On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c20.24

v2.c20.24

The miracle which our pilgrim here narrates as originating the name of the Yashti-vana or Stick-Wood is unfortunately not in agreement with other Buddhist texts. From these we learn that the name and place were well known at the beginning of the Buddha's career. These books tell us that when he proceeded from the neighbourhood of the Bodhi Tree to pay his first visit, as the Buddha, to Rājagriha, he rested on the way in the Yashti-vana, the Stick (or Staff) wood.¹ As a variant for Yashti we find Lashti,² and there are the two Pali forms Yatthi and Latthi. Moreover we find the place called the Si-p'o-lo-ti, that is, Subhalatthi with the word for trees added.³ It is called in some books a garden or park and in others a mountain. In it was a noted shrine called the Supratishtha-chaitya. This Supratishtha (in Pali Supatittha) was the god of a banyan tree in the Wood,⁴ and the chaitya, at which Buddha lodged, was apparently only the foot of the banyan. The name of the chaitya is rendered in Chinese by Shan-an-chu (善安住), "well settled" and by Shan-chien (善建) "well established".⁵ It was evidently this name, Supratishtha, which the Tibetan translator had before him in the passage given by Rockhill; and the tentative rendering "Consecrated" given by the latter⁶ should be replaced by "Well-established" or a similar phrase. This Wood is not mentioned by Fa-hsien, and the Sung pilgrim⁷ places it 100 *li* north-west from the Cock's-Foot Mountain, which according to him was 100 *li* south-east from the Bodhi Tree. In one book it is said to be 40 *li* from Rājagriha, and it was evidently to the west of that city, and not far from it. It is still, according to Cunningham, "well known as the Jakhti-ban, which is only the Hindi form of the Sanskrit word".⁸ As to the two Hot Springs mentioned by our pilgrim these are still, Cunningham tells us, to be found "at a place called Tapoban". In Buddhist writings we find mention of a T'a-pu (Tapo) Ho or Hot river,¹ and of a Tapodārāma or Hot-water Monastery near Rājagaha.² These may represent the "Hot-springs" of the pilgrim, but they were there before Buddha's time, and there is mention of several hot-water springs in the neighbourhood of the city.