On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.11

v2.c18.11

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.