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On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18: Chapter XIII. Chuan VII: Vārānasī to Nepāl

On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18

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Chapter XIII. Chuan VII: Vārānasī to Nepāl

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CHUAN VII.

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The narrative in the Records goes on to state that the pilgrim continued his journey from the large town which was 200 *li* south-west from Kusinagara onward through the forest, and after travelling above 500 *li* he reached the Po-lo-na-se (Varaṇāsi or Vārāṇasī) country (that is the city now called Benares).

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The Fang-chih repeats the statement here made, but in the Life, which does not mention the large town, the distance from Kusinagara to Varaṇāsi is given as only over 500 *li*, the direction not being given. Fa-hsien calls the country Kāśi and the capital P'o-lo-na (Baraṇā or Varaṇā),¹ and this distinction is observed by other writers. We also find these two names occasionally treated as convertible, but in Buddhist books Kāśi is seldom found as the designation of the city, and is generally applied to the country. Thus the fine cotton stuffs for which the Benares district was famous are called "Kāśi cloth". The sacred city is generally called Varaṇā or Vārāṇasi or Vārāṇasī, and sometimes the district is included in this name. The latter form is the only one which Yuan-chuang seems to have known and, in his usual manner, he makes it include the city and the country.

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¹ Fo-kuo-chi, *ch.* 34.

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The Vārāṇasī District is described by our pilgrim as being above 4000 *li* in circuit. The capital reached to the Ganges on its west side, and was about eighteen *li* long by five or six *li* wide. The city-wards were close together, and the inhabitants were very numerous and had boundless wealth, their houses being full of rare valuables. The people were gentle and courteous and esteemed devotion to learning; the majority of them believed in the other systems and only a few of them were Buddhists. The climate of the district was temperate, and the harvests were abundant; fruit and other trees grew densely and there was a luxuriant vegetation. There were above thirty Buddhist monasteries with more than 3000 Brethren all adherents of the Sammatiya school. Of Deva-Temples there were above 100, and there were more than 10000 professed adherents of the sects, the majority being devotees of Siva; some of these cut off their hair, others made it into a top-knot; some went about naked and some smeared themselves with ashes; they were persevering in austerities seeking release from mortal existence. Within the capital were 20 Deva-Temples, and the narrative goes on to tell how their storeyed terraces and temple-eaves were of carved stone and ornamented wood; thickets of trees gave continuous shade and there were streams of pure water; there was a *tu-shi* (bell-metal?) image of the Deva (probably Siva) nearly 100 feet high which was life-like in its awe-inspiring majesty.

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It is to be noticed that in this passage the pilgrim places Vārāṇasī on the *east* instead of on the *west* side of the Ganges. The Life gives the number of the Buddhist Brethren as 2000 and represents them as being Sarvāstivādins. Then there is nothing in the Life about the twenty Deva-Temples within the city, and this passage is probably corrupt. The text of the Records used by the compiler of the Fang-chih was apparently, for this passage, different from that of any of our editions. According to it the object of worship in the Deva-Temples was the lingam, and it was this which was 100 feet high. It is perhaps possible that Yuan-chuang may have written that among the Deva-Temples in the city was one to Siva which had twenty separate shrines or sacred buildings, and that he then proceeded to describe this great temple. His description of it seems to agree in many points with that given by Mr. Sherring of the ruins of Bakariya Kuṇḍ in the north-west corner of Benares. But Mr. Sherring is disposed to find in these ruins the remains of an ancient Buddhist establishment.¹ But neither Fa-hsien nor Yuan-chuang has any mention of a grand establishment in the city corresponding to the buildings at Bakariyā Kuṇḍ. Nor does the later Sung pilgrim know of such an establishment. This pilgrim places Vārāṇasi to the north of the Ganges, and on its bank, and he has two cities separated by five *li*.²

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¹ 'The Sacred City of the Hindus', *ch*. XIX.

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² Ma T. L. *ch*. 338.

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Our pilgrim proceeds to relate that to the north-east of the capital, and on the west side of the Po-lo-na (Barna) river, was an Asoka tope above 100 feet high. In front of this was a pillar of polished green stone, clear and lustrous as a mirror in which the reflection of the Buddha was constantly visible. Continuing his description the pilgrim states that at a distance of ten *li* north-east from the Barna river was the Deer-Park Monastery. This establishment, he says, was in eight divisions all enclosed within one wall; the tiers of balconies and the rows of halls were extremely artistic; there were 1500 Buddhist Brethren in the establishment all adherents of the Sammatiya School. Within the great enclosing wall was a temple (*ching-shê*) above 200 feet high surmounted by an embossed gilt *an-mê-lo* (amra or mango) fruit: the base and steps were of stone: in the brick portion above were more than 100 rows of niches each containing a gilt image of the Buddha; inside the temple was a *tu-chi* (bell-metal?) image of the Buddha representing him in the attitude of preaching and as large as life.

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The monastery here described is the famous one in the Rishipatana Mṛigadāva, the Isipatana Migadāya of the Pali books, dating from the time of the Buddha. The Deer-Park is said in the Mahāsaṅghika Vinaya to have been half a yojana, and in the Fo-kuo-chi to have been ten *li*, distant from Vārāṇasi, and in the Sung pilgrim’s Itinerary it is placed above ten *li* north-west from that city. Our pilgrim’s location of the Deer-Park seems to agree with a passage in the Hsing-chi-ching³ which represents Buddha as going through the east gate of Vārāṇasi to a place on the water (river) and thence going north to the Deer-Park. In Chinese translations the name of the place is commonly given as *Hsien-jen-lu-ye-yuan* (仙人鹿野苑) or the "Deer Park of the Rishi". In the Divyāvadāna we have instead of "Rishipatana" the form "Rishivadana", and this explains the Chinese translation in the A-yü-wang-ching which has *Hsien-mien* or "Rishi-face".¹ I-ching and others sometimes translate the word Rishipatana literally by "the place of the rishi's fall (仙人墮處)", and we have also the rendering "the rishi's dwelling-place".² According to Fa-hsien the rishi who gave the name to the place was a Pratyeka Buddha who had lodged here as a hermit. When this recluse heard that "Suddhodana's son" was about to become Buddha he "took nirvāṇa", that is, died in this wood. The other part of the name, Mrigadāva, is said to have been derived from the jātaka, related in this passage by the pilgrim, in which the Buddha and Devadatta in former births were rival chiefs of flocks of deer in this forest. Instead of "Mrigadāva" or "Deer-forest" we find in some books "Mrigadāya" or "Deer-gift", and this explains the translation given by I-ching and others, *shih*(施)-lu-ye or *Shih-lu-lin*, the "Deer-gift Wood", the wood of charity to deer.

