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On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.s2: Vaiśāli

On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.s2

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English

Vaiśāli

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The pilgrim proceeds to relate that "from this" he went north-east, crossing the Ganges, and after a journey of 140 or 150 *li* he reached the *Fei-shê-li* (Vaiśāli) country.

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By the words "from this" here the context requires us to understand "from the Kumbha Tope", but the Life makes the pilgrim proceed from the *Chan-chu* country north-east 150 *li* to Vaiśāli. Cunningham, who identifies the city of Vaiśāli (or Vesāli) with the modern Besārh, regards the Ganges of this passage as a mistake for *Gandak*. But the pilgrim evidently places the Kumbha Tope to the south of the Ganges, and the text may be regarded as correct.

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The Vaiśāli country is described by the pilgrim as being above 5000 *li* in circuit, a very fertile region abounding in mangos, plantains and other fruits. The people were honest, fond of good works, esteemers of learning, and orthodox and heterodox in faith. The Buddhist establishments, of which there were some hundreds, were, with the exception of three or four, dilapidated and deserted, and the Brethren were very few. There were some tens of Deva-Temples, the various sects lived pell-mell, and the Digambaras flourished. The foundations of the old city Vaiśāli were 60 or 70 *li* in circuit, and the "Palace-city" (that is, the walled part of the city) was four or five *li* in circuit, and it had few inhabitants. About five *li* to the north-west of the "palace city" was a Buddhist monastery, the few professed Buddhists in which were of the Sammatiya School, and at the side of the monastery was a tope. It was here that the Buddha delivered the *P'i-mo-lo-ki-ching* (毗 摩 羅 詰 經), and that the householder's son Pao-chi and others presented sun-shades to the Buddha.

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The treatise here mentioned is that called by Mr. Bunyio Nanjio "Vimalakīrtti-nirdeśa-sūtra", "the sūtra of Vimalakīrtti's exposition", which corresponds to the meaning of the full Chinese title as given by Kumārajīva. But the proper title is probably "Ārya-Vimalakīrtinirdeśa", without the word *sūtra*. The work cannot be said to have been uttered by the Buddha, but it is rather a collection of the utterances or teachings of Vimalakīrti. According to the treatise Buddha is in the Mango Orchard at Vesāli, and Vimalakīrti is in his own house, supposed to be ill and confined to his bed, while the expositions are given. There are extant three translations of the work into Chinese, the first by a monk of the Yue-ti country in the middle of the third century A. D.,¹ the second by Kumārajīva,² and the third by our pilgrim.³ A learned Chinese monk, who was a disciple of Kumārajīva, edited his master's translation and enriched it with a commentary.⁴ There are also several other editions of Kumārajīva's version with commentaries, and it has long been a favourite work with Chinese students Buddhist and non-Buddhist. The incidents in this so-called sūtra are purely fictitious, and it must have been composed long after the death of the Buddha. It is, however, an interesting well-composed and ingenious exposition and discussion of the distinctive metaphysical tenets of the expansive developed Buddhism known as the Mahāyāna or "Great Vehicle" system.

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¹ Wei-mo-k'ie-ching (Bun. No. 147).

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² Wei-mo-k'ie-so-shuo-ching (No. 146).

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³ Shuo-wu-kou-ch'êng-ching (No. 149).

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⁴ Wei-mo-k'ie-so-shuo-ching-chu (No. 1632). The sūtras Nos. 144, 145, 181 in Nanjio's Catalogue have the same Sanskrit title as the Wei-mo-k'ie-ching, but they are different works.

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The last clause of our text mentions the offering of sun-shades. It is in the introduction which forms the first chapter of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra that the story is told of the 500 young Licchavis, including Pao-chi, offering their sun-shades to the Buddha in the Āmra orchard. The presentation of these gifts was immediately followed by a great miracle wrought by the Buddha which astonished and ravished all beholders. Julien suggests Ratnākara as the Sanskrit original for Pao-chi (寶積) or "Gem-heap", and the restoration is probably correct. The first translation, which transcribes the name as Lo-li-na-ka, perhaps for Ratnākara, translates it by Pao-shih (寶事) or "Gem-business", and Yuan-chuang in his version has Pao-hsing (寶性) or "Gem-nature" perhaps for Ratnākara. In using Pao-chi in the text here the pilgrim adopts Kumārajīva's rendering, which remains the popular one.

