Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c9.s2: Bodhisattva and Dīpankara

On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c9.s2

Language
English

Bodhisattva and Dīpankara

v1.c9.s2.1

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.

v1.c9.s2.2

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.

v1.c9.s2.3

¹ Mahāvastu T. I, p. 193.

v1.c9.s2.4

² Dīvyāv. p. 246.

v1.c9.s2.5

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

v1.c9.s2.6

⁴ Mahāvamsa Int. p. XXXII.

v1.c9.s2.7

⁵ Yin-kuo-ching (Bun. No. 666).

v1.c9.s2.8

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).

v1.c9.s2.9

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.

v1.c9.s2.10

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.

v1.c9.s2.11

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.

v1.c9.s2.12

¹ Dipavamsa p. 131.

v1.c9.s2.13

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

Linked texts (6)