On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c19.159

v2.c19.159

The pilgrim goes on to describe that south-east from this tope was one at the spot where Buddha went into the Nairanjana river to bathe, and near it was the place where he received and ate the milk-gruel. Near this were topes where Buddha received his first food for 49 days from the two travelling merchants, and where the four Deva-rājas offered him four golden alms-bowls in which to hold this food. The pilgrim goes on to tell that, when the Buddha declined these bowls as unsuitable for a religious mendicant, the deva-rājas presented in succession alms-bowls of silver, crystal, lapislazuli, agate, nacre, and pearls, but these also were declined. Then each of the deva-rājas brought from his palace a stone bowl of a dark-violet colour, bright and lustrous. Bhagavān in order to prevent jealousy accepted these four bowls, put them together and compressed them into one, and this procedure accounts for the four-fold rim of the Buddha's alms-bowl.