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On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c21.s12: An-To-Lo (Andhra)

On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c21.s12

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An-To-Lo (Andhra)

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We return to the narrative in the Records. The pilgrim relates that from Kosala he travelled South, through a forest, for above 900 *li* to the *An-to-lo* country. This country was above 3000 *li* in circuit, and its capital *Ping-ch'i* (or *k'i*)-lo was above twenty *li* in circuit. The country had a rich fertile soil with a moist hot climate; the people were of a violent character; their mode of speech differed from that of "Mid-India", but they followed the same system of writing. There were twenty odd Buddhist monasteries with more than 3000 Brethren. Near the capital was a large monastery with a succession of high halls and storeyed terraces wrought with perfect art, and containing an exquisite image of the Buddha. In front of the monastery was a stone tope some hundreds of feet high, tope and monastery being the work of the arhat A-che-lo (Āchāra, translated by So-hsing 所行, "Performance" or "Rule of Conduct"). Near the south-west of this monastery was an Asoka tope where the Buddha preached, displayed miracles, and received into his religion a countless multitude. Above twenty *li* further south-west was an isolated hill on the ridge of which was a stone tope where *Ch'ên-na* (陳那) P'usa composed a "yin-ming-lun" or treatise on Logic (or the Science of Inference). The pilgrim then relates a legend about the circumstances connected with the production of this *śāstra* in exposition of the Buddha's teaching on the *Yin-ming*. *Ch'ên-na*, the pilgrim relates, after the Buddha had departed from this life came under his influence, and entered the Order. The aspirations of his spiritual knowledge were vast and his intellectual strength was deep and sure. Pitying the helpless state of his age he thought to give expansion to Buddhism. As the *śāstra* on the science of Inference was deep and terse, and students wrought at it in vain, unable to acquire a knowledge of its teachings, he went apart to live in calm seclusion to examine the qualities of the writings on it, and investigate their characteristics of style and meaning. Hereupon a mountain-god took the P'usa up in the air, and proclaimed that the sense of the *Yin-ming-lun*, originally uttered by the Buddha, had been lost, and that it would that day be set forth at large again by *Ch'ên-na*. This latter then sent abroad a great light which illuminated the darkness. The sight of this light led to the king's request that *Ch'ên-na* should proceed at once to the attainment of arhatship. When the p'usa reluctantly agreed to do so, Mañjuśrī appeared, and recalled him to his high designs and aspirations for the salvation of others, and also summoned him to develope for the benefit of posterity the "Yu-ka-shih-ti-lun" (Yogāchārya-bhūmi-śāstra), originally delivered by Maitreya. On this Ch'ên-na renounced the idea of an arhat's career, and devoted himself to a thorough study and development of the treatise on the science of Inference. When he had finished his work on this subject, he proceeded to the propagation of the rich teaching of the Yoga system, and had disciples who were men of note among their contemporaries.¹

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¹ The original for the last clause is in all the texts except B which apparently was that used by the translators.

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Comparing this passage with the narrative in the Life we find that in the latter the direction from Kosala to An-to-lo is given as south-east from the south of the district of the capital, the distance being the same. Julien restones the Sanskrit name of the country as Andhra, which is the correct form, but our pilgrim's transcription is nearer Andar (the Andara of Pliny). His name for the capital, P'ing-k'i (or ch'i)-lo, is restored doubtfully by Julien as Vingila, but it may be for a word like Vinjir or Vingir. According to Cunningham our pilgrim's Andhra is "the modern Telingāma".² Fergusson, who does not know where to place the capital, says that the name here given for it "sounds very like Vengi, which we know was the name of the capital of the Eastern Chalukyas at this period".³ In the Vāyu-Purāna, quoted by Alberuni, we find one Andhra in the south and another in the east, and the name was apparently rather that of a people than of a country.⁴ We find An-tê-lo (Andhra) in some Buddhist works as the name of a frontier district with a language different from that of India.⁵ The Kathā Vatthu commentary often mentions the Andhakā, that is, that men of the Andhra school, but it gives no information as to the exact position of the district.⁶

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² A. G. I. p. 527.

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³ op. c. p. 261.

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⁴ Alberuni Vol. I. pp. 299, 300. See also Burgess in 'Arch. Sur. of S. India', p. 5 and note.

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⁵ See e. g. the 寂照堂谷響集, ch. 4: Ta-chih-tu-lun, ch. 25

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⁶ Rhys Davids in 'Schools of Buddhist Belief', J. R. A. S. 1892. pp. 9 foll.

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The name of the great Buddhist philosopher transcribed in the passage now under consideration, as in other places, by *Ch'ên-na*, was translated by an annotator "Youth (i. e. Kumāra)-given", or, in some texts, simply "Given", but our author does not use either of these translations. Julien restored the name doubtfully as "Jina", and the restoration has been accepted by all subsequent writers. But it is quite certain that we must give up both translation and restoration. That *Ch'ên-na* does not represent *Jina* is plain from a study of the old sounds of the character for the first syllable, and of the transcriptions in Buddhist books. There is excuse for the Japanese scholars Nanjio and Takakusu repeating Julien's restoration because in their language the character is read *Chin* or *Jin*.¹ But it is not so in Chinese, and we can satisfy ourselves by a few examples of the transcriptions for *Jina* and the sound represented by the character 陳 now read *Ch'ên*. Our pilgrim, in the next *chuan* of these Records, transcribes *Jina* by *Shên*(眞)-*na*, and the Life transcribes the word by 眞 (read *Shên*) and *-na*. Other ways of expressing this word are *Shi*(尸)-*na*, *Ch'i*(耆 and 嗜)-*na*, and the character 陳 is apparently never used to transcribe *Ji-* or *Jin*. But it is very often used to express the syllable *din* in various proper names such as Gondinna, Sudinna, and so on. This is an old pronunciation, and the way in which our pilgrim uses the character in his translations.

