On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c9.s2.11

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.