On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c19.156

v2.c19.156

We have already had the story of these five men in the account of Benares in Chuan VII. They were Ājñāta Kauṇḍinya (also called Kauṇḍinaja or Kondañña), Aśvajit, and Vashpa paternal uncles of Prince Siddhārtha, and Mahānāma and Bhadrika his maternal uncles, according to some authorities.² But the story of these men being sent by king Suddhodana, or by him and the king of Koli, to watch and tend Siddhartha, does not square with their proceedings. They join the prince in practising austerities, approving of his extreme mortifications; and when he gives up his course of suicidal fasting, they leave him in disgust and go away to the Deer Park at Benares. The version of the legend which makes these five men to be merely ascetics or bhikshus living at the same place with the P'usa, and practising the same sort of austerities with the same object, is more in keeping with the sequel of the story.³