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³ Hsing-chi-ching *ch*. 33.

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¹ Divyāv. p. 393; A-yü-wang-ching *ch*. 2; The Divyāv. at p. 464 has *Rishivadana*. The Mahāvastu also uses both forms.

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² Fo-shuo-san-chuan-fa-lun-ching (No. 658).

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One of the buildings of the Deer-Park establishment, as Yuan-chuang has told us, was a Buddhist temple surmounted by an embossed gilt "amra fruit". The word *amra* (or āmra) denotes the mango, but we are not to take it in that sense here. It perhaps represents *āmalaka*, used by the pilgrim in the next *chuan* of the Records, the name of a common ornament of Hindu temples. The śikhara, "tower" or "spire" of the temple, to borrow Mr. W. Simpson's description, "is surmounted by a member called the āmalaka, which is circular in plan, and might be likened to a cushion or a compressed melon: the outer surface ribbed. A kalasa, or jar, surmounts this as a pinnacle".

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Another name for the ornament is "amra or amra-śilā" and it is supposed by some to have been a relic casket. But this seems unlikely; and Mr. Sinclair is perhaps right in regarding it as having been merely a stand or support for the jar (kalas).¹ It has also been supposed that the āmalaka is the "Dew-dish" of our pilgrim and other translators from Indian into Chinese. But this term is apparently transferred from native use, and not translated from the Sanskrit. With the old Chinese the "Dew-dish" was a cup, on a stand, placed in the open hand of an image or statue. Han Wu Ti in B. C. 115 caused such a figure, made of copper, to be set up on the artificial mound (or Terrace) which he had constructed.² This Dew-dish was intended to receive the dew from heaven, and such dew was supposed to confer immortality. It is to be noticed also that the Dew-dish is an ornament for a tope; while the amra is on the roof of a temple,³ and in the present passage the amra is not associated with any other article. The temple here described was evidently a very recent one, and the life-size image of the Buddha in the attitude of preaching indicates the influence of Mahāyānism.

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¹ J. R. A. S. Vol. XX. p. 54 and at pages 68, 272, 275, 545, and Vol. XXI. p. 689 ff.

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² T'ung-chien-kang-mu, Han Hsiao Wu Ti, Yuan-ting 2d year.

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³ See P'u-sa-pên-shêng-man-lun ch. 4 (No. 1312).

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To the south-west of the Buddhist Temple, the pilgrim proceeds, was a ruinous old stone tope built by Asoka of which 100 feet still remained above-ground. In front of this was a stone pillar, above 70 feet high, which had the softness of jade, and was of dazzling brightness. Very earnest petitioners saw in it darkly various pictures, and it often showed good and bad (that is, lucky and unlucky) indications. This pillar was at the spot at which the Buddha, having attained enlightenment, first preached his religion.

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Near this monolith, the narrative tells us, was a tope to mark the place where Ājñāta Kauṇḍinya and his four companions settled in order to apply themselves to devotional meditation. These men had been practising austerities with the P'usa elsewhere; and when they saw him give up the practice, they left him, and came to this place. The tope beside this marked the place where 500 Pratyeka Buddhas "entered nirvāṇa" at the same time; and there were three topes at the sitting places and exercise-walks of the Three Past Buddhas.

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The pilgrim next tells of a tope at the place where, he says, Mei-ta-li-ya (Maitreya) P'usa received from the Buddha the prophecy of his future attainment of Buddhahood. He then explains that once, when the Ju-lai was on the Vulture Peak near Rājagaha, he announced to his disciples that at a distant period there would be born in Jambudvīpa a brahmin's son named Tzŭ (Maitreya) of a bright golden colour. This man, he adds, "will take orders and become Buddha. He will then on a large scale at three assemblies preach for the good of living creatures. Those whom he will save will be the creatures who sow good seed in my system, devoted to the Buddha, the Canon, and the Church. Whether lay or clerical, whether they keep or violate the Vinaya, all will receive religious teaching, become arhats, and attain emancipation. In the three Meetings in which Maitreya will preach he will ordain the disciples of my system, and then convert those religious friends who have the same destiny". Maitreya P'usa hearing these words of the Buddha rose from his seat and addressing the Buddha said— May I become this Maitreya Bhagavat. Buddha in reply intimated to Maitreya P'usa that he would become the Buddha of the prophecy, and carry out its predictions.

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There is an extraordinary inconsistency of statement in this passage about the prediction to Maitreya P'usa; for while the tope is described as being near Benares at the place where the prediction was made, the prediction is said to have been made by the Buddha when at Rājagaha. As the story is not repeated either in the Life or the Fang-chih we cannot have any assistance from those works. Now there are several treatises which tell the story of the prediction of Buddhahood to Maitreya by the Buddha; but these treatises make the prophecy to have been delivered at a mountain near Rājagaha, or at Śrāvastī, and the prediction is made to Śāriputra, or Ānanda, and the congregation of disciples in the absence of Maitreya.¹ But the "Fo-shuo-ku-lai-shih-shihching” tells of the Buddha making the prediction while in the chapel of the Rishipatana Mrigadāva Monastery at Benares.¹ In this version of the story the prophecy is addressed to the bhikshu Maitreya, who is one of the congregation, and accepts the prophecy and the duties it is to bring. It was evidently this version of the story that the pilgrim followed; and the mention of the Griddhrakūṭa, near Rajagaha, as the scene of the prediction is probably only a slip.