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Further in his version of the sūtra Yuan-chuang calls this Pao-chi a *p'usa*, while in the text of our passage he follows other translators in styling him "son of a householder".

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To the east of this monastery, Yuan-chuang relates, was a tope to commemorate the attainment of arhatship at the place by "Sāriputra and others".

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The word here rendered by "and others" is *têng* (等), and the pilgrim probably meant it to include only Maudgalyāyana. But the Buddhist scriptures generally represent Sāriputra as attaining arhatship at Rājagaha, and this seems to be the account followed by Yuan-chuang in *Chuan* 9 of these Records.

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To the south-east of this tope, the pilgrim continues, was one erected by the king of this country over the portion of the bodily relics of the Buddha which the king had obtained at the division made on the scene of the cremation. This king's share, Yuan-chuang says, was a bushel (*hu* or *drona*) of relics, and he had deposited these in a tope to be kept as objects of worship; afterwards Asoka came and carried off nine-tenths of the precious relics.

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In this passage, as in a previous one, the pilgrim forgets that there was no king of Vaiśāli in the time of the Buddha, the city and district being governed by a council of Elders. It was the Licchavis of Vaiśāli who, as Kshatriyas, claimed from the Mallas of Kusinagara a share of the relics of the Buddha who also had been a Kshatriya. Some of the Scriptures, we know, represent eight kings, and among them the king of this country, coming to ask for and extort shares of the Buddha's relics.

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The pilgrim next tells us about the Monkey Tank, which was to the south of a stone pillar about 50 feet high surmounted by a lion, at an Asoka tope, to the north-west of the Relic Tope. He says the Tank (or Pond) had been made by monkeys for the Buddha, and that the latter resided at this place. Near the west side of the Tank, he continues, was a tope on the spot at which the monkeys took the Buddha's bowl up a tree for honey to give him; near the south bank was a tope at the place where the monkeys presented the honey; and near the north-east corner of the Tank was a picture (or image) of a monkey.

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These statements about the monkeys and the honey recall the story related by our pilgrim in connection with his description of Mathura. The phrase "Monkey Tank" is a translation of the Sanskrit term *Markaṭa Hrada*. We are also told, however, that Markaṭa was the name of a man, a Vrijjian or Vajji-putta. It is remarkable that the equivalent of "Monkey Tank" does not seem to occur in the Pali Nikāyas, or in any other Pali text so far as I know. These scriptures generally represent the Buddha when at Vesāli as staying in the Kūṭāgāraśālā (or "Two-storey Hall") in the Mahāvana (or "Great Wood"). Yet the Monkey Tank occurs frequently in the Chinese translations of the sūtras and other scriptures. Thus it is found in several passages of the Chung-a-han-ching and the Tsa-a-han-ching. In the latter treatise we have the story of the monkey picking out the Buddha's alms-bowl, taking it away, and bringing it back full of honey. This takes place in the Great Wood near Vesāli; but immediately afterwards we read of the Buddha staying in the Two-storey Hall at the Monkey Tank near the city. The Tibetan text translated by Mr. Rockhill also tells of the Buddha and Ānanda going "to Vesāli and there they abode in the mansion built on the edge of the monkey pond."¹ The Divyāvadāna also mentions the Markaṭahrada and its Kūṭāgāraśālā in which the Buddha lodged.² So also in the Sanskrit texts of other avadānas and of the Mahāvastu³ we find mention of this great Hall by the side of the Monkey Tank at Vesāli as a place of sojourn for the Buddha. It is to be noted, however, that Fa-hsien, who gives the Great Wood and its Two-storey monastery in his list of the sights of Vesāli, has nothing about the Monkey Tank or the Two-storey Hall at its side.

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¹ 'Life of the Buddha', p. 131.

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² p. 136.

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³ Mahāvastu Vol. 1. p. 300.

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Our pilgrim goes on to tell us that three or four *li* to the north-east of the Buddhist establishment mentioned above were the ruins of Vimalakīrti's house, which were marked by a tope, and were the scene of marvellous phenomena. Near this site, he tells us, was a "spirit's abode (or god's-house, *shên-shê* 神舍)

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which seemed to be a pile of bricks, but according to tradition was "amassed stones". This was said to mark the place at which Vimalakīrti "displaying sickness preached". Near this shên-shê was a tope at the place where the Elder's son Ratnākara lived; near this a tope marked the site of the āmra (mango)-lady's house; here the Buddha's foster mother (Mahā Prajāpati) and other bhikṣuṇīs realized entrance into nirvāṇa.

