in the "Sung Shi" quotes a Buddhist monk who evidently wrote without knowledge. The passage referred to by Julien puts Udyāna, which was immediately to the north of Gandhāra, twelve days' journey to the east of that country. Then it places Gandhāra at a distance of twenty days' journey eastward from Nang-go-lo-ho-lo and it makes the latter to be ten days' journey to the east of Lampa.¹ But Yuan-chuang's Nagar was only five or six days' journey north-west from Gandhāra and about twenty miles south or south-east from Lampa. Thus Nang-go-lo-ho-lo does not agree with Nagar either in distances or directions and its situation is imaginary and impossible. Then the Nagarahāra of Kittoe's Sanskrit inscription of about the 8th or 9th century is evidently not the Nagar of Yuan-chuang and the other Chinese pilgrims. The inscription represents Viradeva, son of Indra Gupta a Brahman of Bengal, as becoming a Buddhist and going to the "holy convent called Kanishka" (śrīmat Kanishkam upagamya mahā-vihāram) in Nagarahāra.² Now there is no mention by any of the pilgrims of a great Kanishka monastery in Nagar, city or country. But there was a celebrated one in Gandhāra near Purushapur and the Nagarahāra of the Kittoe inscription is evidently the Gandhāra country.

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¹ Sung-Shi, l. c.

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² J. A. S. Ben. Vol. xvii, p. 494.

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Cunningham places the capital of Yuan-chuang's Nagar "at Begrām, about two miles to the west of Jalalabad".³ Saint Martin supposes it to have been a little to the west of this Begrām. Mr Simpson, who writes after careful inspection and study of the locality, places the site of the Nagar capital west of Begrām on a rocky elevation at the junction of the Surkhāb and Cabul rivers. No one of these identifications meets all the requirements of the descriptions, but each is supported to a certain extent by the statements in the Records.

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³ A. G. I. p. 44.

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If we take the narrative in the Records and read it in connection with that in the Life we find that there were three cities in this district visited by the pilgrim. These are the capital, the city of the Dipankara Buddha, and Hilo the city of the Ushnisha relic. Now as the Records make mention of only the first and third of these by name it may perhaps be taken for granted that Yuan-chuang mixed up in his mind the first and second when writing out his notes. So the term "the city" seems to stand sometimes for the capital but more frequently for the city of Dipankara. The confusion apparently affected the compilers of the Life also.

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Combining the two narratives we find that Yuan-chuang on entering the country apparently went directly towards the capital. This he describes, as has been stated, as "above 20 li [in circuit]". The word Chou for "in circuit" is found only in the D text, but some such term is needed and the use of Chou agrees with Yuan-chuang's usual way of describing towns and districts. The reader will observe, however, that we are not told anything about the natural and artificial characteristics of the capital, about its situation or surroundings. This silence is very extraordinary if we regard the city to have been on the site proposed and described by Mr Simpson.

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Now the description of the place which this explorer gives seems to be that of a fortress rather than a city. And Nagar was perhaps at this time a strong fortress, and it was called the capital because it was the official residence of the Governor appointed by the king of Kapis. Yuan-chuang apparently did not enter this city as he begins his description of the sacred objects of the country with those outside of "the capital". The last character in Yuan-chuang's Na-ka-lo-ho may stand for kot which means a fortress, and names like Nagkot, Nagarkot are met with in several regions of "North India"¹. The Nagar of our text may be the Nagarkot which Alberuni mentions as containing the annals of the Shah dynasty of Kabul.

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¹ See e. g. Nagarkot in Alberuni, Vol. ii, p. 11.

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Moreover the Adinapūr of Baber was apparently on the site of Yuan-chuang's Nagar (or Nagar-kot) and it was a fort. Baber describes the fort as "situated on an eminence, which, towards the river, is forty or fifty gez (100 feet or upwards), in perpendicular height", a description which agrees with that given by Mr Simpson of the Nagar rock. This fort Baber tells us was the official residence of the darogha or commandant of the district.

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Let us now substitute "Nagar fortress" for "the Capital" and "the city" in the first part of the pilgrim's narrative. We find then that the great Asoka tope was about two li or nearly half a mile to the east (or south-east) of the fortress. Turning to Masson and Simpson we find that they give a tope called "Nagara Goondée" which is apparently about three furlongs to the east or south-east of the Nagar rock.¹

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¹ Masson's Ar. Ant. p. 100 et al.

