On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.s2.16

v2.c18.s2.16

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.