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Our pilgrim here, as before, transcribes the name of the Vaiśāli householder by P'i-mo-lo-kih which is perhaps for a form like Vimalakit or Vimalakitti. He styles the individual so named a Chang-chê, (Gahapati or "Householder"), and he translates the name by Wu-kou-ch'êng (無垢稱) that is, "Stainless Reputation". In some of the sūtras, however, Vimalakīrti is called a Ta-li-shih (大力士) or "Great Malla", while in other books he is often styled a P'usa, and he is also represented as being from another world. He is always, however, a fictitious personage, a character created for the religious teachings attributed to him, or connected with him and his imaginary family. We may, accordingly, be certain that the site pointed out to our pilgrim as that of Vimalakīrti's house was a late invention. This house also is not in Fa-hsien's enumeration of Buddhistic objects of interest in and near Vesāli.

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As to Vimalakīrti "displaying sickness" and preaching, the pilgrim is here referring to the sūtra which he had mentioned by name. In it we find that Vimalakīrti has recourse to the device of sickness in order to attract the Buddha's attention to him, and the discourses of the book are linked on in an ingenious manner to this feigning of illness. When Buddha proposes to one after another of his arhats and P'usas to go to Vimalakīrti's house and enquire about his state of health, each one of them declines and gives his reasons; these embody praises of the very wise and clever dialectician who was the patient. Afterwards Buddha himself converses with the "Elder", and draws from him further "incomprehensible expositions".

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As Ratnākara, like Vimalakīrti, was a fictitious person created for the action of the sūtra, the site of his house also was an invention. The "Mango lady" of Yuan-chuang's account of Vaiśālī is evidently the Āmrapālī (in Pali, Ambapālī) of other writers. This woman had led an immoral life, and had become rich and famous, when she came under the influence of the Buddha, who converted her and made her a lay member of his church.

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We may here notice that Yuan-chuang places the houses of Vimalakīrti, Ratnākara, and Āmrapālī outside the city, while the canonical works represent them as being inside the city. But this discrepancy may be due to the pilgrim's taking a narrow technical view of what constituted the city.

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Then three or four *li* to the north of the Monastery already mentioned was a tope on the spot where, as the Julai was about to proceed to Kuśinagara to attain parinirvāṇa, the human and other creatures who escorted him stood waiting.

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The Chinese for "the human and other creatures" of this sentence is *jen-fei-jen*, literally "men and non-men". Julien translates *fei-jen* by "Kinnaras" quoting as usual a Chinese dictionary as his authority. But the term is here evidently used in a comprehensive sense to include the Yakshas, Devas, and other superhuman creatures who formed the Buddha's invisible escort. The whole expression *jen-fei-jen* is probably to be understood here, as in some other passages, as meaning "[superhuman] beings in human and other forms". In the Life we have simply "Devas and men".

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A little to the north-west of the tope last mentioned, the pilgrim adds, was one at the place where the Buddha stood to contemplate the city of Vaiśālī for the last time.

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According to Fa-hsien and some of the Buddhist scriptures the Buddha left Vesālī by the west gate on his way to Kuśinagara for the last time, and as he passed by the city-wall he turned and took a last view of the city. As his course lay north-westwards from the city this statement is not at variance with our pilgrim's account. The Sarvata Vinaya also represents the Buddha as taking his last look at Vesālī from a spot not far to the north-west of the city. But the "Sutra of the Great Decease" makes the Buddha take his last view of Vesālī after going through the city on his morning circuit for the purpose of begging his food.¹

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¹ Fo-kuo-chi *ch* 25; Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih *ch*. 36; Mahā-parinibbāna-sutta *ch*. 4. (Dīgha. 2. 122.)