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From the Flower Tope near the Asoka Tope the pilgrim, according to the Life, set out south-east for Hilo, the city of the Ushṇīsha relic. On the way apparently, but this is not quite clear, he learns of the Gopāla Dragon cave with the miraculous likeness of the Buddha. Wishing to visit this, Yuan-chuang had to go out of his way to the Têng-kuang (燈光) city in order to obtain a guide. The term Têng-kuang is used to translate the word Dipankara, name of a very early Buddha, but we need not suppose that it represents the name of the city. Now the Têng-kuang city was apparently that called Na-kie(ka) by previous pilgrims, and it was apparently a little to the west of the site of the modern Jelalabad. One name for it was Padmapur or Lotus city. This is given by some Chinese as *Hua-shi-ch'êng*, or Flower City; and it is said to be another name for the capital of the Nagar country. A more common name for Dipankara's City in Buddhist books is Dīpavatī from *dīpa*, a torch or *light*. We may for the present, however, use Padmapur to represent the name of the city, as we have no means of knowing what the name actually was, that is, supposing it not to have been simply Nagar.

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This Padmapur then, let us assume, was the Na-ka city which had the ruins of the Tooth-tope, a tope which had been seen by Fa-hsien in perfect condition. It was this city also from which Hilo was distant about 30 *li* to the south-east. Then from it Yuan-chuang went south-west to the Shadow-Cave, and from this south-east to Hilo.

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Now going from Padmapur south-west at a distance of above 20 *li* was a small rocky hill which had a great Buddhist monastery with an Asoka tope above 200 feet high. This monastery and tope may be represented by the ruins at Gunda Chismeh of Mr Simpson’s map, “the smooth rounded mound of a tope and the rectangular mound of a vihara”. Some distance from this on the east bank of a torrent was the Dragon’s cave with the luminous picture of the Buddha on the rock. Fa-hsien places the cave about half a Yojana south from the Nakie city. His words are “Half a Yojana south of Nakie city is a cave as *you follow the course of the hills towards the south-west*”. The words in italics are for the Chinese 博山西南 which our translators understood to mean a great mountain towards the south-west. The phrase *poh-shan* is certainly used in the sense of a “great mountain” and this is its proper meaning. Here, however, as in some other cases the construction seems to require that the words be taken in the sense of going along a hill (or series of hills). This word *poh* is probably, as has been stated already, the *poh* of *hui-poh* (迴薄) of Chuan I of these Records, and also the *poh* (博) of various passages in the Fo-kuo-chi and other works.

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There does not seem to be any satisfactory explanation of the names Nagar and Hilo. If the former be for Nagara its memory may be kept up in the modern designation Begrām which like Nagara means a “city”. Or the syllable Nag or Nak may possibly be for the Indian word *nāga* which denotes the sun, a snake, a mountain, an elephant. Masson says that the old name for the country was Ajūna and Saint Martin and Cunningham think this word may be a corruption of another old name for it, viz. Udyānapur or "the city of the Garden". But no one seems to give any authority for this last old name and it is apparently unknown to Chinese authors and translators. It may be added that this district is referred to in some Chinese books as in the Yue-shi (Getæ) country of North India. It is also called Ye-p'o-kan-t'ê (業波乾陀), that is perhaps, Yavakāṇḍa, and it is said to be to the west of Udyāna.

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As to Hilo, Cunningham would have us regard this word as a transposition of the Sanskrit word Haḍḍa, meaning a "bone". But there were several Hilos in North India, and the relic supposed to have given the name is not called in Sanskrit by any term containing a word for "bone". It was the Uṣṇīṣa of the Buddha that Hilo contained along with other relics of the Buddha. Some Chinese translators, it is true, call the relic "the bone of the top of Buddha's head," but others give a different rendering, or keep the original word. The full name and some of the translations will be given a few pages farther on. We may perhaps regard the name in our text as for Hilā which was probably a local pronunciation for Śilā. This word means a rock or rocky eminence, and the name suits the description of the place.

Bodhisattva and Dīpankara

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From the account given of the Nagar country by our pilgrim we see that the district had several objects of attraction to a Buddhist. The principal of these objects were the mementos of the P'usa's meeting with Dīpankara Buddha, the luminous image of Gautama Buddha in the Dragon's cave, and his Uṣṇīṣa-bone. A few additional observations about each of these may be of interest to the student.

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The story of the P'usa in an exceedingly remote period of time in his existence as a Brahman student meeting the Dīpankara Buddha and giving him worship and service is a well known one. It is found in the Sanskrit Mahāvastu¹ and Dīvyāvadāna,² in the Pali Jātakas,³ and in several forms in Chinese translations from Indian originals. No one of all these treatises, so far as I know, places the scene of this meeting in a country called Nagar. In the different accounts various names are given to the city of the incident. Thus it is called Rammanagara (or Rammavatī or Rammagama).⁴ This would seem to point to Ayodhya, the modern Oudh, but the Jātaka places Ramma-city in "the frontier territory". The city is also called Dīpavatī or Dīpavat⁵ from dīpa, a light. It is also Padma-pura or Lotos-city, in Chinese Lien-hua-ch‘êng or Hua-shi-ch‘êng.⁶ The last name means simply Flower city and it is properly applied to Pāṭalipur. It is said, however, as has been seen, to be an old name for Nagar city and it was given on account of the Lotus Ponds of the city.

