On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c19.43

v2.c19.43

The story of Asoka's gift of half a myrobalan (āmalaka) fruit is told in several Buddhist treatises. When the king became old he named his grandson, the son of Kunāla, to be his successor. This prince, by name Sampati, acting under the advice of the high officials who had obtained all power, stopped the king's largesses to the Buddhist church while the king was still nominally sovereign. He also gradually reduced the services and allowances for the king, until at last he sent him half an āmalaka fruit on an earthen plate. The king, hereupon, sadly remarked to his courtiers, as in Yuan-chuang's story, that he had sunk from being sovereign of Jambudvīpa to be lord of only this half-fruit. He then sent this, as all he had to give, to the Brethren of the Kukkuṭārāma, and Yaśa, the head of the establishment, had it cooked and distributed.¹ There is no mention in the Buddhist books of the erection of a tope to commemorate this gift, and Fa-hsien does not seem to have seen or heard of the tope.