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Continuing his description the pilgrim tells us that a little to the south of the Tope of the Last Look was a Buddhist temple (*ching-shê*) with a tope in front, this was the Āmra lady's garden which she gave as an offering to the Buddha. At the side of the Āmra-garden was a tope on the spot where Ju-lai announced his approaching nirvāṇa (decease). Yuan-chuang hereupon relates the well known story of Ānanda being stupified by Māra and so failing to request the Buddha to remain in the world, and of Māra obtaining from Buddha a statement that he would pass away at the end of three months.

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The original here translated by "garden" is *yuan* (園), a word which means a garden or orchard, but it is also used to translate the Indian word *ārāma* in the sense of a Buddhist monastery. In Pali scriptures we find the gift which Ambapālī presents to the Buddha called a *vana* and *ārāma*. Thus the Vinaya represents the lady as giving "this Ambapālīvana" to Buddha who accepts the "ārāma"; and in the Mahāparinibbāna-sutta the lady gives and the Buddha accepts the *ārāma*. The accounts generally seem to agree in placing the Āmra Garden (or Āmrapālī's Orchard) to the south of Vesālī, and at a distance of three or four *li* from the city according to Fa-hsien, or seven *li* according to a Nirvāṇa sūtra. But here our pilgrim seems to locate the Āmra-yuan at some distance north-west from the city. It is perhaps possible that he uses the word *yuan* here in its sense of Buddhist establishment or monastery. But it is better to take the words of the text as meaning that the tope was at the spot where Āmrapālī performed the ceremony of making a formal gift of the orchard to the Buddha and his Brethren. This is the sense in which the compilers of the Life and the Fang-chih understood the passage. But then the authorities are not agreed as to the place at which the ceremony was performed, some making it the lady's residence and others the orchard itself.

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The story of Ānanda being stupified by Māra and of the latter obtaining from the Buddha a declaration of his intention to die at the end of three months is told in the Maha-parinibbāna-sutta and other works.

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Near the Tope of the "Announcement of the time of nirvāṇa", Yuan-chuang tells us, was the tope of the 1000 sons recognizing their parents. He then proceeds to relate the silly legend connected with the name of this tope.

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The name was probably Bahuputraka (or Bahuputra)-chaitya, in Chinese To-tzŭ-t'a, "the Tope (or Chaitya) of Many Sons." There was a celebrated tope with this name on the west side of Vesāli.¹ In the Divyāvadāna² we read of the "Bahupattraka ("much foliage") chaitya at Vesāli, and this is probably the Bahuputra chaitya of other books, and the tope of our text. This tope may also be the "Laying down arms tope" of Fa-hsien who makes the 1000 sons give in their submission at a place three li to the north-west of the city. The Bahuputra chaitya was devoted to the Buddhists, but it was also held sacred by the non-Buddhists of Vesali, and there was a temple with this name near the city of Rājagaha.

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¹ Chang-a-han-ching, ch. 11.

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² p. 208.

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The pilgrim next tells us that not far from the place where the 1000 sons returned (gave in submission) to their kindred was a tope. Here Ju-lai walking up and down the old traces indicated the place to his disciples saying— Here I long ago returned to my kindred and recognized my parents — if you want to know who the 1000 sons were, they are the 1000 Buddhas of the Bhadra kalpa.

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In this passage the Chinese for "old traces" is chiu-chih (舊跡), the reading in the A. C, and D texts. Instead of chiu the B text has yi (遺) and yi-chih means "traces left". The latter, which is evidently wrong, was apparently the reading in the texts of the translators, but Julien's rendering omits the two characters. He represents the pilgrim as telling his readers that the tope was at a place where the Buddha took exercise; but, as the context shows, the pilgrim describes the tope as being on a spot which the Buddha tells his congregation was the scene of one of his Jātakas, viz his birth as one of the 1000 sons who were brothers born in an extraordinary manner.

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To the east of the Tope of the Jātaka narrative, the pilgrim continues, was a wonder-working tope on the old foundations of the "two-storey Preaching Hall in which Ju-lai delivered the P'u-mên-t'o-lo-ni and other sūtras".

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Julien restored the Sanskrit original for the title of the sūtra here mentioned as "Samantamoukha-dhāraṇi-soutra", and this is probably correct. Beal says that the work with this name is a section of the "Saddharma-puṇḍarika-sūtra". But this is not correct as the latter treatise has not any section with the above title, and the dhāraṇi communicated in that sūtra are from a P'usa in the congregation at Rājagaha.