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¹ Mahāvastu T. I, p. 193.

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² Dīvyāv. p. 246.

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³ Rhys Davids' Birth Stories p. 7; Bigandet's Legend, Vol. i, p. 7.

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⁴ Mahāvamsa Int. p. XXXII.

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⁵ Yin-kuo-ching (Bun. No. 666).

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⁶ Fo-shuo-t‘ai-tzü-sui-ying-pên-chi-ching, ch. 1 (Bun. No. 665); Tsêng-yi-a-han-ching, ch. 11 (Bun. No. 543); Hsing-chi-ching, chs. 2, 3 (Bun. No. 680).

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The P‘usa as brahmin student, variously named Megha, Su-medha and otherwise, on his way to see Dīpankara Buddha met a maiden carrying seven lotus flowers for the service of a shrine in the palace grounds. The P‘usa bargained with the maiden for five of her flowers that he might have them to throw on the Buddha as he passed in procession. At the spot where the flowers were bought, an act involving great consequences in the distant future, king Asoka had built a tope. It is remarkable that the Pali Jātaka does not make any mention of the purchase and offering of the lotus flowers.

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Then there was the place at which the P‘usa spread out his deer-skin mantle and his hair on the muddy road to preserve Dīpankara’s feet from being defiled. On the road by which this Buddha was proceeding to the capital on this memorable occasion were several dirty muddy places which the people were trying to make clean. The brahmin student, at his own request, was allowed to put right a hollow in the road made by running water. Unable to fill up this muddy gap on the approach of the Buddha, he spread out in it his deerskin mantle, and then lay down prostrate with his long hair spread out for the Buddha to step on. Though the world had passed away and been renewed since the time of Dīpankara and Megha (or Sumati) yet the depression in the road remained visible, being renewed with the renewal of the world. Close to the spot was a small tope of great antiquity, the successor of the original wooden stake, and not far from it was a very magnificent tope by king Asoka.

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This myth of the P'usa and the Dīpankara Buddha seems to be very unbuddhistical, and its origin should perhaps be sought outside of religion. We remember that one of Gotama’s royal ancestors was a king Dīpankara who with “his sons and grandsons also twelve royal princes governed their great kingdom in Takkasilā best of towns.”[¹] A picture of this king, with a conquered chief prostrate before him, may have suggested the story. Such a picture may be seen in Plate VII fig. 5 of the “Ariana Antiqua.” Compare with this the illustration of Dīpankara and the P'usa in Burgess’s “Buddhist Cave Temples” p. 66. Here the Buddha does not tread on the hair of the prostrate devotee at his side. The story is explained by some as originally an allegory to express Gautama’s resolve to undergo all things in this world of impurities in order to obtain perfect wisdom and teach the way thereof to mortal creatures. A simpler theory is that the brahmin student laid down his deer-skin mantle and his hair before the Buddha to declare to the latter the student’s resolve to give up Brahminism and become a professed Buddhist.

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¹ Dipavamsa p. 131.

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As such he must shave his head and cease to wear garments made of the skins of animals.

The Shadow Cave

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According to Yuan-chuang’s account the Gopāla-Dragon cave, with the likeness of the Buddha shining at times in the rock opposite the entrance, was on the east side of a torrent among the heights to the south-west of the Nagar, that is, the Padma city. Mr Simpson thinks that the range of hills which extends from the Ahin Posh Tope south of Jelalabad south-west to Sultanpur does not suit Yuan-chuang’s description of the surroundings of this cave. But his objections seem to be based mainly on the occurrence of the words *cascade* and *mountain* in the translations. There is nothing, however, corresponding to either of these terms in the original either of the Life or Records. The road from the city was a bad one and dangerous, but it led to a hamlet with a monastery. Not far from this, above the steep bank of a foaming torrent, was the cave.

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The Gopala Dragon of this cave, Yuan-chuang tells us, and the story seems to be his only, was originally a cowherd in this district at the time of the Buddha. Annoyed at a reproof from the king he vowed terrible vengeance. Then going to the Tope of Prediction he prayed to become a dragon; and immediately fulfilled his prayer by committing suicide, and returning to the world as a malignant demon determined to make havoc. Hearing of his spiteful cruel designs, the Buddha came through the air from Mid-India, converted the dragon, and left him a luminous likeness of himself immanent in the inner rock of his cave. Yuan-chuang saw the likeness of the Buddha and a great deal more. According to the tradition the Buddha was alone in the cave when he caused his likeness to go into the rock, but Yuan-chuang saw also in the wonderful manifestation the P’usas and saints who attended the Buddha in his ministrations.

