On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c17.s3.18

v2.c17.s3.18

The Buddhist books do not give us much information as to the situation, relative to Kuśinagara, of the place at which the Buddha died. Bigandet, probably quoting from a Pali authority, tells us that the forest of Sal trees was to the south-west of the city.¹ The "Mahā-Parinibbāna-Sutta" merely gives the scene of the Great Decease as the "sāla grove of the Mallas, the Upavattana of Kusinārā, on the further side of the river Hiraṇyavati".² With this description in the "Lien-hua-mien-ching" agrees closely,³ and the other accounts are similar. Fa-hsien places the Sal Grove on the Hiraṇyavati river, and to the north of the city Kuśinagara. Instead of the tope which Yuanchuang here mentions, as having been built on the spot by Asoka, we find a chaitya in the Divyāvadāna.⁴ It is worthy of notice that the place at which the Buddha passed away for ever was the only object pointed out to Asoka by Upagupta while the two were at Kuśinagara.