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Close to the remains of the Preaching Hall, the pilgrim continues, was the tope which contained the half-body relics of Ananda. Near this were several hundreds of topes at the place where 1000 Pratyeka Buddhas attained parinirvāṇa. The pilgrim tells us also that in the district were topes and other objects of interest to Buddhists too numerous to be mentioned in detail. A journey of 50 or 60 li to the north-west of the city brought one to a great tope. This was at the spot where the Buddha prevented the Licchavi-sons from following him on his last journey to Kuśinagara by creating a river with steep banks and rapid turbulent current. The Licchavis were stopped, and the Buddha in pity for their distress gave them his alms-bowl as a memento.

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Fa-hsien, who does not mention the topes to the 1000 Pratyeka Buddhas, tells us of two topes to Pratyeka Buddhas, and these Buddhas were the natural and foster fathers of the 1000 sons.

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Our pilgrim's account of the Buddha's stopping the Licchavis from following him to Kuśinagara agrees to some extent with the story in the "Ta-pan-nie-p'an-ching".¹ Fa-hsien places the river (or as he calls it, deep trench) which the Buddha created, five (in the Korean text ten) yojanas to the west of Vesāli, a much greater distance than the 50 or 60 *li* of our passage. The Nirvāna treatise makes the river to have been produced between Vesāli and the *Kan-t'u* (or *ch'a* or *chih*) village, the Bhaṇḍagāma of the Pali Suttanta.

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¹ Ta-pan-nie-p'an-ching, ch. 1 (No. 118).

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Nearly 200 *li* to the north-west of the city Vesāli was an old city which had long been a waste with very few inhabitants. In it was a tope where the Buddha had related to a great congregation of P'usas, Devas, and men his former existence here as a universal sovereign by name Mahādeva who had given up his kingdom to become a bhikshu.

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This particular Jātaka is the Makhādeva Jātaka of the Pali collection. It is not in the Chinese translations of jātaka books. But there are very similar stories of the P'usa as a chakravarti rāja. Thus in one treatise the Buddha relates the jātaka in which he was such a king with the name *Nam*, and gave up his kingdom, and became a bhikshu.² Here the name of the king is different and the situation of his imaginary capital is not given.

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² Liu-tu-chi-ching ch. 8. Nimi Jātaka, No. 541.

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The pilgrim next tells us that 14 or 15 *li* to the south-east of Vesali city was a great tope. This, he adds, was at the place where the 700 eminent sages made the second compilation (viz. of the Dharma and Vinaya).

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For the words in italics here the original is *shih-ch'i-pai-hsien-shêng-chung-chie-chi-ch'ü* (是七百賢聖重結集處), and Julien translates this by— "Ce fut en cet endroit que sept cents sages s'associèrent et se réunirent." This rendering, it will be seen, leaves out the important word *chung*, (meaning again, for a second time) and gives a wrong meaning to the phrase *chie-chi*. This means to bind and collect and so to bring together in order or compile. Thus in an account of the proceedings of this Council Yasada is represented as saying to the Brethren— "Who is to compile the Vinaya piṭaka?" the expression used being *shui-ying-chie-chi-lü-tsang* (誰應結集律藏). So Fa-hsien represents this Council of 700 Brethren, composed of arhats and orthodox bhikshus, as making a second recension of the Vinaya Piṭaka.

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Our pilgrim here makes the Council of 700 to have met at a place some distance to the south-east of Vesāli. But Fa-hsien describes the tope of the Council as being three or four *li* to the east of the Thousand-sons-submission Tope which he places to the north-west of the city. The name of the place or establishment in which the Council was held is given in the Mahāsanghika Vinaya as the *Sha-tui* (沙堆) Sanghārāma or Sand-heap Monastery.¹ In other Chinese versions of editions of the Vinaya the place is called the *P'o-li-ka yuan*, or the *P'o-li-yuan*, or *P'o-li-lin*.² The words *P'o-li* and *P'o-li-ka* in these names represent the Vālikā of the Pali scriptures, and this word (the Sanskrit Bāluka) means *sand*.³ This Vālikārāma or *Sha-tui* monastery was a quiet retired place, cool and pleasant, and adapted for peaceful meditation and serious conversation.

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¹ ch. 33.

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² Ssŭ-fên-lü *ch.* 54 (No. 1117).

