Accounts of the Chinese Pilgrims (Literary Sources)

Very little is known about the history of Kaushambi after the downfall of the Gupta empire till the time of Harsavardhana. The records of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-Tsang throw some light on throw some light on Kaushambi. Hiuen-Tsang visited Kaushambi about the year 636 A.D.

The Chinese pilgrim is silent about the political condition of Kaushambi during his visit to the city. The Vatsa janapada formed part of the kingdom of Harsavardhana.

The famous Ghositarama monastry, which was in good condition during the visit of Fa-hien in the beginning of the 5th century A.D. was found in ruins by Hiuen Tsang. About a century after the visit of Fa-hien, the Hunas may have caused destruction to the flourishing town of Kaushambi.

Hiuen-Tsang found the Buddhist monastries at Kaushambi in a devastated condition. He saw ten such monasteries,^[1] in which were living three hundred brethern all followers of the Hinayana system.^[2] A Buddhist temple existed in his time "within the royal enclosure of the capital" says the pilgrim was a large Buddhist temple over sixty feet high in which was a carved sandal wood Image of the Buddha with a stone canopy suspended over it.^[3] This image, according to Hiuen-Tsang, was the one made at the request of Udayana.^[4] According to Watters the same image was taken to Khatan or probably to China. The ruins of the house of the wealthy and pious Buddhist banker Ghosita, the doner of the Ghositarama, seen by the pilgrim who located the house in the south-east corner of the city. It is interesting to note that the south-east corner of the present site of Kaushambi is exactly on the river Yamuna which flows along its Southern side as revealed by present excavations. Ghosita being a premier merchant of Kaushambi, his residence should have been on the river bank. The pilgrim also saw a Buddhist temple, a hair and nailrelic tope and the remains of the Buddha's bath-house. The temple referred to here is different from the one built at the request of king. Udayana. The recent excavations have shown that the Ghositarama monastery was built outside the city and on the river bank for the convenience of the pilgrims and monks.

The main monasteries such as Ghositarama at Kaushambi, Jetavana at Sravasti, Gandhkuti-vihara at Varanasi, Mahavanakutagarashala at Vaishali, were all built outside the cities.

"To the South-East of Ghositarama", Hiuen-Tsang proceeds was a two-storied building with old brick upper chamber, and in this Vasubandhu lodged and composed the Wei-Shin-lun for the refuting of Hinayanists and the confounding of the non-Buddhists.''

Vasubandhu belonged to the realistic school of Buddhism and was a great authority on Mahayana as well as Hinayana philosophy. He is famous as a great exponent of Mahayana doctrines.

Asanga, according the pilgrim also lived in Kaushambi and composed there the Hsieh-Yang Shengchiao-lun. His notable contribution to the intellectual movements of the age was the systematisation of the idealistic philosophy, which afterwards produced such great logicians as Dinnaga and Dharmakirti.

We may conclude on the basis of the account furnished by Hiuen-Tsang that Kaushambi was an important religious and cultural centre during the first half of the seventh century A.D.

For the history of Kaushambi in the fifth and in the seventh century A.D. we are primarily indebted to the two Chinese pilgrims, Fa-hien and Hiuen Tsang, who naturally visited this sacred city of the Buddhists during their sojourn in India. Fa-bien visited India during the latter part of the reign of Candragupta II, Vikramaditya, the son and successor of Samudragupta, and stayed in the country for six years (405-411). Hiuen Tsang's sojourn in India two centuries later also fell, it is interesting to note, during the latter part of Harsavardhana's reign (629-643).

