On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c20.50

v2.c20.50

The great physician Jīvaka of this passage was a distinguished follower and attached friend of the Buddha. He was an illegitimate son of king Bimbisāra according to some accounts,¹ but of Abhaya, a son of Bimbisāra, according to the Ceylon authorities.² In his youth he chose the medical profession for his career, and went to Takshaśilā to study the art of healing under the famous teachers of that city. When he returned to Rājagriha and settled there, he lived in a Mango orchard, which was apparently in the inclosure between the city proper and the hills which formed its outer defences on the east side.³ It was in this orchard that Jīvaka made for Buddha a chapel or a monastery, according to some accounts in the 20th year of Buddha’s career. In some Chinese translations the word āmra, mango, is rendered by *li* (梨) “a pear”, but generally the Indian name is merely transcribed. Fa-hsien writes this *an-p'o-lo*, that is, abra, the *m* of Sanskrit becoming *b* in his transcription, as in his Yabunā for Yamunā. He places the chapel of Jīvaka, whom he calls *Ch'i-chiu* (耆闍), in a bend in the north-east corner of the city. Instead of *Ch'i-chiu* we also find Fa-hsien using *Ch'i-yii* (耆域) that is Jiva, and the character for chiu is probably a mistake. As a son of a king or a prince Jīvaka is frequently styled a Kumārabhūta, in Chinese a *wang* or a *t'ung*, “boy”, with the same meaning.