On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.49

v2.c18.49

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.