Introduction (c): Sung Yun (A.D. 518)

This pilgrim was a native of Tun-hwang, in what is sometimes called Little Tibet, lat. 39 30' N., long. 95° E. He seems to have lived in a suburb of the city of Lo-yang (Honan-fu) called Wan-I. He was sent, a.d. 518, by the Empress of the Northern Wei dynasty, in company with Hwui Sang, a Bhikshu of the Shung-li temple of Lo-yang, to the western countries to seek for books. They brought back altogether one hundred and seventy volumes or sets of the Great Development series. They seem to have taken the southern route from Tun-hwang to Khotan, and thence by the same route as Fa-hian and his companion across the Tsung-ling mountains. The Ye-tha (Ephthalites) were now in possession of the old country of the Yue-chi, and had recently conquered Gandhara. They are described as having no walled towns, but keeping order by means of a standing army that moved here and there. They used felt (leather) garments, had no written character, nor any knowledge of the heavenly bodies. On all hands it is plain the Ye-tha were a rude horde of Turks who had followed in the steps of the Hiung-nu; they were, in fact, the Ephthalites or Huns of the Byzantine writers. “In the early part of the sixth century their power extended over Western India, and Cosmas tells us of their king Gollas who domineered there with a thousand elephants and a vast force of horsemen.” Sung-yun also names the power of the king whom the Ye-tha had set up over Gandhara. He was of the Lae-lih dynasty, or a man of Lae-lih, which may perhaps be restored to Lara. According to Hiuen Tsiang, the northern Lara people belonged to Valabhi, and the southern Laras to Malava. It was one of these Lara princes the Ye-tha had set over the kingdom of Gandhara. It may have been with the Gollas of Cosmas that the Chinese pilgrims had their interview. At any rate, he was lording it over the people with seven hundred war-elephants, and was evidently a fierce and oppressive potentate.

The Ye-tha, according to Sung-yun, had conquered or received tribute from more than forty countries in all, from Tieh-lo in the south to Lae-lih in the north, eastward to Khotan, westward to Persia. The symbols Tieh-lo probably represent Tirabhukti, the present Tirhut, the old land of the Vrijjis. The Vrijjis themselves were in all probability Skythian invaders, whose power had reached so far as the borders of the Ganges at Patna, but had there been checked by Ajatasatru. They had afterwards been driven north-east to the mountains bordering on NepaL The Ye-tha also extended their power so far as this, and northward to Lae-lih, Malava. As these conquests had been achieved two generations before Sung-yuns time, we may place this invasion of India therefore about A.D. 460.

The notices of the country of Udyana by Sung-yun vie with those found in Hiuen Tsiang for abundance of detail and legendary interest. It is singular that the supposed scene of the history of Vessantara, “the giving king” of Hiuen Tsiang and the Pi-lo of Sung-yun', should he placed in this remote district. The Vessantara (so called) was well known in Ceylon in Fa-hian’s time;it forms part of the sculptured scenes at Amaravati and Sanchi; it is still one of the most popular stories amongst the Mongols. How does the site of the history come to be placed in Udyana? There are some obscure notices connected with the succession of the Maurya or Moriya sovereigns from the Sakya youths who fled to this district of Udyana which may throw a little light on this subject. The Buddhists affirm that Asoka belonged to the same family as Buddha, because he was descended from Chandragupta, who was the child of the queen of one of the sovereigns of Moriyanagara. This Moriyanagara was the city founded by the Sakya youths who fled from Kapilavastu; so that whatever old legends were connected with the Sakya family were probably referred to Udyana by the direct or indirect influence of Asoka, or by his popularity as a Buddhist sovereign. But, in any case, the history of Udyana is mixed up with that of the Sakya family, and Buddha himself is made to acknowledge Uttarasena as one of his own kinsmen. We may suppose then that these tales did actually take their rise from some local or family association connected with Udyana, and found their way thence into the legends of other countries. Hence while we have in the Southern account mention made of the elephant that could bring rain from heaven, which was the cause of Vessantara’s banishment, in the Northern accounts this is, apparently, identified with the peacock (mayura) that brought water from the rock. But the subject need not be pursued farther in this place; it is sufficient to note the fact that many of the stories found in the Northern legends are somehow or other localised in this pleasant district of Udyana, Sung-yun, after reaching so far as Peshawar and Nagarahara, returned to China in the year A.D. 521.