On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s7: Fa-La-P'I
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s7
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Fa-La-P'I
v2.c22.s7.1
Our narrative in the Records proceeds to tell that from K'i-t'a the pilgrim went north above 1000 *li* to *Fa-la-p'i*. This country, 6000 *li*, with its capital above 30 *li* in circuit, resembled Mālava in products, climate, and the character and ways of the people; and it was very rich and prosperous. It had above 100 Buddhist monasteries with 6000 Brethren adherents of the Hinayāna Sammatiya school; of Deva-temples there were some hundreds, and the adherents of the various systems were very numerous. While Ju-lai was in the world he often visited this country, and so Asoka had set up topes at all the places where the Buddha had stayed in order to commemorate the event. There were also traces of the Three Past Buddhas having sat, and walked up and down, and preached. The reigning sovereign was of Kshatriya birth, a nephew of Śīladitya the former king of Mālava, and a son-in-law of the Śīladitya reigning at Kanyākubja; his name was *Tu-lo-p'o-po-t'a*; he was of a hasty temper and of shallow views, but he was a sincere believer in Buddhism. Not far from the capital was a large monastery erected by Āchāra in which the P'usas Guṇamati and Sthiramati had lodged, and composed treatises which had great vogue.
v2.c22.s7.2
The *Fa-la-p'i* of this passage, said in a note to the text to have been called also "North Lo-lo", has been restored as Valabhi (or Balabhi). Cunningham and others regard Bhaonagar (Bhaunagar) in the east part of Gujarāt as the site of the city Valabhi,¹ but Fergusson gives good reasons for not accepting this identification.² The "Lo-lo" of the Chinese annotator to our text may perhaps be for Lāṭa the name of a country which "corresponds to what might now be called Central and southern Gujarāt".³ In his "Indian Empire" (p. 229) Hunter writes that "the Valabhi's ruled over Cutch, north-western Bombay, and Málwá from 480 to after 722 A. D.".
v2.c22.s7.3
¹ A. G. I. p. 317.
v2.c22.s7.4
² op. c. p. 272.
v2.c22.s7.5
³ Fleet op. c. p. 183.
v2.c22.s7.6
In the passage with which we are now concerned the pilgrim calls the reigning sovereign of Valabhi "a nephew of Śīladitya formerly king of Mālava". For the word formerly here the original is *hsi* (昔) which has the meaning of former or formerly. But the B text, and it alone, has instead of *hsi* the character *chi* (皆) meaning "all"; as the construction shows, this is evidently a printer's or copyist's mistake, and it makes nonsense; this mistake caused the serious misunderstanding of the passage to be found in Julien's translation. The king on the throne was the nephew and successor of the good king Śīlāditya, who reigned in the latter part of the sixth century and about sixty years before the time of Yuan-chuang's visit, ruling over Mālava and Valabhi. He was also, the pilgrim tells us, "a son-in-law of the Śīlāditya reigning then at Kanyākubja". Here the words rendered "son-in-law" are *tzŭ-hsü* (子婿) and Julien took these to mean "son-in-law, of son", but the phrase means simply "son-in-law", and the Life employs the common term *nü-hsü* (女婿). Julien transcribes the name of the reigning king by "T'u-lo-p'o-po-tu" and he restores the name as Dhruvapatu; this agrees with the translation *Ch'ang-jui* (常 叡), or "permanent acuteness", added in a note to the text. But the name is *Tu-lo-p'o-po-t'a* (杜魯婆 跋陀) which is perhaps for Dhruva-bhaṭṭa. In the Life we have the same transcription but a different rendering, viz. *ti-ch'ou* (帝 幬) that is, "Indra's(?) helmet", and this seems to require a different restoration of the original.
v2.c22.s7.7
The builder of the large monastery near the capital was the arhat A-che-lo of previous passages, and instead of Āchāra the name ought perhaps to be restored as Achala.