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¹ Fo-shuo-Mi-lê-hsia-shêng-ching (No. 208), prophecy at Śrāvastī; Fo-shuo-Mi-lê-hsia-shêng-ch'êng-Fo-ching (No. 207) at Rājagaha; Fo-

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¹ This is the “Fo-shuo-Mi-lê-lai-shih-ching (No. 205). See also the Shih-erh-yu-ching (No. 1374).

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The three great religious gatherings, here called “Three Assemblies” (or Meetings), which are to be called by Maitreya Buddha, and at which he is to preach with great effect, are popularly known in Chinese Buddhist works as the “Lung-hua-san-hui”, the “Three Lung-hua Meetings”. They are to be held under Dragon-Flower (Lung-hua) trees; hence their name, the Dragon-Flower (or Champac) tree being the Bodhi-tree of Maitreya Buddha. In these Meetings, according to the prediction, Maitreya Buddha is to receive into his communion in all 282 Koṭis of converts, and those of his congregations who had in previous births been good Buddhists will then attain arhatship.

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To the west of the Maitreya-Prediction Tope, Yuan-chuang continues, was a tope at the place where Sakya P‘usa (that is, the P‘usa) as Hu-ming (護明) P‘usa received from Kaśyapa Buddha the prophecy of his future attainment of Buddhahood with the name Sakyamuni. Near this tope was an artificial platform of dark-blue stone, above 50 paces long by seven feet high, which had been a walking-place of the Four Past Buddhas. On this was a standing image of the Ju-lai, grand and majestic, with long hair from the top of the head (from the uṣṇīṣa), of noted and conspicuous miraculous powers.

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In his translation of this passage Julien restores Hu-ming, “Light-protecting” as Prabhāpāla with the same meaning. But the Chinese rendering is probably for

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shuo-Mi-lê-ta-ch‘êng-Fo-ching (No. 209) on mountain in Magadha; Sar. Vin. Yao-shih ch. 6 prophecy made to the disciples on the way from Rājagaha to Vaiśāli.

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Jyotirpāla (Jotipāla in Pali) which was the name of the P‘usa as the son of a brahmin in the time of Kāśyapa Buddha.

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The Life describes the Exercise ground of the Four Past Buddhas as being 500 feet long by seven feet high, and represents it as having images of the four Buddhas.

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The pilgrim next tells of three Tanks, one to the west of the Monastery Wall, a second further west, and a third to the north of the latter. These were all regarded as sacred by the Buddhists and were jealously guarded by dragons.

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Near these Tanks, Yuan-chuang continues, was a tope. He adds—while Ju-lai was fulfilling the career of a Bodhisattva he became a six-tusked elephant-king; a hunter to get the elephant’s tusks disguised himself in a Buddhist monk’s costume, drew his bow and captured the elephant-king: the latter, out of reverence for the monk’s garb, tore out his tusks, and gave them to the hunter.

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In the latter paragraph of this passage, it will be noted, there is no word for “place” in the short account of the tope, but the Life and Fang-chih state expressly that the tope was at the place where the elephant gave his tusks to the hunter. In the Life also the P‘usa is a “six-tusked white elephant” giving his tusks to the hunter as an act of charity. To place the scene of this famous Jātaka at Benares is against all the versions of the story with which we are acquainted, and the pilgrim does not state that the tope was at the spot where the event occurred. According to some authorities the Chaddanta (six-tusked) elephant lived on the side of the Snow Mountains (Himavant), and according to others his home was to the south 3000 *li* and within several ranges of mountains. But the Jātaka is connected with Benares because it was to procure ivory for the queen of that district that the cruel hunter shot the elephant, the self-denying indefatigable candidate for Buddhahood. A full account of this very curious Jātaka will be found in M. Feer’s articles in the *Journal Asiatique* for 1895 which give the variations of the different versions.¹

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¹ See also Ta-chih-tu-lun *ch*. 12; and J. P. T. S. 1901. pp. 80–84.

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Near the tope of the Tusk-extracting, the pilgrim proceeds, was another tope. This commemorated the action of the Ju-lai while fulfilling the career of a P'usa when in pity for the want of civility in the world he took the form of a bird; as such he and his friends a monkey and a white elephant asked each other which had been the first to see the banyan tree under which they were sitting. Each gave his experience and according to their statements they took precedence: the good influence of this proceeding gradually spread; men got civil order, and religious and lay people gave in their adherence.

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This is a Jātaka told in the Vinaya and other treatises, the three friends being the Buddha, Maudgalyayāna, and Śāriputra in former births.¹ But the story as told in the Buddhist books has no connection whatever with Benares, and the reader will observe that again Yuan-chuang does not state that the tope was at the place where the event commemorated occurred. The story is related at Śrāvastī, or on the way thither, and the scene is laid on the side of the Himavant. According to the Jātaka the bird was a partridge and the tree a banyan, but the Ta-chih-tu-lun, calls the bird a ka-pin-ja-lo, and represents the three friends as living under a peepul tree.²

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¹ Vin. II. 160-162; Chalmers' Jātaka p. 92 and note p. 95.

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² Ta-chih-tu-lun ch. 12.

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Beside this tope, in the great wood, Yuan-chuang relates, was a tope where the P'usa and Devadatta as Deer-kings settled an affair. To prevent the extermination of their two flocks of deer by the hunts of the king of the country it was arranged that an animal from each flock, on alternate days, should be given up to the king for the use of his table. When it came to be the turn of a doe big with young in Devadatta's flock the doe begged to be spared for a few days for the sake of her unborn fawn. The Devadatta Deer-chief refused to entertain her petition and the P'usa Deer-chief thereupon offered himself as substitute for the doe. This act of self-sacrifice moved the king to remorse, he released all the deer from the penalty of death, and gave them the wood as pasture land: hence arose the name, the Wood of Charity to the Deer.