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³ Vinaya Vol. III. p. 294; Mah. Ch. IV. (the Hall is Vālukārāma).

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The pilgrim goes on to explain that 110 years after the Buddha's decease there were bhikshus at Vesāli who went far from his dharma, and erred as to the Vinaya. He then goes on to give the names of five of the great arhats who took a leading part in the Council. These arhats were *Ya-shê-t'o* (Yasoda) of Kosala, *San-p'u-ka* (Sambhoga) of Mathura, *Li-p'o-to* (Revata) of Han-no (supposed to be Kanauj),⁴ *Sha-la* of Vesāli, and *Fu-she-su-mi-lo* (Pujasumeru?) of *Sha-lo-li-fu* (that is by mistake of *sha* 沙 for *p'o* 婆, Pāṭaliput). The pilgrim describes these men as great arhats, whose minds had attained independence, who held the Three Piṭakas, who had obtained the threefold understanding, men of great reputation, known to all who have knowledge, and all of them disciples of Ānanda.

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⁴ But there does not seem to be any authority for this, and the name of the country is also transcribed Sa-han-no (薩塞若).

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In this passage the original for "whose minds had attained independence" is *hsin-tê-tzŭ-tsai* (心 得 自 在). These words are the phrase used by Kumārajīva and others to translate the Sanskrit word *vaśībhūta*, in the sense of "having attained mastery", "having become lord", in Burnouf's rendering "parvenus à la puissance". The term is one of the constant epithets of arhats, and denotes that their minds are emancipated from the control of external powers. For "had obtained the three-fold understanding" the text is *tê-san-ming* (得 三 明). The three constituents of this knowledge or understanding are given as the apprehension (1) of impermanence, (2) of pain, and (3) of unreality. But according to another account the *san-ming* are the knowledge of previous existences, of others' thoughts, and of moral perfection, and there are further variations in the enumeration of the "Three Understandings". For the words "known to all who have knowledge" the Chinese is *chung-so-chih-chih* (衆 所 知 識) or "recognised by those who know". Julien's rendering is "connus de tout le monde" which agrees with some of the explanations. The Chinese words represent the Sanskrit term *abhijñātābhijñātā* which means "known to the known". The term is of frequent occurrence in the Buddhist scriptures and the Chinese rendering of it varies a little. Thus we have "known to the wise", and "acquaintances of all who are looked up to", and Yuan-chuang's own rendering "known to those who are looked up to (衆 望 所 識)": and the term is also rendered by "recognized by the recognized" (or "known to the known").

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The arhat Yasada of this passage is the Yasada (or Yasa or Yasano) of the Vinaya treatises, called also Kākaṇḍaka-(or Kāḍa-)putra. It was his action which started the agitation against the Vrijji-putra bhikshus of Vesāli and led to the meeting of the Council. The Sambhoga of our text is the Sambhūta of the Vinaya treatises, in which this arhat is styled also Sāṇavāsi and has his residence at the mountain "beyond the Ganges" (Ahogaṅga). Revata according to the Pali Vinaya was lodging in Soreyya, but according to other Vinayas he was in Kosambi; he took a very prominent and important part in the proceedings of the Council. Our author's Sha-lo is apparently the Sālha of Vaiśāli who represented the orthodox Brethren of the district. The Fu-she-su-mi-lu of the text is evidently the Pu-she-su-mo of the Ssŭ-fên Vinaya and the Ku-she-su-p'i-to of the Shan-hsien-lü. This last is undoubtedly the Khujjasobhito of the Pali Vinaya, and the Chü-an (曲安) or "Bent Peace" of I ching's translation of the Sarvata Vinaya. It may seem that the pilgrim's information about this great Council was not derived from any of the recognized authorities and his omissions are interesting. Thus he does not mention the venerable arhat of Vesāli named Sabbakāma (or Sabbakāmi). This man, who had seen Ānanda, was the senior Brother of India and, according to the Pali Vinaya, he became President of the Council. In the Chinese versions his name is generally translated by Yi-ch'ie-ch'ü (一切去) or, "All-going", as if for a Sanskrit form like Sarvagama. But in the Shan-hsien-lü the Pali name is given transcribed as Sa-p'o-ka-mei. Then our pilgrim does not make mention of Sumana and Vāsabhagāmika, disciples of Aniruddha, who were on the jury of the Council, or of the learned Daśabala who, according to the Mahāsanghikas, drew up the Vinaya for the Council. 1

