On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.s3.2

v2.c18.s3.2

Julien suggests Śvetapura ("White city") as the Sanskrit original for the *Shih-fei-to-pu-lo* of this passage, and the restoration is probably correct. According to the Life the pilgrim went from the southern part of Vaiśālī to the *Fei-to-pu-lo* (the syllable *Shih* being omitted perhaps by a copyist's mistake) city 100 *li* from the Ganges. According to the rendering here given the pilgrim describes the Śvetapur Monastery as having "bright-coloured halls of two storeys". The original for the words within inverted commas is *chung-ko-hui-fei* (重閣翬飛) which Julien translates—"des pavillons à double étage qui s'élançaient dans les airs". But the words *hui-fei* of the text do not mean "s'élançaient dans les airs"; they mean "glowing or resplendent with colours like a pheasant (*hui*) in flight (*fei*)", the phrase being taken from the description of a newly-built palace in the "Shi Ching". The word *hui* means *many-coloured*, and is a descriptive epithet applied to the cock pheasant. In this monastery, the Life tells us, the pilgrim obtained a copy of the "P'u-sa-tsang-ching". This was probably the "P'u-sa-tsang-hui" or "Bodhisattva-piṭaka", which forms the 12th division of the "Ta-pao-chi-ching", an interminable Mahāyāna treatise. 1