On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c20.79

v2.c20.79

The meaning of the text here seems to be tolerably clear, yet Julien has apparently misunderstood the latter part of the paragraph. He translates— "Le roi Açoka ayant conçu une foi sincère, ouvrit le monument, prit les reliques, et bâtit [à son tour un autre] stoupa. [On en voit] encore les restes, qui repandent constamment une lueur brillante". The words which I have enclosed within square brackets are not required and injure the sense. Yuan-chuang does not state that Asoka built here a tope the remains of which were still visible and shed a brilliant light. He says that when Asoka took away the relics from Ajātaśatru's tope to build topes over them, there was a remnant left, which constantly shone with a brilliant light. In the Life the account of the matter is very clear. "Asoka, having become a believer, wishing to build topes everywhere, extracted the relics, leaving a few behind; and these now are constantly emitting a brilliant light." In a curious sūtra of the Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka group the fortunes of Ajātaśatru's share of the Buddha's relics is thus narrated. The king placed the relics together with a copy of the sūtra, written on gold cloth, in a box made of precious substances; this box he deposited in a trench dug outside Rājagaha, and over it he built a splendid tope; then 100 years afterwards king Asoka came to Rājagaha, dug out the box, and took the relics for his 84000 Buddha-relices topes.¹ We have already had a reference to this curious legend of Asoka's topes, (above p. 21).²