On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.34

v2.c18.34

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