Buddhist records of the Western world (Xuanzang)
by Samuel Beal | 1884 | 224,928 words | ISBN-10: 8120811070
This is the English translation of the travel records of Xuanzang (or, Hiuen Tsiang): a Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled to India during the seventh century. This book recounts his documents his visit to India and neighboring countries, and reflects the condition of those countries during his time, including temples, culture, traditions and fest...
Chapter 7 - Country of Mo-t’u-lo (Mathura)
Note: Mathurā is situated on the Yamunā, in the ancient śūrasenaka district.[1]
The kingdom of Mo-t'u-lo is about 5000 li in circuit. The capital is 20 li round. The soil is rich and fertile, and fit for producing grain (sowing and reaping). They give principal care to the cultivation of 'An-mo-lo (trees), which grow in clusters[2] like forests. These trees, though called by one name, are of two kinds; the small species, the fruit of which, when young, is green, and becomes yellow as it ripens; and the great species, the fruit of which is green throughout its growth.
This country produces a fine species of cotton fabric and also yellow gold. The climate is warm to a degree. The manners of the people are soft and complacent. They like to prepare secret stores of religious merit.[3] They esteem virtue and honour learning.
There are about twenty saṅghārāmas with 2000 priests or so. They study equally the Great and the Little Vehicles. There are five Deva temples, in which sectaries of all kinds live.
There are three stūpas built by Aśoka-rāja. There are very many traces[4] of the four past Buddhas here. There are also stūpas to commemorate the remains of the holy followers of Sākya Tathāgata, to wit, of śāriputra (She-li-tseu), of Mudgalaputra (Mo-te-kia-lo-tseu), of Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra (Pu-la-na-meï-ta-li-yen-ni-fo-ta-lo), of Upāli (Yeu-po-li), of ānanda (O-nan-t'o), of Rāhula (Lo-hu-lo), of Mañjuśrī (Man-chu-shi-li), and stūpas of other Bodhisattvas. Every year during the three months in which long fasts are observed,[5] and during the six fast-days of each month, the priests resort to these various stūpas and pay mutual compliments; they make their religious offerings, and bring many rare and precious objects for presents. According to their school they visit the sacred object (figure) of their veneration. Those who study the Abhidharma honour śāriputra; those who practise meditation honour Mudgalaputra; those who recite the sūtras honour Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra;[6] those who study the Vinaya reverence Upāli. All the Bhikṣunīs honour ānanda, the śrāmaṇeras[7] honour Rāhula; those who study the Great Vehicle reverence the Bodhisattvas. On these days they honour the stūpas with offerings. They spread out (display) their jewelled banners; the rich (precious) coverings (parasols) are crowded together as network; the smoke of incense rises in clouds; and flowers are scattered in every direction like rain; the sun and the moon are concealed as by the clouds which hang over the moist valleys. The king of the country and the great ministers apply themselves to these religious duties with zeal.[8]
To the east of the city about 5 or 6 li we come to a mountain saṅghārāma.[9] The hill-sides are pierced (widened) to make cells (for the priests). We enter it[10] through a valley, as by gates. This was constructed by the honourable Upagupta.[11] There is in it a stūpa containing the nail-parings of the Tathāgata.
To the north of the saṅghārāma, in a cavern (or between two high banks), is a stone house about 20 feet high and 30 feet wide. It is filled with small wooden tokens (slips) four inches long.[12] Here the honourable Upagupta preached; when he converted a man and wife, so that they both arrived at (confronted) the fruit of Arhatship, he placed one slip (in this house). He made no record of those who attained this condition if they belonged to different families or separate castes (tribes).
Twenty-four or five li to the south-east of the stone house there is a great dry marsh, by the side of which is a stūpa. In old days the Tathāgata walked to and fro in this place. At this time a monkey holding (a pot of) honey offered it to Buddha. Buddha hereupon ordered him to mingle it with water, and to distribute it everywhere among the great assembly.[13] The monkey, filled with joy, fell into a deep hole and was killed. By the power of his religious merit he obtained birth as a man.
To the north of the lake not very far, in the midst of a great wood, are the traces of the four former Buddhas walking to and fro. By the side are stūpas erected to commemorate the spots where śāriputra, Mudgalaputra, and others, to the number of 1250 great Arhats, practised samādhi and left traces thereof. The Tathāgata, when in the world, often traversed this country preaching the law. On the places where he stopped there are monuments (trees or posts) with titles on them.
Going north-east 500 li or so, we come to the country of Sa-t'a-ni-shi-fa-lo (Sthāneśvara).
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Mathurā, on the Yamunā, in the ancient śūrasenaka district, lat. 27° 28' N., long. 77°41' E. For a description of the Buddhist remains discovered in the neighbourhood of this city, see Cunningham, Archæol. Surv. of India, vol. i. pp. 231 ff., and vol. iii. p. 13 ff.; Growse's Mathurā (2d ed.), pp. 95-116; Ind. Ant., vol. vi. pp. 216 f. It is the Methora of Arrian (Ind., c. 8) and Pliny (H. N., lib. vi. c. 19, s. 22), and the Modoura hê tôn theôn of Ptolemy (lib. vii. c. 1, 49). Conf. Lassen, I. A., vol. i. p. 158; Bṛīh. Saṃh., iv. 26, xvi. 17; Pāṇini, iv. 2, 82; Burnouf, Intr., pp. 130, 336.