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In the "Ka-lan-chi" the narrative at the part about the Nagar country has this statement—"On to *Ku-lo-lo-lu*, saw the cave of Buddha's shadow, advancing 15 paces into the hill, the entrance facing west". Burnouf, who treats this short passage as corrupt, makes "Gopāla Cave" out of the four Chinese characters represented in the above transcription. This he effects by treating the first *lo* as a mistake for *p'o* and the last character *lu* as a mistake for *chü*, a deer for a cave as he represents it. But if we take the Chinese characters as we find them they give us Kulāla-lok, that is, the Pottery people. Now this reminds us of an interesting passage in the Chinese version of the Life of King Asoka.¹ There Yasa tells the king how the Buddha, just before his death, converted the Dragon-king Apalāla, the Potter, and the Chandāla Dragon-king. Burnouf translating from the Sanskrit text of this passage has "the potter's wife the Chandāli Gopāli" while the editors of the Divyāvadāna treat Kumbhakāri (Potter's wife) as a proper name.²

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¹ A-yü-wang-ching, *ch.* 2 (No. 1343). In *ch.* 6 of this treatise the chandāla Dragon-king is called *Ku-p'o-lo* (Gopāla), and in *ch.* 1 of the "A-yü-wang-chuan" he is the "Ox-Dragon" of Gandhavat. In the "Tsa-a-han-ching", *ch.* 23 (No. 544) Buddha subdues the dragon Apalāla, "the potter chandāla", and the Gopāli dragon.

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² Bur. Int. p. 377: Divyāv. p. 348. See Legge's 'Fa Hian', p. 29.

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With reference to this cave and its surroundings the following passage from the "Ariana Antiqua" may be found of some interest—"Tracing the skirts of the Siah koh, is a road leading from Bāla Bágh to Darunta, and thence across the river of Kabul and Jelalabad to Laghman. From Bāla Bágh to the ferry at Darunta may be a distance of seven miles. At about five miles on this road, coming from Bāla Bágh, we meet the topes of Kotpur, situated a little on our right hand. The first is in the midst of cultivation about one hundred yards from the road; a deep ravine, through which flows a stream derived from the Surkh Rúd (red river), separates it from its two companions. These stand on a dák, or barren level, overspread with fragments of potter's ware; and here coins, rings, and other relics are sometimes found. The spot was, therefore, an ancient place of sepulchre.¹ In the 'Life of Asoka', however, the Gopāla cave is located in Gandhāra.

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¹ Ar. Ant. p. 64. The conclusion drawn in the last sentence of this passage is not quite justified by the premises.

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In another Chinese Buddhist work we learn that the Buddha once went to "North India" to the Yue-shi (Getae) country and thence to the west of this. Here he overcame a fierce wicked Rakshasi, spent a night in her cave, and left his shadow on a rock in it like that in the Gopāla cave.² In another Buddhist treatise, moreover, there is mention of a district called Na-kie-lo or Na-kie-han (or a)-lo. Here also was a rākshasi cave, and Buddha came from India to convert the rakshasi and left his luminous image in the cave.³ This cave was in the side of the mountain Ansu, in the Champak grove of the old rishi, close to a Dragon's lake, and north of the Blue-Lotus fountain. The district in which this cave was situated was evidently not the Nagar country of our pilgrim. He also mentions two other caves with luminous images of Buddha in other parts of India.

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² Ta-chih-tu-lun, *ch*. 9 (Bun. No. 1169).

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³ Kuan-Fo-san-mei-hai-ching, *ch*. 7 (No. 430).

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There is also something not quite clear in his location of the cave in Nagar. He seems to describe it as in the east bank of a torrent, yet he tells us that there was to the west of it a large flat stone on which the Buddha spread his robe to dry. According to Fa-hsien also there was a tope, 100 paces west of the cave, which was made by Buddha and his disciples as a pattern. Near this, moreover, was a monastery with above 700 monks in it, of which Yuan-chuang does not make mention.

