Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.s4: Fu-Li-Chih (Vṛiji)

On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.s4

Language
English

Fu-Li-Chih (Vṛiji)

v2.c18.s4.1

From the Ānanda topes, the pilgrim relates, he went north-east for more than 500 *li* to the *Fu-li-chih* (Vṛiji) country. This country he describes as being above 4000 *li* in circuit, long from east to west and narrow from north to south; it was fertile and abounded in fruits and flowers; the climate was rather cold, and the people were hasty-tempered. There were few Buddhists, and the monasteries were above ten in number, the Brethren of which, less than 1000 in number, were students and adherents of both the "Great and Little Vehicles". There were some tens of Deva-Temples and the Non-Buddhists were very numerous. The chief city was called *Chan-shu-na*; it was in a ruinous state and the old walled city, which was like a country town, had a population of over 3000 families.

v2.c18.s4.2

A note added to the text here tells us that *Fu-li-chih* was in "North India", and that the north people called it the *San-fa-chih* (or Samvajji) country. In the Buddhist books Vṛiji, the Pali Vajji, is the name of a tribe or people inhabiting an extensive region of which Vesāli was the capital, and also of the country which this people occupied.¹ Yuan-chuang’s use of the term, to denote a district in which Vesāli is not included, is peculiar, and it is apparently incorrect. The character which he gives the people does not agree with Ānanda’s seven-fold statement of their virtues to Buddha for the information of king Ajātasattu’s envoy, but we must not attach much importance to the pilgrim’s statement.

v2.c18.s4.3

¹ The name is said to have been derived from the advice of the Vaiśāli herdsman to his sons when they were treated roughly by the miraculously-born princes whom he had adopted. He told his sons to avoid the two princes, and hence arose the name Vṛiji or Varja from the causative of vṛij meaning to shun or avoid. Shan-hsien-lü *ch.* 8.

v2.c18.s4.4

To the north-east of the "great river", the pilgrim proceeds, was a monastery with a few Brethren good and learned. To the west of this, on the river-side was a tope, above 30 feet high, with a long reach of the river to its south. This tope was at the spot where the Buddha once converted certain fishermen in the following circumstances. The Buddha was once at Vesāli, and there saw by his divine sight that certain Vajjian fishermen at this place had caught a very large fish with 18 heads and a pair of eyes in each head. The fishermen were about to kill their prize. But the Buddha, moved with compassion, determined to prevent this, and to use the fish as an instrument in the reformation of the fishermen. He told the incident to his great disciples, recommending them to go at once to the place; then he and they by magic power went through the air. When he arrived at the spot where the fishermen were with their fish, Buddha said to the men "Don't kill the fish". Then he graciously caused his supernatural power to extend to the great fish giving him a knowledge of his previous existence, the power of expressing himself in speech, and of comprehending human affairs. In reply to Buddha's question the fish recounted in the hearing of all how he had formerly been a bad proud Brahmin named Kapitha. As such, through conceit in his learning, he had treated with contempt the Buddhist religion (ching-fa 經法), and used reproachful language to the Buddhist clergy likening them to the lower animals. This bad karma, he saw, had produced his own present bestial condition. Buddha now taught and converted the fish, who died repentant, and was at once reborn in Heaven. Here he recalled his last birth on earth, and moved with gratitude to the Buddha, he proceeded accompanied by a multitude of devas to the place where the Buddha was still sitting. He then did reverence to the Buddha, performed pradakshiṇa to him, and going aside offered him fragrant flowers from Heaven. The Buddha used this incident of the great fish to teach the fishermen the doctrines of his religion and move them to see the sinfulness of their mode of life. The fishermen became converted, tore up their nets and burned their boats; then they became ordained and attained arhatship.

v2.c18.s4.5

A story like that here related is told in the "Ka-p'i-lo-pên-shêng-ching" quoted in the 14th chuan of the Mahāsanghika Vinaya. There, however, the fish-monster has 100 heads, and in the time of Kassapa Buddha he had been a bad contumacious bhikshu. The scene of the incident, as in our narrative, is on the bank of a river in the Vajji country. In neither story is the name of the river given, but the pilgrim calls it "great river", and this may be for Mahānadī, the name of a river in the eastern part of the Vajjian territory. In the Fang-chih the tope is wrongly placed to the northeast of the Ganges, on its bank, and the tope is only twenty feet high. Our pilgrim's tope was probably on the north bank of the Mahānadī at a place where there was a long straight reach.

v2.c18.s4.6

From the tope of the conversion of the fishermen, Yuan-chuang continues, a journey of above 100 *li* north-east brought one to an Asoka tope on the west of an old city. This tope, which was above 100 feet high, was at a place where the Buddha had preached for six months, admitting devas and men into his communion. About 140 paces north of this was a small tope at a place where the Buddha had made Vinaya regulations. Near this on the west side was a Buddha-hair-and-nail-relic tope. The pilgrim here adds that while the Buddha was sojourning in this district the people from the towns and villages far and near flocked to the place; in honour of Buddha they burned incense, strewed flowers, and kept lamps burning day and night.

v2.c18.s4.7

Although the language of all this passage about the Vajji country seems to intimate that the pilgrim is writing from a personal visit, yet the nature of his observations may make us suspicious. He may have obtained all the information he communicates during his stay at Vesāli; and as the Life does not mention a visit to this Vajji country we are perhaps justified in concluding that we have here only what the pilgrim heard from others and learned from books.

Cites (2)