Fa-hien's notice of the city of Kaushambi in his record is brief; that of Hiuen Tsang is in fuller detail. Both of them are silent about the political condition of Kaushambi during their visits. But that is partly because Kaushambi was during their visits under the imperial rule of the Guptas and of Harsavardhana, respectively, and there was no independent or subordinate king residing in the city whose guests they were; and partly because of the fact that the two travellers came to India primarily as pious pilgrims to pay respects to the Buddhist shrines and to collect and carry home copies of the Pali Pitakas, if they could find any. Consequently their notice of Kaushambi, in common with that of many other places, was confined to the religious conditions obtaining there at the time. The record of the pilgrims regarding Kaushambi, however, clearly point out one thing, namely, that it was once an important scene of Buddhist activity, and was still a centre of Hinayana Buddhism. Fa-hien says: "Thirteen yojans^[5] to the northwest of the shrine (Deer Park, Benares) is a country called Kaushambi. There is a shrine there, known as the garden of Ghochirarama, in which Buddha once dwelt, and where there are still priests, mostly of the lesser vehicle."^[6] Ghochirarama is the Ghositarama or GhosiKarama of Hiuen Tsang and Buddhaghosha, a pleasance and vihara built by the pious and wealthy Buddhist merchant Ghosita or Ghosika. Evidently the Ghositarama was in good condition in the fifth century A.D. when Fa-hien visited Kaushambi. It was however reduced to ruins when Hiuen Tsang visited the place in the seventh century A.D. This may be accounted for the fact that the Hunas who poured into India in the latter part of the fifth century A.D. carried on a systematic ravage of the country and destruction of buildings, the Saiva Temples and Buddhist Monasteries coming equally under their vandalic lust.

The record of Hiuen Tsang show that the monasteries in Kaushambi were in a ruined condition in his time. He saw ten such monasteries.^[7] There were three hundred brethren living in Kaushambi, all following the Hinayana system.^[8] A Buddhist temple existed in his time. "Within the royal enclosure of the capital," says the pilgrim, "was a large Buddhist temple over sixty feet high in which was a carved Sandal-wood Image of the Buddha with a stone canopy suspended over it."^[9] This image, according to Hiuen Tsang, was the one made at the request of Udayana.^[10] Watters says (on the authority of the Chinese account) that the same image was taken to Khotan or probably to China. The ruins of the house of the wealthy and pious Buddhist banker Ghosita, the donor of the Ghositarama, were seen by the pilgrim. The house was in the 'southest corner of the city.'^[11] It is interesting to note that the southeast corner of the present site of Kaushambi is exactly on the river Yamuna whichflows along its southern Kaushambi, and the position of his residence was, precisely as it should have been, on the river bank. The pilgrim also saw 'a Buddhist temple, a hair and nail relic tope and the remains of the Buddha's bath-house.'^[12] The temple referred to here is different from the one mentioned above, namely, the one built at the request of King Udayana. Wherever the Buddha lived for a long time, he had occasions to shave his head and to cut his nails. They were taken by pious and devout Buddhist as sacred relics over which they built a Stupa. The ruins of the main monastery at Kaushambi, the Ghositarama where the Buddha resided with his followers during his visits to the city, were also seen by the pilgrim, the site of which was 'outside the city on its southeast side.' The main monasteries, such as Ghositarama at Kaushambi, Jetavana at Sravasti, Gandhakutivihara at Varanasi, Mahavanakutagarasala at Vaisali, were all built outside the city.

"To the southeast of Ghositarama," Hiuen Tsang proceeds, "was a two-storied building with an old brick upper-chamber; and in this Vasubandhu lodged and composed the Wei-shih-lun for the refuting of Hinayanists and the confounding of the non-Buddhists." Then he says, "In a mango wood east of the Ghositarama were the old foundations of the house in which Asanga P'usa composed the Hsien-Yabng-Sheng-Chiao-lun."^[13]