The Ushnisha-Bone

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The next of the great objects of interest to Buddhists in this country was the Ushnisha-bone of the Buddha in Hilo. This is called by Yuan-chuang and the other pilgrims Buddha's *ting-ku* (頂骨) or *Bone of the top of the head*. The Sanskrit term is Uṣṇīsha-śirshas or Uṣṇīsha-śiraskatā. As to the latter part of these compounds there is no doubt, the words being from *śiras*, the *head*. But in the literature of India the word uṣṇīsha has two meanings. (1) the hair done up into a coil on the top of the head and (2) a peculiar kind of turban or other headdress. But the Buddhas cut off their hair and did not wear caps or turbans.¹ So a new use was given to the term in Buddhism, and it was applied to the cranial protuberance which was one of the thirty-two distinguishing marks of a Buddha. This protuberance was supposed to be a sort of abnormal development of the upper surface of the skull into a small truncated cone covered with flesh and skin and hair. But some, like Yuan-chuang, regarded it as a separate formation on, but not a part of, the top of the skull. This Uṣṇīsha-śirsha among the Buddhists was one of the thirty-two marks not only of a Buddha but also of a Chakravartin and a Mahā-purusha. But, as Senart has pointed out, it is not in the list of the signs of the Great Man (Mahā-purusha) in Brahminical writings such as the "Brihat Samhitā".²

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¹ In Max Müller's Dharma-samgraha p. 54 uṣṇīsha is translated by "Cap". This rendering is not supported by any Buddhist authority, and it is at variance with the descriptions and explanations given in the Buddhist books.

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² Essai sur la leg. du Bud. p. 111.

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According to Yuan-chuang's description the Uṣṇīsha in Hilo was

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twelve inches in circumference, with the hair-pores distinct, and of a yellowish white colour. It was kept in a casket deposited in the small tope made of the seven precious substances which was in the second storey of the decorated Hall. Pilgrims made a fragrant plaster, and with it took a cast of the upper surface of the bone; and according to their Karma read in the traces on the plaster their weal or their woe.

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In addition to the term already given as a rendering for Uṣṇīsha there are several other Chinese translations or interpretations of the Sanskrit word. Thus we have ting-jou-chi (頂肉髻) that is, "the flesh top-knot on the top of the head", and ju-chi-ku or "the bone of the flesh top-knot."¹ The Buddha is also described as having, as one of the thirty-two marks, "on the top of his head the ushṇīsha like a deva sun-shade",² or as having "on the top of his head the ushṇīsha golden skull-top bone";³ and we also read that on the top of the Buddha's head is "manifested the ushṇīsha", that is, manifested occasionally as a miraculous phenomenon. It is also stated that the ushṇīsha is not visible to the eyes of ordinary beings.⁴

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¹ Hsing-chi-ching, ch. 9: Kuan-Fo-san-mei-hai-ching, ch. 1, where the ting-shang-jou-chi is one of the 32 marks of a ta-chang-fu (大丈夫) or Mahāpurusha; Chang-chao-fan-chih-ch'ing-wên-ching (Bun. No. 734).

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² Fa-chi-ming-shu-ching (No. 812).

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³ Chung-hsü-ching, ch. 3 (No. 859).

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⁴ Ta-ming-san-tsang-fa-shu, ch. 48 (No. 1621).

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Nearly two hundred years before Yuan-chuang's time a Chinese pilgrim by name Chih-mêng (智猛) had seen, it is recorded, the Ushṇīsha-bone along with other relics of the Buddha in Kapilavastu, but this must be regarded as a mistake of a copyist.⁵ Two later pilgrims Tuo-lin and Hsüan-chao, the latter a contemporary of Yuan-chuang, visited Kapis and there paid reverence to the ushṇīsha or skull-top bone of the Buddha.⁶ By Kapis we are probably to understand Nagar then a part of the Kapis kingdom. Then a century after Yuan-chuang's time Wu-k'ung went to see "Sakya Julai's skull-top bone (or Ushṇīsha) relic" in the city of Gandhāra.⁷

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⁵ Kao-sêng-chuan, ch. 3.

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⁶ Hsi-yü-ch'in, ch. 1, 2.

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⁷ Shih-li-ching, and J. A. T. VI, p. 357.

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It is interesting to observe that we do not find mention of any Buddhist monks as being concerned in any way with this precious relic. Fa-hsien, indeed, places it in a ching-shê or temple, but this was apparently only the name which he gave to the building because it contained the relic. Yuan-chuang does not make mention of any sacred building; he refers only to a tall two-storey building and this is apparently the high two-storeyed Hall of Fa-hsien. The latter pilgrim also mentions the small tope of the seven precious substances in which the casket containing the ushṇīsha was kept. This little tope is described by Fa-hsien as being moreover free, opening and shutting, and about five feet in height.¹

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¹ Fo-kuo-chi, ch. XIII. The term which is here rendered by "free" is *chie-t'oh* (解脫). In the translations of the passage the *chie-t'oh-t'a* becomes "tours de delivrance", "Final emancipation tower". and "Vimoksha tope". Nothing is known of such topes or towers; and there is no meaning in the translations. A *chie-t'oh-t'a* is a tope, not closed up, but provided with a door opening and shutting as required. Other topes containing relics were securely fastened, but this one was released from the bonds of solid masonry so far as the relic was concerned.

