[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Historical geography](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography) › [On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D.](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.watters-1904) › v2.c19.23 # On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c19.23 On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c19.23 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c19.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.watters-1904.v2.c19.23) It will be observed that in this story Yuan-chuang describes Asoka as making a hill and cave for his brother at the city and near the north outer wall. Fa-hsien also tells of this hill and cave, and places them within the city, and so does another author who adds a large stone image in a niche in the hill. But the other accounts do not introduce the yaksha-made hill and cave, but represent the king's brother as going away to a distance from Pāṭaliputra to live as a hermit or a religious devotee. Yuan-chuang calls the brother Mahendra, translated by Ta-Ti or "Great Sovereign". In the Pali books this, Mahinda, is the name of Asoka's son, his younger brother's name being Tissa (Tishya). The Divyāvadāna calls the brother Vitāśoka and so in the "A-yü-wang-ching", but the "A-yü-wang-chuan" calls him So-ta-to (宿大哆) perhaps for Sudatta.¹ One treatise calls him Siu-ka-tu-lu (修伽妬路) perhaps for Sugātra which is translated in another work by Shan-jung (善容) "of good appearance" or "auspicious bearing".² This brother's only offence, according to the Buddhist books, was that he as a Tirthika spoke disrespectfully to the king about the professed Buddhists; he said that these men living at ease with good food and clothing, were subject to their passions, and that Buddhism did not give emancipation. To convince him of his error Asoka had recourse to the following expedient. By an arrangement with his chief minister he disappeared for a time; the minister invested Vītāśoka with the crown and other trappings of royalty as an experiment. Asoka then appeared suddenly and pretending to regard Vītāśoka, whom he found wearing the crown, as a usurper, sentenced him to be beheaded at the end of seven days. In the interim the condemned prince was to have all kinds of sensual pleasures with music and dancing. On the seventh day, in reply to a question, he told the king that he had not had any enjoyment, having not even heard the music or seen the dancing, the fear of death being always before him. The king used this answer to shew his brother how wrong he had been in the language he had used about the professed Buddhists who, having always a horror of birth and death, could not indulge in any carnal pleasures. He then set Vītāśoka free, and the latter, with the king's permission, became a lay Buddhist and went to live in a frontier land. When he attained arhatship he returned to Pāṭaliputra to visit Asoka, but he soon left for another district: there he was beheaded by a man who mistook him for a Nirgrantha, a reward having been offered by the king for the head of every man of that sect brought to him. - [Previous: v2.c19.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.watters-1904.v2.c19.22) - [Next: v2.c19.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.watters-1904.v2.c19.24) - [Up: v2.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.watters-1904.v2.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.watters-1904.v2.c19.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.watters-1904.v2.c19.23) · Pramāṇa