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The pilgrim proceeds to relate that when the sages, summoned by Yaśada to meet in Vesāli city, assembled, they were one short of 700. This number was completed by the arrival of Pujasumeru who came through the air. Then Sambhoga, with his right shoulder bared and on his knees in the great Congregation, addressing the assembled Brethren prays them to be orderly, sedate, and attentive. He proceeds—‘Although years have passed since our holy spiritual sovereign in his wise discretion passed away, his oral instructions still survive—Irreverent bhikshus of Vesāli city have gone astray in Vinaya, in ten matters violating the teaching of the Buddha—Reverend Brethren, ye understand what accords with and what is opposed to this teaching: As ye have been instructed by the Bhadanta Ānanda show gratitude for Buddha’s kindness, and make a second promulgation of his ordinances’. Every one of the Brethren in the Council was greatly affected. The offending bhikshus were summoned before the Council, reprimanded, and ordered to desist: the erroneous Dharma was annulled, and the teaching of Buddha was set forth clearly.

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¹ For this Council see also the Wu-fên-lü ch. 30 (No. 1122); Shih-sung-lü ch. 60 (No. 1115) (the account here given had evidently been read by our pilgrim); Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih ch. 40; Shan-hsien-lü ch. 1; Pi-ni-mu-ching ch. 4 (No. 1138); Dīp. p. 139; Rockhill, Life, p. 171. 'Vinaya Texts' (S. B. E.) Vol. III pp. 386–414.

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The Council of the 700, we learn from the Vinaya treatises, had to pronounce on each of the ten innovations in matters of rule and practice introduced by certain Vrijjiputra bhikshus of Vesāli. For these innovations, which are enumerated in the Vinayas, the Brethren who propounded them and adhered to them claimed that the innovations either had canonical authority or were in accordance with, and to be logically inferred from, the rules and teaching of the canonical scriptures. The Council was called to examine into these matters and give the authoritative final decision of the Church on them, and to promulgate the standard Dharma and Vinaya (or Vinaya only). It was a very representative assembly, being composed of members from various districts and important centres of Buddhism in India. Some of the members apparently brought one, and some had more than one copy, of the Vinaya, while others had retained in memory the teachings of the first apostles. The ten erroneous tenets and the practices based on them were openly announced in succession, and separately condemned by vote as against the Vinaya, the circumstances in which the rule against each point was made being quoted from the sūtras or Vinaya. Then the Vinaya was reduced to order and finally settled: it was drawn up in a five-fold division, its contents being largely drawn from the sūtras. Very little is told in any treatise about the effect of the Council’s action on the sinning Brethren, but we are left to infer that they submitted to authority and returned to orthodox practices. There is nothing whatever to indicate that they seceded and formed a great sect or school.

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With the mention of the Tope of the Second Council our pilgrim brings to an end his account of the city Vaiśāli and its suburbs. The place, as has been stated, has been identified by Cunningham with the site of the modern village of Besārh to the east of the river Gandak,¹ but we need not accept the identification. From the Buddhist scriptures we do not get much light or guiding as to the precise situation of Vaiśāli. We are told that it was not far from the south side of the Snow Mountains, and that to its north were seven "black mountains" (that is, mountains on which the snow melted), and to the north of these was the Gandhamādana, the home of Kinnaras.² From other authorities we learn that the city was in the Vrijji territory not far from Pāva,³ or that it was in Kosala.⁴ The Mahāvana or Great Forest, so often mentioned in connection with Vaiśāli, was so called on account of its great extent: it reached to Kapilavastu and thence to the Snow Mountains, was a virgin forest, and was without inhabitants. The word Vaiśāli is explained as meaning "spacious" or "magnificent", and Licchavi (or Lecchavi) is said to mean "skin-thin" or "same-skin", the name being treated as a derivative of cchavi (chchhavi) which means "skin".⁵

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¹ A. G. of India p. 443.

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² Ch'i-shih-ching ch. 1 (No. 550).

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³ Lien-hua-mien-ching ch. 1 (No. 465).