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The official custodians of the relic paid all expenses by charging the devout pilgrims according to a fixed tariff for seeing the relic, and for also taking an impression of its upper surface in clay or wax, and they acted in like manner with the other Buddha relics under their care.

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The "Bone of the top of Buddha's skull", in shape like a wasp's nest or the back of the arched hand, which was shown to believing pilgrims in Hilo was of course an imposture. It was perhaps the polished skull-cup of some ancient Sakian chief preserved originally as an heir-loom.² We have seen that a segment of the Buddha's skull-bone was preserved as a sacred relic in the Kapis country.

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² It was made of flesh and bone, was of the capacity of the hollow of the hand, of a dark colour, round, and very beautiful. (Abhi-ta-vib. ch. 177).

Gandhāra

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The pilgrim's narrative in the Records proceeds to relate that "from this" (that is, from somewhere near the site of the modern Jelalabad) he went south-east among hills and valleys for above 500 *li* and came to the *Kan-t'o-lo* (Gandhāra) country. This country was above 1000 *li* from east to west and above 800 *li* north to south, reaching on the east to the *Sin* (in the D text, Sin-tu river. The capital Pu-lu-sha-pu-lo (Purushapur) was above 40 *li* in circuit; the royal family was extinct and the country was subject to Kapis; the towns and villages were desolate and the inhabitants were very few; in one corner of the royal city (Kung-ch'êng) there were above 1000 families. The country had luxuriant crops of cereals and a profusion of fruits and flowers; it had much sugar-cane and produced sugar-candy. The climate was warm with scarcely any frost or snow; the people were faint-hearted, and fond of the practical arts; the majority adhered to other systems of religion, a few being Buddhists.

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The Kan-t'o-lo of this passage is doubtless the Gandhāra or Gandhāra of Indian writers. In a Chinese note we are told that the old and incorrect name was Gandhavat (Kan-t'o-wei) and that the country was in "North India". But in several Chinese treatises Kan-t'o-wei or the short form Kan-t'o is the designation of a large and rather vague region which does not always correspond to the Gandhāra of our pilgrim. Thus Fa-hsien, for example, uses it to denote a city and district in this region quite distinct from the Purushapur district.¹ In the Ka-lan-chi we find Gandha, and also Gandhāra, used to designate both a city and the country in which the city was situated.² The Wei-Shu places the district of Gandha to the west of Udyāna and makes it quite distinct from Kapin.³ Then Gandhavat and Gandhāra are names of a vague "north country" in which was the inexhaustible treasure-store of the nāga-rāja Elāpatra.⁴ In some books we find Gandhāra associated with Kapin (Kashmir) either as a part of the latter or as a neighbouring state. Thus the apostle Madhyantika was deputed to go to "Kapin Gandhāras cha", and here I think the syllable che (or cha) in the Chinese translations stands for the Sanskrit word *cha* meaning “and”.¹ In Wu-k’ung’s ‘Itinerary’ Gandhāra is described as the eastern capital of Kapin, the winter residence of the king of that country, but to the west of Kashmir.² The name Gandhāra is an old one in Buddhist literature and it is found in one of the Asoka Edicts.³ It is interpreted in some places as meaning “Earth-holder”,⁴ but while there is a Sanskrit word *dhāra* meaning “holding” there does not seem to be any Sanskrit word like *gan* meaning “Earth”. Taken as Gandhavat the name is explained as meaning *hsiang-hsing* (香行) or “scent-action” from the word *gandha* which means scent, small, perfume.⁵

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¹ Fo-kuo-chi, *ch.* 12.

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² *Ch.* 5.

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³ *Ch.* 102.

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⁴ See A-na-pin-ti-hua-ch'i-tzŭ-ching (No. 649): Tsêng-yi-a-han-chin, *ch.* 49 (No. 543): Fo-shuo-Mi-lê-ta-ch'êng-Fo-ching (No. 209): Divyāv. p. 61.

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¹ Shan-chien-lü-vib, *ch.* 2 (No. 1125): cf. Mah. *ch.* XIII.

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² Shih-li-ching.

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³ No. 5 of the Rock Edicts. Fleet in Ind. Ant. Vol. xxii, p. 178.

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⁴ A-yü-wang-ching, *ch.* 10 (commentary).

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⁵ Su-kao-sêng-chuan, *ch.* 2 (No. 1493).

