On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c17.s3.8

v2.c17.s3.8

The story of Chunda the blacksmith giving the Buddha his last breakfast is told in several books. But in these Chunda is generally described as a resident of Pāvā and as giving the great entertainment there. Thus the "Yu-hsing-ching", the Pali "Mahā-Parinibbāna sutta" or "Sūtra of the Great Decease", and a Tibetan work, all make Pāvā to be the place of Chunda's residence and the scene of the breakfast to the Buddha.³ In the Mahāyānist sūtra Ta-pan-ni-huan-ching, however, it is at Kuśinagara that Chunda lives, and entertains Buddha and his disciples.¹ Fa-hsien does not make mention of Chunda’s house in Kusinagara; and our pilgrim’s account may have been derived from books rather than from personal knowledge. He had evidently read Mahā-Parinirvāṇa sūtra in the translation by Dharmaraksha made about A. D. 420. When Buddha intimated his acceptance of the invitation to breakfast from Chunda, the latter set himself to prepare a great feast. In the Pali Mahā-parinibbāna Sutta Chunda, the artificer’s son, is represented as setting before the Buddha on this occasion a dish of sūkaramaddava. No one of the disciples was allowed to eat of this particular food, and what remained over was buried in the ground. The word sūkaramaddava has been generally understood to mean a preparation of pig’s flesh; and Dr. Rhys Davids translates it in one place by “dried boar’s flesh”, and in another place by “tender pork”². But he is not satisfied with the interpretations and explanations given of the word, and he is evidently inclined to regard it as a name for some vegetable article of food. This view is taken also by K. E. Neumann who gives reasons for regarding the word as denoting some kind of edible fungus.³ Now it is remarkable that neither in the Tibetan, nor in any of the Chinese accounts of the death of the Buddha is there any mention of pork at the last breakfast. Nor is it mentioned in the Mahāyānist books on the Great Decease, nor in the account of Chunda’s feast given in the Sarvata Vinaya. In the “Yu-hsing-ching” the dainty reserved by Chunda for the Buddha is called “Sandal-wood-tree-ear”, or “San-