Wei-shih-lun is, according to Julien, the Chinese name of the book known as Vidyamatra siddhisastra. The book is an explanatory commentary on the relation of mind and matter, and aims at refuting false doctrines of Buddhism, as they appeared to be. Vasubandhu belonged to the realistic school of Buddhism and was a great authority on Mahayana as well as Hinayana philosophy. He is famous as a great exponent of Mahayana doctrines. He was born about 288 A.D. and was a native of Gandhara. He came to Ayodhya, being invited by Samudragupta. According to Paramartha, who wrote a life of Vasubandhu, the king Vikramaditya of Ayodhya was induced by the writings of Vasubandhu to take an interest in Buddhism. He sent his queen, with the crown prince Baladitya, to study Buddhism under the famous teacher. When Baladitya became king he invited Vasubandhu to Ayodhya and favoured him with special patronage.^[14] This Baladitya, according to Peri and Dr. Vincent Smith, is Samudragupta who bore the title of Baladitya in his youth.^[15] Thus vasubandhu's activity must have covered the greater part of the fourth century A.D. He lived most of his time at Ayodhya in the court of Samudragupta under whose patronage he composed most of his books. He probably came to Kaushambi where, as Hiuen Tsang says, he composed Wei-shih-lun, after Samudragupta had brought Kaushambi under his rule by his great victory at the battle of Kaushambi in about 345 A.D.^[16]

Asanga who, the pilgrim says, also lived in Kaushambi and composed there the Hsien-Yang-Sheng-Chiao-lun, was the elder brother of Vasubandhu and a remarkable personality of that time. He, like his brother, resided in Samudragupta's court at Ayodhya and was equally pattronised by the emperor. Like his brother he was a great exponent of Mahayana Buddhism and a founder of the idealistic school of Yogacara. His notable contribution to the intellectual movements of the age was the systematisation of the idealistic philosophy which afterwards produced such great logicians as Dhinnaga and Dharmakirti. According to this school internal or subjective ideas are the only real things: the external is a reflection of the internal, and has no real existence. The world as we see it is nothing but the creation of minds. This school is known as Vijnanavada or the school of Yogacara. His famous book goes by the name of Yogacharya Bhumi Sastra, which was partially translated by Dharmaraksa^[17] between A.D. 414 and 421. The one that he wrote at Kaushambi, if Hiuen Tsang's statement is to be believed, is an exposition of that book. The fact that both these brothers who were Buddhist scholars and writers of first importance in the fourth century A.D. came to Kaushambi and lived there at least for some time is an eloquent testimony to the fact that the city was still regarded as an important centre of Buddhism.

Fa-hien, who visited India early in the fifth century A.D., has left an account of Kaushambi. This country, according to him, was situated 13 yojanas to the north-west of Sarnath. He mentions a monastery, called the Garden of Gosira { Gosira-vana or Gho&itfirama), where Buddha once dwelt. In his times there were very few priests who mostly belonged to the Hinayana sect. Some scholars are of the opinion that Fa-hien never personally visited Kaushambi and that his record about the site was essentially based on hearsay.

Hiuen Tsang, however, has left a detailed and valuable account of Kaushambi -as he saw it during his travels in India (A.D. 630-46). From Prayaga the pilgrim went south-west through a forest infested by wild elephants and other fierce animals. After a journey of 500 li (100 miles), he reached the 'Kai-Shang-mi' (Kaushambi) country. This country, according to him, was 600 li in circuit and its capital Kaushambi, more than 30 li in perimeter. It was a fertile country with a hot climate; the principal produce was rice and sugar-cane. The people were enterprising and fond of arts, and were cultivators of religious merits. There were more than ten Buddhist monasteries but all in utter ruins, and the brethren, who were above three hundred in number, were the adherents of the Hinayana. There were more than fifty Deva temples, and the non-Buddhists were very numerous.^[18]

The people of Kaushambi, according to Beal's rendering of Hiuen Tsang's account, were hard and rough.^[19] This reminds us of a similar statement in the Lalitavistara.^[20]

Fa-Hien, the earlier Chinese pilgrim arrived at Kaushambi from the Deer Park to the north of Benares. He had to walk 13 yojanas (about 91 miles) north-west from the Deer Park in order to reach Kaushambi. He mentions the vihara called Ghoshiravana without actually locating it. Eight yojanas (about 56 miles) east of Kaushambi he noticed a place where the Buddha had converted an evil demon. Fa-Hien's Ghosiravana Vihara is no other than the Pali Ghositarama or Hiuen Tsang's Ghositarama.