[2]:
I have translated the phrase ka-chin, "in clusters;" literally it would be "family clusters." The Amala or āmalaka is a kind of Myrobalan, Emblica officinalis, Gaertn. (Petersb. Dict.) or Phyllanthus emblica (Wilson).
[3]:
The phrase in the text denotes that the merit acquired is mysterious or for the future world.
[4]:
"Bequeathed traces;" not necessarily foot-marks, but any mark or trace.
[5]:
The 1st, 5th, and 9th month—Julien.
[6]:
A native of śūrpāraka, in Western India, for whom see Burnouf, Introd., pp. 426, 503, Lotus, p. 2; Ind. Ant., vol. xi. pp. 236, 294; Hardy, Man. Buddh., pp. 58, 267 f.; Beal, Catena, pp. 287, 344; Edkins, Chin. Buddh., p. 290; Asiat. Res., vol. xx. pp. 61, 427.
[7]:
Those not yet fully ordained; or, literally, those who have not yet taken on them all the rules, i.e., of the Pratimoksha. The śrāmaṇeras, or young disciples (novices), are referred to; they are called anupasampanna, not fully ordained. See Childers' Pali Dict. sub voc.
[8]:
Literally, "prepare good (fruit) by their zeal (careful attention)."
[9]:
This passage is obscure and unsatisfactory. In the first place, the bearing from the city must be wrong, as the river Jamnā washes the eastern side of the city for its whole length. If west be substituted for east, we are told by General Cunningham (Arch. Survey of India, vol. iii. p. 28) that the Chaubāra mounds, about one mile and a half from the town in that direction, have no hollows such as Hiuen Tsiang describes. If north be substituted for east, the Katrā mound is not a mile from the town. But in the second place, the Chinese text is obscure. I do not think we can translate "yih shan kia lan"—literally "one-mountain-saṅghārāma" —by "a saṅghārāma situated on a mountain." There is the same phrase used in connection with the Tāmasavana convent (supra, p. 174). I have supposed that "shan" in that passage is a misprint. General Cunningham remarks (Archæol. Survey, vol. xiv. p. 56), that Hiuen Tsiang compares this monastery to a mountain: if this were so, the text would be intelligible; but I can find no such statement. If the text is not corrupt, the most satisfactory explanation I can offer is that the mounds which seem to abound in the neighbourhood of Mathurā (and also the high mound at Sultānpur) had been used by the early Buddhist priests as "mountain-convents," that is, the mounds had been excavated, as the sides of mountains were, for dwelling-places. It is possible, also, to make "yi shan" a proper name for Ekaparvata; the passage would then read "5 or 6 li to the east of the city is the Ekaparvataka monastery."
[10]:
The word used in the text (yin) favours another rendering, viz., "the valley being the gates."
[11]:
Upagupta (Yu-po-kiu-to, in Chinese Kin-hu, and in Japanese Uvakikta), a śūdra by birth, entered on a monastic life when seventeen years old, became an Arhat three years later, and conquered Māra in a personal contest. He laboured in Mathurā as the fourth patriarch. (Eitel, Handbook. s. voc.) The personal contest alluded to is related fully as an Avadāna by Aśvaghosha in his sermons. Māra found Upagupta lost in meditation, and placed a wreath of flowers on his head. On returning to consciousness, and finding himself thus crowned, he entered again into samādhi, to see who had done the deed. Finding it was Māra, he caused a dead body to fasten itself round Māra's neck. No power in heaven or earth could disentangle it. Finally Māra returned to Upagupta, confessed his fault, and prayed him to free him from the corpse. Upagupta consented on condition that he (Māra) would exhibit himself under the form of Buddha "with all his marks." Māra does so, and Upagupta, overpowered by the magnificence of the (supposed) Buddha, falls down before him in worship. The tableau then closes amid a terrific storm. Upagupta is spoken of as "a Buddha without marks" (Alakshaṇako Buddhaḥ).—Burnouf, Introd., p. 336, n. 4. See also Fo-sho-hing-tsan king, p. xii. He is not known to the Southern school of Buddhism. He is made a contemporary of Aśoka by the Northern school, and placed one hundred years after the Nirvāṇa. Conf. Edkins, Chin. Buddhism, pp. 67-70; Lassen, Ind. Alt., vol. ii. p. 1201.
[12]:
Literally, "four-inch wooden tokens fill up its interior." But according to another account (Wong pūh, §177), the tokens or rods were used at the cremation of Upagupta.
[13]:
Mr. Growse would identify this spot with Damdama mound near Sarai Jamālpur, "at some distance to the south-east of the katra, the traditional site of ancient Mathurā."—Growse's Mathurā (2d ed.), p. 100; Cunningham, Arch. Sur. Rep., vol. i. p. 233. The legend of the monkey is often represented in Buddhist sculptures (see Ind. Ant., vol. ix. p. 114). In this translation I follow Julien. The literal rendering is, "Buddha ordered a water-mingling everywhere around the great assembly." The "great assembly" is the saṃghā or congregation, generally represented as 1250 in number. Probably the verb "shi" is understood, "to give it everywhere," etc.