On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c21.10

v2.c21.10

The small isolated hill of the present passage which was in the west of Īraṇa was identified by Cunningham with the hill now called Mahādeva. But Dr. Waddell has given reasons, which seem to be conclusive, against this identification and in favour of his own suggestion that the hill is Mount Uren.¹ Is it possible that in the latter name we have a corruption of Īraṇa? The Fang-chih makes the small isolated hill to have been one *li* or about 1/5 of a mile in length. The Yaksha Bakula (or Vakula) of this hill does not seem to be known to the Buddhist scriptures. But in these we read of a carnivorous anthropophagous Yaksha whom Buddha reduced to submission, converted, and received into his religion.² In the Chinese translations this Yaksha lived in Kuang-ye (曠 or 曠野) that is, the wild wilderness or uninhabited country. The Sanskrit original for Kuang-ye is Aṭavi, and this is apparently the Alawee of Bigandet and the Alawaka of Hardy. But it cannot be the Īraṇa-parvata country of our pilgrim, which was to the east of Rājagaha, whereas the Kuang-ye was to the west of that city.