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In some books we find the name *Shih-shih*(石室)-kuo or “Cave country” applied to Gandhāra and the capital called *Shih-shih-ch’êng* or Cave city,⁶ and this is evidently another name for Takshaśilā. An old or native name for Gandhāra is given as *Ye-po-lo* (業波羅) perhaps for Abār, but this seems to have been local and temporary. We are told, in fact, that it ceased to be used after the country was conquered by the *Ye-ta* (嚈噠 or 挹怛) that is, the Yets or Gats apparently near the end of our 5th century.⁷ Further in some Chinese books Gandhāra is said to be the *Hsiao-yue-ti* country, the district of the offshoot of the Yue-ti or Getae, or at least to include the region so called.⁸ The *Ye-ta*, who were a powerful people in Central Asia in the 5th century, are also said to have been of the Yue-ti stock,⁹ but some regard them as of Turkish, and others as of Tibetan origin.

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⁶ A-na-pin-ti-hua-ch’i-tzŭ-ching; A-yü-wang-hsi-huai-mu-yin-yuan-ching (No. 1367).

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⁷ Ka-lan-chi, *ch.* 5; Wei-shu, *ch.* 102.

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⁸ Wei-shu l. c.; T’ung-chih-liao s. v. 小月氏.

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⁹ T’ung-chien-kang-mu s. Liang Wu Ti 普通 3rd year.

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In the above passage the words taken to denote that Gandhāra had "much sugar-cane and that it produced sugar-candy (lit. stone-honey)" are 多甘蔗出石蜜. The translators in their renderings here have inserted a gloss which makes Yuan-chuang state that the sugar-candy was made by the people from the sugar-cane. Julien translates the words—"il produit aussi beaucoup de cannes à sucre et l'on en tire du miel en pierre (du sucre solide)." Here the words "l'on en tire" are not warranted by the text which has merely the ordinary word ch'u. This word here as in other passages of the Records simply means "it (that is, the country) yields or produces". We know also from other sources that the Chinese at this time did not know of sugar as a product of the sugar-cane. In consequence of information obtained from India the Emperor T'ang T'ai Tsung sent a mission to that country to learn the art of making sugar and candy from the Sugar-cane. This candy was merely molasses dried or "sugar in pieces". It was at first "hard (or stone) honey" to the Chinese, as sugar was honey to the ancient westerns.¹

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¹ Pên-ts'ao-kang-mu, ch. 33; T'ang-Shu, ch. 221 second part.

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The Pu-lu-sha-pu-lo or Purushapur of our text has been supposed to be the Parshawar of later writers, the Purushāvar of Alberuni, and the Peshawer of modern times.² Fa-hsien uses the term "Purusha country"; and makes this a distinct place four days' journey south from his Gandhavat country. Sung-yun does not seem to have known the name Purusha, and he uses Gandhāra for country and capital. As has been stated, the Nagarahāra of Kittoe's Sanskrit inscription is evidently the city and district called Purushapur. This name is interpreted as meaning "the city of the Hero", in Chinese Chang-fu-kung (丈夫宮) or Hero's Palace,³ the Purusha or "Hero" being Vishnu as the conqueror of the terrible Asura.

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² A. G. I. p. 47 ff. for this and Gandhāra generally: Alberuni Vol. ii, p. 11.

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³ Su-kao-sêng-chuan, ch. 2.

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Yuan-chuang proceeds to state that of the Buddhist Masters in India who since old times had written śāstras (lun 論) there were Nārāyaṇa-deva, Wu-cho (Asaṅga) Pusa, Shih-ch'in (Vasubandhu) Pusa, Dharmatrāta, Manorhita(?), and Pārśva the Venerable who were natives of this district.

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Julien translates this passage as follows—"Depuis l'antiquité, ce pays a donné le jour à un grand nombre de docteurs indiens qui ont composé des Traités (Çastras); par exemple à Nārāyaṇa Deva, Asaṅga, Vasoubandhu, Dharmatrāta, Manorhita, Ārya Parçvika, &c. &c." There is nothing in the text, however, corresponding to the grand nombre, the par exemple, or the &c. &c. of this rendering. Instead of the word pu (不), which is in Julien's Chinese text, there should be yu (有), the reading of the A and D texts. Of the writers of śāstras or disquisitions mentioned here only three are known as books which have come down to us, viz. Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, and Dharmatrāta. The Nārāyaṇa-deva appears again in this treatise as a deva or god, and it is perhaps the incarnation of Vishnu so named that is represented here as a philosophical Buddhist writer, or Yuan-chuang may have heard that the "Dharma-śāstra" which bears the name of Vishnu was written by the god. But we must remember that Nārāyaṇa is a name common to several ancient philosophers of India. The other śāstra-writers of Gandhāra will meet us again as we proceed.