Hiuen Tsang who visited Kaushambi twice, arrived at the Kaushambi country by going from, Prayaga "south-west through a forest infested by wild elephants and other fierce animals, and after a journey of above 500 li (about 100 miles)."^[21] Hiuen Tsang's account is silent as to the actual distance or direction of the city of Kaushambi. When he departed from the city of.Kaushambi, he proceeded "' in a north-east direction through a great wood and, after a journey of above 700 H, he crossed the Ganges to the north, to the city of Ka-ske-pu-lo {Kasapura or Kajapura)". From Kasapura he walked north. 170 or 180 li and came to the country called Pi~sho-Jca (Visoka) from which place he afterwards travelled above 500 li (about 100 miles) north-east and arrived at the kingdom of Sravasti (i.e., Kosala).^[22]

(As for the identification of the city of Kaushambi, we have so far only two suggestions for consideration, one offered by Cunningham in 1871, and the other by Vincent A. Smith in 1898. In the; opinion of Cunningham the present village of Kosam "stands on the actual site of the ancient Kaushambi.^[23] According to Vincent A. Smith, the site of Kaushambi "is to be looked for, and when looked for, will be found, in one of the Native States of Baghelkhund Agency, in the Talley of the Tons river and not very far from the East Indian Railway, which -connects Allahabad with Jabalpur. In short, the Satna (Sutna) railway station marks the approximate position of Kaushambi."^[24] Watters simply points out the difficulties in accepting either of them as reconcilable with the statements of the Chinese pilgrims without bringing forward any new suggestion from his side.^[25] The two main data relied upon by Cunningham were these: (1) that Kaushambi was situated on the Yamuna, and (2) that the Life of Hiuen Tsang gives the distance between Prayaga and Kaushambi as 50 li, instead of 500 of the Records,.50 being a clerical error for 150, " the equivalent of 15 kos, which is the actual distance across the fields for foot passengers from Kosam to the fort of Allahabad.”

Watters has, on the other hand, conclusively shown that there is a perfect -agreement between the Life and Si-yu-H of Hiuen Tsang as regards the distance and direction of Kaushambi from Prayaga. In both of them, the distance is given as above 500 li (about 100 miles) to the south-west of Prayaga. The pilgrim's journey from Prayaga to Kaushambi lay through a jungle and bare plains, and he took seven days to cover the distance of 500 li. There is nothing however, in the actual records of Hiuen Tsang to suggest that the distance given was the distance between Prayaga and the city of Kaushambi. What is most likely is that the pilgrim went to the country of Kaushambi by around about way instead of going straight by a short-cut from Prayaga to the city of Kaushambi. The distance and direction of Kaushambi from Sarnath as given by Fa-Hien may^be taken as fairly correct. The distance of 13 yojanas (about 90 Or 104 miles) is almost the present distance by road from Benares to Kosam. It need not worry us if Fa-Hien placed Kaushambi to the north-west of Benares, for he may have walked by a road following north-west direction over some distance. (The reader must, of course, note that Kosam, which is supposed to be the site of Kaushambi, is about 30 or 31 miles from Allahabad across the fields, 137 or. 138 miles by road, above the Yamuna.

