On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.23

v2.c18.23

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.