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There were above 1000 Buddhist monasteries in the country but they were utterly dilapidated and untenanted. Many of the topes also were in ruins. There were above 100 Deva-temples, and the various sects lived pell-mell. In the north-east part of the capital were the remains of the building which once contained the Buddha's Alms-bowl. After the Buddha's decease the Bowl had wandered to this country, and after having been treated with reverence here for some centuries, it had gone on to several other countries, and was now in P'o-la-ssŭ (Persia).

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The Buddha's Bowl was seen by Fa-hsien in a monastery in Purusha, where it was in the care of the Buddhist Brethren. Kumārajīva saw it in Sha-le or Kashgar, and Chih-mêng saw it in Kapin.¹ Our pilgrim here represents the Bowl as having passed away from Purushapur and as being in Persia, but the Life instead of Persia has Benares. According to other authorities the Buddha's Bowl moved about from place to place, passing mysteriously through the air, and working miracles for the good of the people until it passed (or passes) out of sight in the palace of the Dragon-king Sagara. There it will remain until the advent of Maitreya as Buddha when it will appear again to be a witness. According to some texts the Bowl was broken once by the wicked king Mihirakula, but the pieces seem to have come together again. As no one less than a Buddha could ever eat from this Bowl, so no one less than a Buddha could move it from its resting-place; borne by the hidden impulses of human karma it floated about from one chosen seat to another as Buddhism waxed or waned.²

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¹ Fo-kuo-chi, *ch.* 12: Kao-sêng-chuan, *ch.* 2, 3.

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² See "Fo-mie-tu-hou-kuan-lien-sung-ching" (No. 124); Lien-hua-mien-ching, *ch.* 2 (No. 465).

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About eight or nine *li* to the south-east of the capital was a large and very ancient sacred Pipphal Tree above 100 feet high with wide-spreading foliage affording a dense shade. Under it the Four Past Buddhas had sat, and all the 996 Buddhas of the Bhadra kalpa are to sit here; the images of the Four Buddhas in the sitting posture were still to be seen. When Sakya Julai was sitting under this tree with his face to the south he said to Ananda—"Four hundred years after my decease a sovereign will reign, by name Kanishka, who a little to the south of this will raise a tope in which he will collect many of my flesh and bone relics". To the south of the Pipphal Tree was the tope erected by Kanishka. Exactly 400 years after the death of the Buddha Kanishka became sovereign of all Jambudvīpa, but he did not believe in Karma, and he treated Buddhism with contumely. When he was out hunting in the wild country a white hare appeared; the king gave chase, and the hare suddenly disappeared at this place. Here among the trees the king discovered a cow-herd boy with a small tope three feet high he had made. "What is this you have made?" asked the king. The boy replied telling the Buddha's prophecy, and informing Kanishka that he was the king of the prophecy, adding that he had come to set in motion the fulfilment of the prophecy. With this the king was greatly pleased; he straightway became a Buddhist, and proceeded to accomplish the prediction. Trusting to his own great merits, he set about building a great tope round the site of the boy's small tope, which was to be concealed and suppressed by the great tope. But as the latter rose in height the small tope always topped it by three feet. The king's tope was one and a half *li* in circuit at the base, which was 150 feet high in five stages, and the tope had reached the height of 400 feet. The boy's tope was now suppressed and the king was greatly pleased. He completed his tope by the addition of twenty five gilt copper disks in tiers, and having deposited a ho of relics inside, he proceeded to offer solemn worship. But the small tope appeared with one half of it out sideways under the south-east corner of the great base. The king now lost patience and threw the thing up. So [the small tope] remained as it was (i. e. did not all come through the wall) with one half of it visible in the stone base below the second stage, and another small tope took its place at the original site. Seeing all this the king became alarmed, as he was evidently contending with supernatural powers, so he confessed his error and made submission. These two topes were still in existence and were resorted to for cures by people afflicted with diseases. South of the stone steps on the east side of the Great Tope were two sculptured topes, one three and the other five feet high, which were miniatures of the Great Tope. There were also two images of the Buddha, one four and the other six feet high, representing him seated cross-legged under the Bodhi Tree. When the sun shone on them these images were of a dazzling gold colour, and in the shade their stone was of a dark violet colour. The stone had been gnawed by gold-coloured ants so as to have the appearance of carving, and the insertion of gold sand completed the images. On the south face of the ascent to the Great Tope was a painting of the Buddha sixteen feet high with two heads from one body. Our pilgrim narrates the legend connected with this very curious picture as he learned it at the place.

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