On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.50

v2.c18.50

The abstract of the Hare Jātaka here given by our pilgrim differs in several respects from the story as found in certain other books. In the Pali version, which lays the scene of the occurrence at Benares in the time of good king Brahmadatta, there are four animals, a hare, an otter, a jackal, and a monkey.¹ In this treatise the story does not have the hare roasted alive; and Indra, who has tried the Bodhisattva, paints the likeness of the hare in the disk of the moon. In the “Fo-shuo-shêng-ching” it is Dīpankara Buddha who is the hermit, and there are no other animals with the Hare-king and the hares, nor is there any mention of the moon.² The “Liu-tu-chi-ching” also makes Dīpankara Buddha to be the brahmin who tries the P'usa as a hare, and here there are a fox, an otter and a monkey living with the hare, but there is no transfer to the moon.³ In the “P'u-sa-pên-shêng-man-lun” the hermit is Maitreya, the Hare-king is the P'usa, and he has only his own species about him.⁴ The Hare-king prepares to roast himself for the hermit to eat him in the absence of all other food, but the hermit pulls him off the fire, too late, however, to save his life. Then praying to be born in all future lives as a disciple of the P'usa the hermit burns himself with the hare, and Indra comes to worship, and raises a tope over the relics, but does not take anything to the moon.