On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c19.160

v2.c19.160

This story of the two travelling merchants and the Deva-rājas agrees closely with the accounts in other books such as the "Hsing-chi-ching" and the Tibetan translation of the "Lalitavistara". The two merchants are Trapusha and Bhallika whom we have met already. For the "nacre" of my rendering the Chinese is Ch'ê-ch'ü (車渠) which Julien wrongly translates "amber". The word, which is evidently of foreign origin, denotes not only mother of pearl, but also a white precious stone imported into China from India. It is used to translate Musāra-galva which denotes "coral", and it is also found as transcribing or translating Karketana, the name of a white mineral. In several versions of the story there is no mention of the bowls of gold, silver, and other precious substances but each of the four Deva-rājas brings one stone bowl. Buddha accepts all these to prevent jealousy, and deals with them as in the text.¹