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The story of the P'usa as a Deer-king giving himself up as a substitute for a pregnant doe is told in one Buddhist book without any mention of another Deer-king as Devadatta in a former birth. The scene of the P'usa's act of self-sacrifice is not given in this treatise. But in another work the scene is laid in the wild country of Benares kingdom, and the king of the country is Brahmadatta. In this treatise there are two flocks of deer, one with the deer who was the P'usa as chief, and one with the Devadatta-deer as chief: the version of the Jātaka here given agrees closely with that in our text.¹

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¹ Liu-tu-chi-ching *ch.* 3; Ta-chih-tu-lun, *ch.* 76. Jātaka No. 12.

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The pilgrim next tells us of a tope which was two or three *li* to the south-west of the great Buddhist establishment of the Deer-Park. This tope was above 300 feet high with a broad high base which was ornamented with precious substances; the tope had no storeys of niches for images, but it was covered by a dome, and it had a spire but without the circular bells. Beside this peculiar tope, the pilgrim tells us, was one which marked the place where Ājñātakauṇḍinya and his four companions abandoned their decision to treat the Buddha with disrespect, and received him with the reverence due to a Master.

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Here we have an account of the mission of these five men, and of the Prince Siddhartha becoming Buddha and converting and ordaining them. The story is told in many books in several languages, and is well known.

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Two or three *li* east from the Mrigadāva, the pilgrim continues, was a tope beside which was a dried-up tank called by two names, *Life-Saving* and *The Hero*.

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We have then the very curious story which explains the origin of the names. It is not necessary to go over this long story of which Julien has given us a fair translation. But there is one passage in it on which we may dwell for a moment. While the Hero is keeping vigil in the temple he has a horrible nightmare in which he is killed. Thereupon, he says, he shou-chung-yin-shên (受 中 陰 身) which Julien renders— "et je restai quelque temps dans ce triste état". But the meaning of the words is "in my intermediate state". Chung-yin, called also chung-yu (中

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), in Sanskrit “Antarābhava”, denotes, as the passage cited in Julien’s note shows, the “intermediate existence”, the state in which the spirit or self remains, between its separation from one mortal body and its union with another.¹ Then from a different point of view the *chung-yin* is the being which, acting independently of parents and without their knowledge, animates their offspring and makes its destiny. To the production of a child there come three agents, the two parents and the tertium quid or *chung-yin* which makes the individual, gives character and fortune. In the story of the dream, in our text, as soon as the Hero was killed he became an antarābhava, and then was incarnated in a brahmin lady, transferring to his new bodily life the habit of silence enjoined on him in the previous existence. This term *chung-yin* is also applied by some authorities to one who, like a Buddha, having experienced final death (parinirvāṇa), is freed from all transient existence, but lives for ever in a state of being absolute and incommunicable.

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¹ Chung-yin-ching (No. 463 tr. circ. A. D. 400).

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To the west of the Hero’s Tank was, the pilgrim tells us, the Tope of the Three Animals on the spot where the P’usa, as a hare, roasted himself. The mention of this tope leads the pilgrim to relate the Jātaka of the fox, the ape, and the hare providing food for Indra in the guise of a hungry old man. The hare was the P’usa, and Indra had come to observe and test his conduct. Pretending to be very hungry, the old man asked the fox and the other animals for food, and obtained from the fox a fish and from the ape some fruit, but the hare could not provide anything. When he was chidden for his inhospitality the hare caused his companions to make a fire and roasted himself on it to provide a meal for the old man. The latter resuming his proper form was greatly affected, and carrying the hare’s corpse to the moon placed it there to go down to posterity. Since that event all speak of “the hare in the moon”; and men of after times erected a tope at the place of the roasting.

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The abstract of the Hare Jātaka here given by our pilgrim differs in several respects from the story as found in certain other books. In the Pali version, which lays the scene of the occurrence at Benares in the time of good king Brahmadatta, there are four animals, a hare, an otter, a jackal, and a monkey.¹ In this treatise the story does not have the hare roasted alive; and Indra, who has tried the Bodhisattva, paints the likeness of the hare in the disk of the moon. In the “Fo-shuo-shêng-ching” it is Dīpankara Buddha who is the hermit, and there are no other animals with the Hare-king and the hares, nor is there any mention of the moon.² The “Liu-tu-chi-ching” also makes Dīpankara Buddha to be the brahmin who tries the P'usa as a hare, and here there are a fox, an otter and a monkey living with the hare, but there is no transfer to the moon.³ In the “P'u-sa-pên-shêng-man-lun” the hermit is Maitreya, the Hare-king is the P'usa, and he has only his own species about him.⁴ The Hare-king prepares to roast himself for the hermit to eat him in the absence of all other food, but the hermit pulls him off the fire, too late, however, to save his life. Then praying to be born in all future lives as a disciple of the P'usa the hermit burns himself with the hare, and Indra comes to worship, and raises a tope over the relics, but does not take anything to the moon.

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¹ Jāt. Vol. III. p. 51; Francis and Niel's Jātaka p. 35.

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² ch. 4.

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³ ch. 3.

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⁴ ch. 3.

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A legend about the hare like that here told by the pilgrim seems to have survived among the Mongols down to the present. Thus the Kalmucs, who worship the hare as a god, and call him Sakyamuni, “say that on earth he allowed himself to be eaten by a starving man, for which gracious act he was raised to domineer over the moon where they profess to see him”.⁵

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⁵ Rhys Davids, ‘Buddhism’ pp. 197, 198. Crooke ‘Pop. Rel. and Folklore of N. India’ p. 215.

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The reader will observe that in the pilgrim's account of the Buddhist sacred places in and about Vārāṇasi he mentions only one monastery, the Ṛiṣipatana-mṛigadāva-vihāra. This is in agreement with a Buddhist śāstra which informs its readers that the Deer-Park monastery was the only Buddhist establishment at Vārāṇasi.¹ In a Vinaya treatise, however, we find mention of another vihāra, the name of which is given as Chi-t'o-lo-ka-poh (枳 陀 羅 迦 鉢),² which perhaps may be for Khidrakapa. There are also one or two other Buddhist establishments in the Kāsi country mentioned in Buddhist books, but nothing seems to be known about them.

