On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c19.15

v2.c19.15

It will be seen that in this description our pilgrim represents the old relic-tope of Pataliputra as having been built by human hands, and yet as one of the 84000 topes erected by the gods or Yakshas. Fa-hsien also makes this tope to be one of the 84000 set up by the Yakshas for Asoka. The dust-offering in a former existence, and the prophecy by the Buddha in consequence, had been related to the king by the bhikshu saved from a cruel death in the Hell-prison. It was through the merit of this offering, and the desire then expressed, that Asoka was now able, as a mahārāja, to make the yakshas do his bidding and spread far and wide “to the utmost limits of Jambudvīpa” the worship of Buddha’s relics. The 84000 topes set up by Asoka are generally said to have been for the distribution of the Buddha’s relics taken for the purpose by the king from seven of the eight topes erected by the original recipients.¹ But they are also said to have been made for the worship of the 84000 aphorisms of Buddhism or “sections of the law”. In this version of the legend it is a vihāra, not a tope, that is made for each aphorism, and the work is done by the people of the various districts.² The words here rendered by “a population of a full koṭi” are hu-man-kou-ti (戶 滿 拘 胝), “a full koṭi of individuals”. It is not easy to see how Julien could translate these words by “dans chaque ville possédant un koṭi de souvarnas”. We have already had to notice this limitation made by Asoka in our pilgrim’s account of Takshaśilā.