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It is also the way in which it was read by the annotator, as we see by his translation, for he took the name to be *Dinna* which means "Given". But we find from other treatises that the full name was *Din-na-ka* (陳那伽), and this gives us Dìnnāga (Dig-nāga).² The literal meaning of this word is "District-dragon", and it is rendered in Chinese by *Yü-lung* (域龍) with the same meaning. Our pilgrim, it will be remembered, ascribes the composition of a "Yin-ming-lun", or treatise on Logic (or the science of Inference) to Ch'ên-na (i. e. Dinna), and I-ching makes him to be the author of several treatises on the subject, yet in the Chinese Collection there is no work bearing the name of "Yin-ming" ascribed to Dinna. But we find a treatise called "Yin-ming-chêng-li-mên-lun" (or with-pên added) bearing on the title page the name Ta-yü-lung (Mahā Dinnāga) P'u-sa as author (Nos. 1223, 1224). This is the Dinna of other books, and we find several authorities describing Dinna (Ch'ên-na) as the author of the above treatise. Thus the Ch'ên-na of our text and many other passages is the Dinnāga of Indian fame as a Buddhist propagandist and a philosopher well skilled in subtle speculations. We have a few particulars of his life chiefly through Tibetan channels. Thus we learn that he was born in Simha-vaktra, a suburb of Kāñchi in the South, that he was of a brahmin family, and well trained in the orthodox learning.

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He afterwards joined the Vatsiputra sect of the Hinayāna Buddhists, but having incurred the displeasure of his teacher he was expelled, and he then joined the school of Vasubandhu. Then he lived for some time in a cave on Bhoraśaila in Oḍiviśa, sojourned in Nālandā, where he disputed successfully with several defenders of various schools, and afterwards returned to Oḍiviśa. Here he resolved to devote himself to the compilation of a treatise on Logic, and the resolve was followed by an earthquake, a great light, and a noise in the air. When he began to despair of success in his undertaking Mañjuśrī appeared to him, and roused him to renewed application by advice and encouragement. The king of the country also became his friend and patron.¹ Our pilgrim in the next chuan represents Dinnāga as staying frequently in Āchāra's monastery in the Mahāraṭṭha (Mahārāṣṭra) country. If we are to accept the commentator's explanation of a wellknown verse in the Meghadhūta, Dinnāga was contemporary with Kālidāsa, and was an unsympathetic critic of that poet.¹ His date was apparently about the beginning of the sixth century of our era, and the first translation of any of his works into Chinese was made A. D. 560. I-ching gives the short names of eight treatises on Logic by Diṅnāga (Ch'ên-na) and these, he tells us, were the text-books of students of Logic at his time. But Diṅnāga is represented as a prolific writer, as the author of more than 100 treatises.

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He had studied the Nyāya system and commented on it, and the Nyāya scholars regarded his exposition as erroneous;² he was also devoted to Prajñā-pāramitā, the "spiritual knowledge", which gave him vast aspirations for man's salvation, and he was versed in the metaphysical subtleties of Yoga. We have several of his treatises in Chinese or Tibetan translations or both, and they are not light reading. Some, perhaps all, of the logical treatises mentioned by I-ching are to be found in the Tibetan collection of Buddhist works.³ His interesting treatise on Prajñāpāramitā with the commentary by San-pao-Pu-sa (Nos. 1309, 1310) "Ārya-prajñāpāramitā saṃgraha-kārikāvivaraṇa" which we have in a Tibetan version with the commentary of Dkon-mch'og-gsum-gyi-hbans that is, Triratna-dāsa or Slave of the Three Jewels.⁴ Bunyiu Nanjio, who gives a different Sanskrit title for Diṅnāga's work, suggests "Triratnārya" as a possible original for "San-pao-tsun-P'u-sa", but there is perhaps a mistake in the Chinese version. When our pilgrim refers to a treatise on Yin-ming as having been delivered by the Buddha, he is rather misleading. Buddha did deliver teachings on causal connection in the moral and spiritual spheres, but these teachings are scattered up and down in the canonical works, Diṅnāga wanted to bring them all together into one treatise, with the additions of such explanations and amplifications as would be found necessary. Whether he lived to carry out his design we do not know at present.

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There is no work of this kind among his treatises now accessible in Chinese or Tibetan translation so far as the present writer knows. When the pilgrim here represents Diṅnāga as listening to the advice of Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, and leaving the path to arhatship, he merely wishes to convey to his readers that Diṅnāga gave up Hīnayānism to devote himself to the study and teaching of Mahāyānism. We have had in a previous chapter a similar story about the great Śāstra-Master Vasumitra, who was dissuaded by the devas from taking arhatship.

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¹ Nan-hai-ch'i-kuei, *ch.* 35; Takakusu p. 186.

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² Fan-yi-ming-yi, *ch.* 1; The Wu-chou Catalogue of the Buddhist Books, *ch.* 6 (No. 1610).

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¹ Tār. s. 130 ff.; Wass. Bud. s. 75, 226, 340; J. B. T. S. Vol. IV. Pt. III, p. 16, Vol. VI. P. III, p. 5.

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¹ Weber's 'Ind. Lit.' p. 209 note, 245 note; J. B. T. S. l. c.

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² Colebrooke, 'Essays' Vol. I, p. 282 note.

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³ See Csoma in As. Res. Vol. XX, p. 579; Feer in 'Annales du Musée Guimet', Vol. II, p. 373.

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⁴ Tār. s. 140.

Cites (3)