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¹ Ta-chih-tu-lun ch. 3.

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² Sêng-ki-lü ch. 29.

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Vārāṇasi, the capital of the Kāsi country, now „the sacred city of the Hindus”, was held sacred then by all Buddhists because at it the Buddha set the wheel of religion in motion, that is, gave the first teaching in the essentials of his new system. At the spot where he delivered this first sermon to Ājñātakaunḍinya and his four companions a tope is said to have been erected, and this is one of the Eight Great Topes of which later Buddhism tells. But to the Buddhists this city had even earlier claims on their reverence, for it was the second city to “arise” in the last renovation of the world, and it had been the scene of the ministrations of several of the Past Buddhas. The last of these Past Tathāgatas, Kāśyapa by name, had lived here in an ārāma near the Ṛiṣipatana Deer-Park. At this far off time the king of Kāsi was named Ki-li-ki (the Kikī of the Pali scriptures), and he was a lay adherent and a patron of Kāśyapa Buddha. It was at Vārāṇasi that this latter having ordained the young Jotipālo, the friend of Ghaṭikāro the potter, predicted that the disciple would in a distant future become the Buddha Sakyamuni.³

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³ Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih ch. 12, here the name Jotipāla does not occur; Majjhima 2. 45—54, Kikī and Jotipāla in intercourse with Kassapa Buddha; Jāt. Vol. I. Int. p. 48, here there is the prediction to Jotipāla.

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In the Chinese versions of Buddhist works the terms Kāsi and Vārāṇasi are generally given in transcriptions, but the former term is sometimes translated by *Ti-miao* (荻苗). This means "reed-sprouts", and its use by I-ching is explained when we find him transcribing the name of the country by *Ka-shi-lo* that is, *kaseru*, a word which denotes a kind of reed or grass.¹ But *Ti-miao* may also have been used to translate Kāśi as supposed to be connected with Kāśa.

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¹ Sar. Vin. Yao-shih *ch.* 1 and P'o-sêng-shih *ch.* 6.

Chan-Chu Country

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From the neighbourhood of Vārāṇasi Yuan-chuang proceeded, he tells us, eastward following the course of the Ganges for above 300 *li* to the *Chan-chu* (戰主) country. This country, according to the pilgrim, was above 2000 *li* in circuit, and its capital, which was on the Ganges, was about ten *li* in circuit. The country had a dense and flourishing population, a good climate and a fertile soil; the people were honest and high-spirited and they had a mixed religious creed. There were above ten Buddhist establishments with nearly a thousand Brethren all attached to the system of the "Little Vehicle". There were twenty Deva-Temples, and the followers of the different non-Buddhist systems dwelt pell-mell.

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Here the narrative as usual describes the pilgrim as going on "from this"; and we must take this expression as meaning "from the Deer-Park" which, as we have seen, was above ten *li* north-east of the Bārna river at Vārāṇasi. The term *Chan-chu* means "fighting lord" or "lord of battle", and it is evidently a translation of a Sanskrit name or epithet with a similar meaning. Cunningham has identified our *Chan-chu* country with the modern Ghāripur, the "city of the Conqueror".² But *chan* is used to translate *Yuddha* and *chu* stands for several words such as *pati*, *svāmin*, and *īśvara*, and the *Chan-chu* of our text may be the rendering of a word like Yuddhapati, which may be an epithet of Siva.

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² A. G. I. p. 438.

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In the mention of the non-Buddhists Julien makes the pilgrim describe these as living in their temples. This is due to the faulty reading of his text which adds the particle chih (之) after the four words Yi-tao-tsa-chii, "the heretics live pell-mell". To these four words, which form a very common phrase in the Records, the old texts added the particle Yi (矣) to serve as a full stop. This unfortunately appears in the B text as chih, and spoils the meaning. Our pilgrim never represents the professed adherents of the non-Buddhist systems as living in the "Deva-Temples".

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In a Buddhist establishment, Yuan-chuang tells us, at the north-west of the capital was an Asoka tope, with bodily relics of the Buddha, to commemorate a spot at which the Buddha had expounded his religion for seven days to a congregation of devas and men. Near it was a place with trees of the Three Past Buddhas' sitting and exercise ground. Next to this was an image of Maitreya P'usa, small, but of great miraculous powers.

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Above 200 li east from the capital was the A-pi-t'ê-ka-la-na (restored by Julien as Aviddhakarṇa) Sanghārāma ("the monastery of the Brethren with unpierced ears"). This monastery had been built for the use of Buddhist pilgrims from Tokhāra, and the pilgrim tells the story which accounted for the name. Above 100 li south-east from this monastery, and on the south side of the Ganges, was the town of Mo-ha-sho-lo (that is, Mahāsāla or Mahāsāra); in it all the inhabitants were brahmins, and there were no Buddhists. Then to the north of the Ganges was a Nārāyaṇa Temple, with halls and terraces beautifully adorned, and with sculptured stone images in the highest style of art. Thirty li east from this was an Asoka tope half sunk in the ground, and in front of it was a stone pillar surmounted by a lion. An inscription on the pillar told how the Buddha here subdued and converted certain cannibal demons of the wilderness. Not far from this place were several Buddhist monasteries which were all in a bad condition, but still contained a number of Brethren, all Mahāyānists.

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Going on south-east above 100 li you come to the ruins of a tope of which some scores of feet remained above-ground. When after the Buddha's decease his relics were being divided among the eight kings, the brahmin who measured the relics smeared the inside of the jar with honey, and then distributed to the kings. The brahmin returning to his home took the jar with him; over the relics which had adhered to the sides he built a tope; and because the jar also was deposited in the tope, the latter got its name from the circumstance. Afterwards king Asoka took away the relics and jar, and replaced the old tope by a large one; on fast days there may be a bright light from the tope.