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⁴ Pi-nai-ye ch. 1. This is the "Chie-yin-yuan-ching" No. 1130 of Mr. Nanjio's Catalogue.

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⁵ Shan-hsien-lü ch. 8.

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It must have been distressing for our pilgrim to go over the waste jungle-covered ruins of a district which he had known from the Buddhist scriptures to have been once very flourishing, full of life and beauty, loved and admired by the Buddha while he was on earth. In the "Tsa-a-han-ching" a great Nirgrantha teacher speaks in glowing terms of the district to the Buddha,¹ and in the "Sūtra of the Great Decease" and other treatises Buddha is reported as praising it in similar terms. "How charming", he says, "is Vaiśāli the home of the Vrijjians", and then proceeds to specify a few of its hallowed places. Its chaityas and temples were numerous, and some of them are often mentioned in the sacred books. There was the Chāpāla Chaitya, a favourite resort of the Buddha, given to him and his church by the Licchavis. In Chinese the name is sometimes rendered by Chit-kung or "Bow-taking", chāpa meaning a bow. This chaitya, which was at some distance from the city, was probably only a sacred spot, with trees, originally devoted to the worship of a local divinity.² There were also the Chaitya of the Seven Mango trees at which Purana-Kaśyapa lodged, the Gotamaka or Gautama Nyagrodha Chaitya, the Chaitya of the Many Sons, the Sārandada and the Udena Chaityas, and the Kapinahya Chaitya given to the Buddha and his Church.³ In or near Vaiśāli moreover, were at least three large Buddhist monasteries, one of them being the Swan-shaped Kūṭāgārasāla near the Monkey Tank in the Great Forest which has been already noticed. The city had in the Buddha's time at least one nunnery, the one in which the nun Bhadrā resided.⁴ Then there were the Su River⁵ in which the monks and nuns once bathed with childish enjoyment, the Mango Orchard of Jīvaka-kumāra which was a favourite resort of the Buddha, and the beautiful Park of the Licchavis.⁶ To these along with other pleasant scenes have to be added Āmrapālī's Mango Orchard and the Bālikācchavi given to the Buddha and the church by Bālikā. But the attractions of the Vaiśālī city and district had a serious set-off in the famines and pestilences to which they were subject.

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¹ *Ch.* 5.

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² Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih *ch.* 36 (But the "Bow-taking chaitya" of this passage is apparently the same with the "Chaitya of the Laying down of Bows and spears"); Tsa-a-han-ching *ch.* 5.

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³ Tsa-a-han-ching *l. c.*; 'Buddhist Suttas', p. 58; Divyāv. p. 201; Ang. Nik. Vol. I. p. 276 (the Gotamaka Cetiya), Vol. III. p. 167 (Sārandada); Rockhill, 'Life of the Buddha', p. 132; Mahāvastu *l. c.*

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⁴ Sêng-ki-lü *ch.* 37.

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⁵ Sêng-ki-lü *ch.* 38 (the word *Su* 蘇 here may be a translation).

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⁶ Tsa-a-han-ching *ch.* 5 et al.; Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih *ch.* 1.

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In the Buddha's time the young Licchavis of the city were a free, wild, set, very handsome and full of life, and Buddha compared them to the gods in Indra's Heaven. They dressed well, were good archers, and drove fast carriages, but they were wanton, insolent, and utterly irreligious. These dashing young fellows, with their gay attire and brilliant equipages and saucy manners, must have presented in Vaiśālī a marked contrast to the great Teacher and his reverend sombre-clothed disciples. The young Licchavis drove along the streets and roads in carriages with trappings of blue, yellow, red, or white, and they were dressed or adorned in colours to match.¹ On the other hand the Brethren were to be seen any morning grave and self-collected, bare-headed and bare-foot, in dark patchwork robes, their alms-bowls in their hands, begging their day's food through the streets. Or they might be met walking solemnly to the bathing-tank, or going to attend a discourse from the Teacher, or to meditate under a shady tree in a cool quiet retreat.

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¹ See e. g. Ssŭ-fên-lü *ch*. 40; Sar. Vin. Tsa-shih *ch*. 36; Mahāpari-nibbāna-sutta ('Buddhist Suttas', p. 31); Tsa-a-han-ching *ch*. 15; Fo-shuo p'u-yao-ching *ch*. 1 (No. 160).

Linked texts (18)