On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c21.s10: Ka-Leng-Ka (Kalinga)
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c21.s10
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Ka-Leng-Ka (Kalinga)
v2.c21.s10.1
Returning to the narrative in the Records we read that from Kung-yü-to the pilgrim travelled, through jungle and forest dense with huge trees, south-west for 1400 or 1500 *li*, to Kalinga. This country he describes as above 5000 *li* in circuit, its capital being above twenty *li*. There were regular seed-time and harvest, fruit and flowers grew profusely, and there were continuous woods for some hundreds of *li*. The country produced dark wild elephants prized by the neighbouring countries. The climate was hot. The people were rude and headstrong in disposition, observant of good faith and fairness, fast and clear in speech; in their talk and manners they differed somewhat from "Mid India". There were few Buddhists, the majority of the people being of other religions. There were above ten Buddhist monasteries, and 500 Brethren "Students of the Mahāyānist Sthavira school system". There were more than 100 Deva-temples, and the professed adherents of the various sects were very numerous, the majority being nirgranthas. This Country, the pilgrim relates, had once been very densely inhabited; a holy rishi possessing supernatural powers had his hermitage in it; he was once offended by a native and cursed the country; as a consequence of this curse the land became, and remained, utterly depopulated. In the lapse of many years since that event it had gradually become inhabited again, but it still had only a scanty population. Near the south wall of the city (i. e. the capital apparently) was an Asoka tope beside which were a sitting-place and exercise-ground of the Four Past Buddhas. On a ridge of a mountain in the north of the country was a stone tope, above 100 feet high, where a Pratyeka Buddha had passed away at the beginning of the present kalpa when men's lives extended over countless years.
v2.c21.s10.2
The capital of the Kalinga of this passage has been identified by Cunningham with Rajamahendri on the Godāvari river.² Fergusson was of opinion that it was not very far from the Kalingapatam of our maps.²
v2.c21.s10.3
² op. c. p. 250.
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The Divyāvadāna in giving the names of the kings who will be reigning when Maitreya comes places the names Kalinga and Mithilā side by side as the respective residences of different kings.¹ It must be a misunderstanding of some snch passage that lies at the root of the statement we find in some Buddhist treatises that Kalinga, with its capital Mithilā, was mentioned by the Buddha. In some Buddhist treatises we find a Kalinga with its capital Mithilā mentioned by the Buddha as one of the four places possessing inexhaustible treasures of precious substances.² But Mithilā was, of course the capital of Videha; and we find in older works such as the "Jātaka", the "Mahāvastu", and the "Digha", mention of a kingdom named Kalinga with its capital Dantapura ages before the Buddha's time.³
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¹ A. G. I. p. 516.
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¹ Divyāv. p. 61.
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² Tsêng-yi-a-han-ching, ch. 49; A-na-pin-ti-hua-ch'i-tzŭ-ching (No. 649).
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³ Jāt. Vol. II, p. 367; Mahāvastu T. III, p. 361; Dīgha II, 167, 235.
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Our pilgrim's statement here about the desolation of the country caused by the curse of an offended rishi is derived from a sūtra. In this the Buddha asks Upāli if he knew why Daṇḍaka, Kalinga, and Mātaṅga became uninhabited wastes, and Upāli replies that he heard the desolation was caused by an incensed rishi. When this saintly hermit cursed the land in his anger the supernatural beings blighted and wasted all the region on account of the offence against him.⁴
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⁴ See Nos. 1238, 1239, and 1240. Compare Majjhima I, 378.
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In the above passage also it is to be noted that the pilgrim represents the Buddhist Brethren of Kalinga as students of the Sthavira system of the Mahāyānists, but in the description in the Life the term for Mahāyānists is omitted. The Buddha in a Tantra sūtra gives Kalinga as one of the twelve districts in which the "attainment of perfection may be sought".⁵
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⁵ Fo-shuo-ta-pei-k'ung-chih-chin-kang-ta-chiao-wang-yi-kuei-ching, ch. 2 (No. 1060). See above p. 177.
Cites (7)
- Jātakatthavaṇṇanā — Pāli
- Mahāparinibbānasutta — Pāli
- Upālisutta — Pāli
- Jātaka — Pāli
- Mahāvastu — Sanskrit
- Divyāvadāna — Sanskrit
- Dīghanikāya — Pāli