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The Aviddha-karṇa (or Unpierced-ear) Monastery of this passage is placed by the Fang-chih to the north-east of the capital, and not to the east as in our text. Our pilgrim’s town Mahāśāla (or Mahāsāra) has been supposed to correspond to the present Masār about six miles west of Shahabad in Bengal.

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For “demons of the wilderness” in this passage the Chinese is Kuang-ye-kuei (曠 or 曠野鬼) which we should perhaps render “Kuang-ye Demons”. This term kuang-ye denotes the wild unoccupied land beyond the boundaries of a city or town. But it is also used in Buddhist books to translate the Indian word Āḷavi or Aṭavi as the name of a town or village. In the Buddha’s lifetime this town was plagued by a cannibal demon, also called Aṭavi, who killed and ate a human being every day. Buddha tried to convert Aṭavi by gentle means, but failing in this he proceeded to bring the demon to submission by fear. Having succeeded in this Buddha then imparted to the demon the saving truths of Buddhism, and the demon was converted and became a good Buddhist.¹ This is perhaps the story of which the pilgrim had heard, but his story represents several cannibal demons as being at the place, although his words at the beginning of the paragraph seem to refer only to the “reduction of a demon to submission (伏鬼)”. This town of Aṭavi had a monastery in the time of the Buddha, and this is perhaps the Kuang-ye monastery of Fa-hsien, which was about twelve yojanas to the east of Benares.²

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¹ Ta-pan-nie-p’an-ching ch. 15 (No. 114).

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² Fo-kuo-chi ch. 34; the monastery is mentioned e. g. in Sêng-ki-lü ch. 19, 31, 33. See also Sutta Nipāta 1. 10.

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In the last paragraph of this passage the word jar is for the Chinese p’ing (甁). As p’ing is the recognised rendering for the Indian word *kumbha* our pilgrim's statement here would lead us to suppose that the tope of which he is telling was called "Kumbha-stūpa". This suits the account of the division of the relics at the end of the Mahāparinibbānasutta, and in other Pali texts we find Droṇa's tope called *kumbha-thūpa* or *kumbha-cetiya*.¹ Julien in his translation of the present passage proposes Droṇa-stūpa as the name of the tope, but Yuan-chuang always, I think, renders *droṇa* by *hu* (斛). Moreover all the eight topes over the Buddha's bodily relics were called *droṇa-stūpas* because each contained a *droṇa* of relics. Thus in the Divyāvadāna the tope over king Ajātaśattru's share of the Buddha's relics is called a *droṇa* (not Droṇa)-stūpa. There were eight of these *droṇa-stūpas*; seven in India and one in Rāmagāma, and Asoka wanted to take the relics away from all of them.² The wily brahmin who distributed the relics of the Buddha's cremated body among the angry claimants is in some accounts a Kuśinagara man, and apparently sets up his tope at that city.⁴ The Tibetan translation makes him a native of the town which bears his own name, and he builds his tope at that town.⁴ In a Vinaya treatise he is a native of a town called *T'ou-na-lo* (頭那羅), and it is to this place that he carries the jar, with the purloined relics, and here he builds his tope.⁵ It is possible that the *T'ou-na-lo* of this treatise is a copyist's error for *T'ou-lo-na*, that is, Droṇa.

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¹ e. g. in Buddhavamsa p. 68 (P. T. S.).

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² Divyāv. p. 380. Bur. Int. p. 372. Rhys Davids in J. R. A. S. 1901 p. 401.

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³ Ta-pan-nie-p'an-ching (last page).

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⁴ Rockhill, Life, p. 146 and note.

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⁵ Shih-sung-lü *ch.* 60; Ta-pan-nie-p'an-ching-hou-fên *ch.* 2. The account of the distribution of the Relics in the latter passage is a verbatim copy of that in the Shih-sung-lü.

Vaiśāli

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The pilgrim proceeds to relate that "from this" he went north-east, crossing the Ganges, and after a journey of 140 or 150 *li* he reached the *Fei-shê-li* (Vaiśāli) country.

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By the words "from this" here the context requires us to understand "from the Kumbha Tope", but the Life makes the pilgrim proceed from the *Chan-chu* country north-east 150 *li* to Vaiśāli. Cunningham, who identifies the city of Vaiśāli (or Vesāli) with the modern Besārh, regards the Ganges of this passage as a mistake for *Gandak*. But the pilgrim evidently places the Kumbha Tope to the south of the Ganges, and the text may be regarded as correct.

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The Vaiśāli country is described by the pilgrim as being above 5000 *li* in circuit, a very fertile region abounding in mangos, plantains and other fruits. The people were honest, fond of good works, esteemers of learning, and orthodox and heterodox in faith. The Buddhist establishments, of which there were some hundreds, were, with the exception of three or four, dilapidated and deserted, and the Brethren were very few. There were some tens of Deva-Temples, the various sects lived pell-mell, and the Digambaras flourished. The foundations of the old city Vaiśāli were 60 or 70 *li* in circuit, and the "Palace-city" (that is, the walled part of the city) was four or five *li* in circuit, and it had few inhabitants. About five *li* to the north-west of the "palace city" was a Buddhist monastery, the few professed Buddhists in which were of the Sammatiya School, and at the side of the monastery was a tope. It was here that the Buddha delivered the *P'i-mo-lo-ki-ching* (毗 摩 羅 詰 經), and that the householder's son Pao-chi and others presented sun-shades to the Buddha.