Besides the present name of the village on the Yamuna, Kosam, a shortened form of the Pali or the Prakrit name Koshambi or Koshambi, there are more positive epigraphic evidences to support Cunningham's identification of the ancient site with the present Kosam. First, a stone pillar which stands in situ at Kosam, resembles in certain characteristic features Ashoka's monolith, bears an inscription in its upper part which is dated in Chaitrabadi Pancliami in Samvat 1621. The date of the record corresponds, according to Fleet, to February, 1565 A.D. In it, the locality is distinctly referred to as Kaushambipuri.^[26]

As Mr. Ghosh rightly observes,

“This undoubtedly proves that Kosam which contains the stone pillar referred to above and the inscription which was engraved in the reign of Akbar was known to its residents to be Kaushambi even in the sixteenth century A.D.”^[27]

Secondly, the Jaina Dharmasala in the village of Pabhosa, which lies only “at a distance of 2 miles north-west of the remains at Kosam,” contains a dedicatory inscription, dated in Samvat 1881 corresponding to 1824 or 1825 A.D,; i.e., nearly half a century before Cunningham's identification of the site of Kaushambi with Kosam in 1871 A.D, In this inscription, the hill of Pabhosa, on the top of which the Jaina temple was built, is placed just outside or in the suburb in the city of Kaushambi (Kaushambi-nagara-bahya-prabhasachalopara).^[28]

The discussion of the point at issue may be closed with the following observation:

“The question of the site of Kauparnbi has been much debated chiefly because of the impossibility of reconciling Cunningham's identification (Kosam on the Jumna in the Allahabad district of the United Provinces) with the description of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims. But in all this controversy it seems to have been forgotten that such descriptions may either have been incorrect originally or misinterpreted subsequently. (The tangible facts seem undoubtedly to support the identification of Kosam with Kaushambi. It seems to have been on the north bank of the Jurana, at a point about 400 miles by road from Ujjeni and about 230 miles upstream from Benares.”^[29]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Watters, II; p. 366

[2]:

Ibid. 367

[3]:

Ibid, p. 368.

[4]:

Ibid, p. 369.

[5]:

One yojan is to be considered equal to eight British miles.

[6]:

Giles–Travels of Fa-Hien

[7]:

Watters. II., page 366

[8]:

Ibid.

[9]:

Ibid., page 368

[10]:

Ibid

[11]:

Ibid, page 369

[12]:

Ibid

[13]:

Watters, page 370-371, The work with its commentaries is being restored from Chinese to Sanskrit under the more correct name of Vignaptimatratasiddhi-sastra by my friend Tripitakacharya Rahula. Half of is already published in J.B.O.S. (1933-34).

[14]:

J.R.A.S. 1905

[15]:

E.H.I., page 328-334

[16]:

See ante page 3

[17]:

Dharmaraksa was an Indo-Scythian Buddhist scholar and writer. He was a contemporary of Asamga and his brother, being born towards the middle of the third century A.D. He was a native of the famous Buddhsit town of Touen-hoang in northeastern China, which had grown into an important centre of Buddhist missionary activity as early as the and century A.D. Dharmaraksa received his education from an Indian teacher and travelled with him to different parts of Central Asia and northwestern India. He knew 36 different languages and possessed a first-hand knowledge of Buddhism. A monk of rare genius, he translated more than 200 Sanskrit texts into Chinese, of which 90 works still exist. He died about the first quarter of the fourth century A.D.

[18]:

Watters, op. cit... p. 366.

[19]:

Beal, Buddhist Records of Ike Western World, I (London. 1906), p. 235.

[20]:

Lefmann, Ed. Lalitavistra quoted by Law, op. cit., p. 9.

[21]:

Waiters, Yuan Chwang, pp. 366, 372-77.

[22]:

Waiters, Yuan Chwang, pp. 366, 372-77.

[23]:

Cunningham, The Ancient Geography of India, (S. N. Majumdar's Edition), p. 454.

[24]:

J. R. A. S., 1898, p. 503.

[25]:

Watters, Yuan Chwang, I, pp. 366-67. Cf. Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 308.

[26]:

E. I., XI, pp. 91-92.

[27]:

Ghosh, Early History, pp, 93-94.

[28]:

Ibid., pp. 94-95.

[29]:

Law, Ancient Mid-Indian Ksatriya Tribes, p. 120.