On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c20.23

v2.c20.23

The pilgrim, continuing his narrative, states that he went from the Kukkuṭapāda Mountain north-east, above 100 *li*, and came to the Buddhavana Mountain, with lofty peaks and closely packed cliffs. Buddha, he adds, had rested in a cave in its steep side. At the side of this was a flat stone which Śakra and Brahmā had once used for grinding Oxhead Sandal to rub over Buddha's body: the stone still retained the perfume. On this mountain also the 500 Arhats remained dormant: those who moved them to an interview might see them going as śrāmaṇeras into a village to beg food: whether secret or open the effects of their supernormal action could not be recorded. From this mountain a journey eastward of above 30 *li* through a valley led the pilgrim, he tells us, to the Yashti (or Stick) Wood, a dense forest of bamboos which covered a mountain. This leads the pilgrim to record how an unbelieving brahmin, doubting the statement that Śākyamuni Buddha was sixteen feet high, had a stick of that length made to take his measure. But as the figure always exceeded the height of the stick he could never learn the true height of Buddha. So in a fit of disgust he threw away the stick, which took root, and from it came the wood which got the name Yashtivana. In this Asoka had erected a tope and Buddha had exhibited miracles and preached for seven days to devas and men. Our pilgrim then tells the story of the devoted upāsaka of recent times by name Jayasena, who had lived in this Wood. Above ten *li* to the south-west of the Yashtivana, the pilgrim continues, were two hot springs made by Buddha and used by him. Six or seven *li* to the south-east of the Wood, on a ridge of a mountain, was a tope where Buddha had preached to men and devas for two or three months, when king Bimbisāra had constructed a road through the mountain above twenty paces wide and two or three *li* in length.