On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c20.124

v2.c20.124

In the Life the place is called the "Monastery (i. e. Nālanda) Village", and it is represented as being seven yojanas north-east from the Bodhi Tree; the Mahāvastu calls it Kolitagrāmaka and places it half a yojana from Rājagriha.¹ In the "Hsing-chi-ching"² and other works the name is Kolika as here, and in the Sarvata Vinaya it is Lin-yuan (林園). "Wood-Garden" or Lin-wei (圍). "Wood-inclosure".³ Kolita, a designation of Maudgalyāyanaputra, was probably derived from the name of his native town. But it is translated into Chinese by T'ien-pao (天抱) or "Carried in the arms by devas",⁴ and into Tibetan by Pan-skyes, the "Lap-born" of Csoma's rendering.⁵ The name which Yuan-chuang gives here for Śāriputra's birth-place does not seem to be known to other authors. Julien restores the Ka-lo-pi-na-ka of the text as Kālāpināka, but this is merely a conjecture. It is apparently only another name for the Nāla (or Nalada) of Fa-hsien and other Buddhist writers. Yuan-chuang's town was 20 li south-east from the Bimbisāra tope which was on the south side of Nālanda, and the village of Nāla, the Nālagrāma of some Pali writers, was above 20 li south-east from Nālanda.⁶ In the Mahāvastu the birthplace of Śāriputra is called Nālandagrāmaka and it, like Mudgalaputra's home, is placed half a yojana from Rājagriha. Fa-hsien places Nāla one yojana to the east of this city,⁷ and this agrees with Yuan-chuang's location of his Ka-lo-pi-na-ka. Another name given to Śāriputra's birth-place is Upatishya (or Upatissa), which is also his own proper name.⁸