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The treatise here mentioned is that called by Mr. Bunyio Nanjio "Vimalakīrtti-nirdeśa-sūtra", "the sūtra of Vimalakīrtti's exposition", which corresponds to the meaning of the full Chinese title as given by Kumārajīva. But the proper title is probably "Ārya-Vimalakīrtinirdeśa", without the word *sūtra*. The work cannot be said to have been uttered by the Buddha, but it is rather a collection of the utterances or teachings of Vimalakīrti. According to the treatise Buddha is in the Mango Orchard at Vesāli, and Vimalakīrti is in his own house, supposed to be ill and confined to his bed, while the expositions are given. There are extant three translations of the work into Chinese, the first by a monk of the Yue-ti country in the middle of the third century A. D.,¹ the second by Kumārajīva,² and the third by our pilgrim.³ A learned Chinese monk, who was a disciple of Kumārajīva, edited his master's translation and enriched it with a commentary.⁴ There are also several other editions of Kumārajīva's version with commentaries, and it has long been a favourite work with Chinese students Buddhist and non-Buddhist. The incidents in this so-called sūtra are purely fictitious, and it must have been composed long after the death of the Buddha. It is, however, an interesting well-composed and ingenious exposition and discussion of the distinctive metaphysical tenets of the expansive developed Buddhism known as the Mahāyāna or "Great Vehicle" system.

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¹ Wei-mo-k'ie-ching (Bun. No. 147).

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² Wei-mo-k'ie-so-shuo-ching (No. 146).

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³ Shuo-wu-kou-ch'êng-ching (No. 149).

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⁴ Wei-mo-k'ie-so-shuo-ching-chu (No. 1632). The sūtras Nos. 144, 145, 181 in Nanjio's Catalogue have the same Sanskrit title as the Wei-mo-k'ie-ching, but they are different works.

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The last clause of our text mentions the offering of sun-shades. It is in the introduction which forms the first chapter of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra that the story is told of the 500 young Licchavis, including Pao-chi, offering their sun-shades to the Buddha in the Āmra orchard. The presentation of these gifts was immediately followed by a great miracle wrought by the Buddha which astonished and ravished all beholders. Julien suggests Ratnākara as the Sanskrit original for Pao-chi (寶積) or "Gem-heap", and the restoration is probably correct. The first translation, which transcribes the name as Lo-li-na-ka, perhaps for Ratnākara, translates it by Pao-shih (寶事) or "Gem-business", and Yuan-chuang in his version has Pao-hsing (寶性) or "Gem-nature" perhaps for Ratnākara. In using Pao-chi in the text here the pilgrim adopts Kumārajīva's rendering, which remains the popular one.

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Further in his version of the sūtra Yuan-chuang calls this Pao-chi a *p'usa*, while in the text of our passage he follows other translators in styling him "son of a householder".

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To the east of this monastery, Yuan-chuang relates, was a tope to commemorate the attainment of arhatship at the place by "Sāriputra and others".

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The word here rendered by "and others" is *têng* (等), and the pilgrim probably meant it to include only Maudgalyāyana. But the Buddhist scriptures generally represent Sāriputra as attaining arhatship at Rājagaha, and this seems to be the account followed by Yuan-chuang in *Chuan* 9 of these Records.

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To the south-east of this tope, the pilgrim continues, was one erected by the king of this country over the portion of the bodily relics of the Buddha which the king had obtained at the division made on the scene of the cremation. This king's share, Yuan-chuang says, was a bushel (*hu* or *drona*) of relics, and he had deposited these in a tope to be kept as objects of worship; afterwards Asoka came and carried off nine-tenths of the precious relics.

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In this passage, as in a previous one, the pilgrim forgets that there was no king of Vaiśāli in the time of the Buddha, the city and district being governed by a council of Elders. It was the Licchavis of Vaiśāli who, as Kshatriyas, claimed from the Mallas of Kusinagara a share of the relics of the Buddha who also had been a Kshatriya. Some of the Scriptures, we know, represent eight kings, and among them the king of this country, coming to ask for and extort shares of the Buddha's relics.

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The pilgrim next tells us about the Monkey Tank, which was to the south of a stone pillar about 50 feet high surmounted by a lion, at an Asoka tope, to the north-west of the Relic Tope. He says the Tank (or Pond) had been made by monkeys for the Buddha, and that the latter resided at this place. Near the west side of the Tank, he continues, was a tope on the spot at which the monkeys took the Buddha's bowl up a tree for honey to give him; near the south bank was a tope at the place where the monkeys presented the honey; and near the north-east corner of the Tank was a picture (or image) of a monkey.

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These statements about the monkeys and the honey recall the story related by our pilgrim in connection with his description of Mathura. The phrase "Monkey Tank" is a translation of the Sanskrit term *Markaṭa Hrada*. We are also told, however, that Markaṭa was the name of a man, a Vrijjian or Vajji-putta. It is remarkable that the equivalent of "Monkey Tank" does not seem to occur in the Pali Nikāyas, or in any other Pali text so far as I know. These scriptures generally represent the Buddha when at Vesāli as staying in the Kūṭāgāraśālā (or "Two-storey Hall") in the Mahāvana (or "Great Wood"). Yet the Monkey Tank occurs frequently in the Chinese translations of the sūtras and other scriptures. Thus it is found in several passages of the Chung-a-han-ching and the Tsa-a-han-ching. In the latter treatise we have the story of the monkey picking out the Buddha's alms-bowl, taking it away, and bringing it back full of honey. This takes place in the Great Wood near Vesāli; but immediately afterwards we read of the Buddha staying in the Two-storey Hall at the Monkey Tank near the city. The Tibetan text translated by Mr. Rockhill also tells of the Buddha and Ānanda going "to Vesāli and there they abode in the mansion built on the edge of the monkey pond."¹ The Divyāvadāna also mentions the Markaṭahrada and its Kūṭāgāraśālā in which the Buddha lodged.² So also in the Sanskrit texts of other avadānas and of the Mahāvastu³ we find mention of this great Hall by the side of the Monkey Tank at Vesāli as a place of sojourn for the Buddha. It is to be noted, however, that Fa-hsien, who gives the Great Wood and its Two-storey monastery in his list of the sights of Vesāli, has nothing about the Monkey Tank or the Two-storey Hall at its side.

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¹ 'Life of the Buddha', p. 131.

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² p. 136.

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³ Mahāvastu Vol. 1. p. 300.

