On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.41

v2.c18.41

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