On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s2: Mo-Ha-La-Ch'A (Mahārāṣṭra)
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s2
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Mo-Ha-La-Ch'A (Mahārāṣṭra)
v2.c22.s2.1
Continuing his narrative the pilgrim relates that "north-west from this he entered a great forest-wilderness ravaged by wild beasts and harried by banded robbers, and travelling 2400 or 2500 *li* he came to the *Mo-ha-la-ch'a* (or *ta*) country". This country, he tells us, was 6000 *li* in circuit and its capital, which had a large river on its west side, was above thirty *li* in circuit. The inhabitants were proud-spirited and warlike, grateful for favours and revengeful for wrongs, self-sacrificing towards suppliants in distress and sanguinary to death with any who treated them insultingly. Their martial heroes who led the van of the army in battle went into conflict intoxicated, and their war-elephants were also made drunk before an engagement. Relying on the strength of his heroes and elephants the king treated neighbouring countries with contempt. He was a kshatriya by birth, and his name was *Pu-lo-hi-shê* (Pulakeśa, Julien). The benevolent sway of this king reached far and wide, and his vassals served him with perfect loyalty. The great king Śīlāditya at this time was invading east and west, and countries far and near were giving in allegiance to him, but *Mo-ha-la-ch'a* refused to become subject to him. The people were fond of learning, and they combined orthodoxy and heterodoxy. Of Buddhist monasteries there were above 100, and the Bretbren, who were adherents of both Vehicles, were more than 5000 in number. Within and outside the capital were five Asoka topes where the Four Past Buddhas had sat and walked for exercise; and there were innumerable other topes of stone or brick. Not far from the south of the capital was an old monastery in which was a stone image of Kuan-tzŭ-tsai P'usa of marvellous efficacy. In the east of this country was a mountain range, ridges one above another in succession, tiers of peaks and sheer summits. Here was a monastery the base of which was in a dark defile, and its lofty halls and deep chambers were quarried in the cliff and rested on the peak, its tiers of halls and storeyed terraces had the cliff on their back and faced the ravine. This monastery had been built by the A-chê-lo (Āchāra) of West India. The pilgrim then relates the circumstances in Āchāra's life which led to the building of the monastery. Within the establishment, he adds, was a large temple above 100 feet high in which was a stone image of the Buddha above seventy feet high; the image was surmounted by a tier of seven canopies unattached and unsupported, each canopy separated from the one above it by the space of three feet. The walls of this temple had depicted on them the incidents of the Buddha's career as Bodhisattva, including the circumstances of his attaining bodhi and the omens attending his final passing away, all great and small were here delineated. Outside the gate of the monastery, on either side north and south, was a stone elephant, and the pilgrim was informed that the bellowing of these elephants caused earthquakes. The P'usa Ch'ên-na or Diūnāga stayed much in this monastery.
v2.c22.s2.2
The *Mo-ho-la-ch'a* of this passage has been restored as Mahārāṣṭra, but the Chinese transcription seems to represent a local form like Mahāraṭṭha. Various identifications have been proposed for the capital by St. Martin, Cunningham, and Fergusson, and Messrs Fleet and Burgess seem to agree in thinking that it was at Nāsik or thereabouts.¹
v2.c22.s2.3
¹ Ind. Ant. Vol. XXII, p. 113 and XXIII, p. 28.
v2.c22.s2.4
As to Āchāra's great monastery in the east part of the country Mr. Burgess and others are confident that the pilgrim's description applies to the Ajaṇṭā caves.² This may be so, but it may be doubted whether the Achala of the inscription given by Mr. Burgess is the A-chê-lo of the pilgrim's description. This inscription merely states that "The ascetic Sthavira Achala, who glorified the faith and was grateful, caused to be built a mountain-dwelling for the Teacher, though his wishes were fulfilled". It is to be noted, however, that the pilgrim does not use the translation *so-hsing*, and his transcription may, as Mr. Burgess contends, represent Achala. All commentators on the pilgrim's account of this monastery seem to assume that he did not go to it, and the silence of the Life is in favour of the assumption. But the description, especially the part which tells of the temple of the monastery, seems to favour the view that he made a personal visit, and this view is apparently supported by the distance and direction of the pilgrim's next journey. There is not a word in the text to warrant the statement that he describes the monastery from report, and it was apparently on the spot that he learned its history, and heard the unsatisfactory explanations of its marvels.¹
v2.c22.s2.5
² Arch. Sur. West India *chs.* IX, X; Cave Temples of India, p. 135 and p. 280 ff.
v2.c22.s2.6
¹ This country is the Mahāraṭṭha of Dīpavamsa. VIII, and of Vinaya Vol. III, p. 314.
Linked texts (2)
- Dīpavaṃsa — Pāli
- Vinayapiṭaka — Pāli