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Our pilgrim goes on to tell us that three or four *li* to the north-east of the Buddhist establishment mentioned above were the ruins of Vimalakīrti's house, which were marked by a tope, and were the scene of marvellous phenomena. Near this site, he tells us, was a "spirit's abode (or god's-house, *shên-shê* 神舍)

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which seemed to be a pile of bricks, but according to tradition was "amassed stones". This was said to mark the place at which Vimalakīrti "displaying sickness preached". Near this shên-shê was a tope at the place where the Elder's son Ratnākara lived; near this a tope marked the site of the āmra (mango)-lady's house; here the Buddha's foster mother (Mahā Prajāpati) and other bhikṣuṇīs realized entrance into nirvāṇa.

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Our pilgrim here, as before, transcribes the name of the Vaiśāli householder by P'i-mo-lo-kih which is perhaps for a form like Vimalakit or Vimalakitti. He styles the individual so named a Chang-chê, (Gahapati or "Householder"), and he translates the name by Wu-kou-ch'êng (無垢稱) that is, "Stainless Reputation". In some of the sūtras, however, Vimalakīrti is called a Ta-li-shih (大力士) or "Great Malla", while in other books he is often styled a P'usa, and he is also represented as being from another world. He is always, however, a fictitious personage, a character created for the religious teachings attributed to him, or connected with him and his imaginary family. We may, accordingly, be certain that the site pointed out to our pilgrim as that of Vimalakīrti's house was a late invention. This house also is not in Fa-hsien's enumeration of Buddhistic objects of interest in and near Vesāli.

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As to Vimalakīrti "displaying sickness" and preaching, the pilgrim is here referring to the sūtra which he had mentioned by name. In it we find that Vimalakīrti has recourse to the device of sickness in order to attract the Buddha's attention to him, and the discourses of the book are linked on in an ingenious manner to this feigning of illness. When Buddha proposes to one after another of his arhats and P'usas to go to Vimalakīrti's house and enquire about his state of health, each one of them declines and gives his reasons; these embody praises of the very wise and clever dialectician who was the patient. Afterwards Buddha himself converses with the "Elder", and draws from him further "incomprehensible expositions".

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As Ratnākara, like Vimalakīrti, was a fictitious person created for the action of the sūtra, the site of his house also was an invention. The "Mango lady" of Yuan-chuang's account of Vaiśālī is evidently the Āmrapālī (in Pali, Ambapālī) of other writers. This woman had led an immoral life, and had become rich and famous, when she came under the influence of the Buddha, who converted her and made her a lay member of his church.

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We may here notice that Yuan-chuang places the houses of Vimalakīrti, Ratnākara, and Āmrapālī outside the city, while the canonical works represent them as being inside the city. But this discrepancy may be due to the pilgrim's taking a narrow technical view of what constituted the city.

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Then three or four *li* to the north of the Monastery already mentioned was a tope on the spot where, as the Julai was about to proceed to Kuśinagara to attain parinirvāṇa, the human and other creatures who escorted him stood waiting.

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The Chinese for "the human and other creatures" of this sentence is *jen-fei-jen*, literally "men and non-men". Julien translates *fei-jen* by "Kinnaras" quoting as usual a Chinese dictionary as his authority. But the term is here evidently used in a comprehensive sense to include the Yakshas, Devas, and other superhuman creatures who formed the Buddha's invisible escort. The whole expression *jen-fei-jen* is probably to be understood here, as in some other passages, as meaning "[superhuman] beings in human and other forms". In the Life we have simply "Devas and men".

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A little to the north-west of the tope last mentioned, the pilgrim adds, was one at the place where the Buddha stood to contemplate the city of Vaiśālī for the last time.

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According to Fa-hsien and some of the Buddhist scriptures the Buddha left Vesālī by the west gate on his way to Kuśinagara for the last time, and as he passed by the city-wall he turned and took a last view of the city. As his course lay north-westwards from the city this statement is not at variance with our pilgrim's account. The Sarvata Vinaya also represents the Buddha as taking his last look at Vesālī from a spot not far to the north-west of the city. But the "Sutra of the Great Decease" makes the Buddha take his last view of Vesālī after going through the city on his morning circuit for the purpose of begging his food.¹

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¹ Fo-kuo-chi *ch* 25; Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih *ch*. 36; Mahā-parinibbāna-sutta *ch*. 4. (Dīgha. 2. 122.)

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Continuing his description the pilgrim tells us that a little to the south of the Tope of the Last Look was a Buddhist temple (*ching-shê*) with a tope in front, this was the Āmra lady's garden which she gave as an offering to the Buddha. At the side of the Āmra-garden was a tope on the spot where Ju-lai announced his approaching nirvāṇa (decease). Yuan-chuang hereupon relates the well known story of Ānanda being stupified by Māra and so failing to request the Buddha to remain in the world, and of Māra obtaining from Buddha a statement that he would pass away at the end of three months.

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The original here translated by "garden" is *yuan* (園), a word which means a garden or orchard, but it is also used to translate the Indian word *ārāma* in the sense of a Buddhist monastery. In Pali scriptures we find the gift which Ambapālī presents to the Buddha called a *vana* and *ārāma*. Thus the Vinaya represents the lady as giving "this Ambapālīvana" to Buddha who accepts the "ārāma"; and in the Mahāparinibbāna-sutta the lady gives and the Buddha accepts the *ārāma*. The accounts generally seem to agree in placing the Āmra Garden (or Āmrapālī's Orchard) to the south of Vesālī, and at a distance of three or four *li* from the city according to Fa-hsien, or seven *li* according to a Nirvāṇa sūtra. But here our pilgrim seems to locate the Āmra-yuan at some distance north-west from the city. It is perhaps possible that he uses the word *yuan* here in its sense of Buddhist establishment or monastery. But it is better to take the words of the text as meaning that the tope was at the spot where Āmrapālī performed the ceremony of making a formal gift of the orchard to the Buddha and his Brethren. This is the sense in which the compilers of the Life and the Fang-chih understood the passage. But then the authorities are not agreed as to the place at which the ceremony was performed, some making it the lady's residence and others the orchard itself.

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