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BUDDHIST PILGRIMS FROM CHINA TO INDIA.
JULY, 1881.]
India and close to the sea. There are about 3,500 priests in the temple at Nålanda, which is supported by revenues derived from land (villages) given by a succession of kings to the monastery."
Discovery of two Chinese Inscriptions ut Buddha Gaya.
Here I make a digression from I-tsing's narrative to notice a recent discovery. Among the rubbish left round the temple at Buddha Gayå after the completion of the works undertaken there during 1878 and the following year at the expense of the Burmese Government, Mr. Beglar of the Archeological Survey found two stones bearing inscriptions in Chinese. From a letter attached to a rubbing of the larger inscription, I gather that the stone was found under 12 feet of rubbish.
The supposition that these inscriptions, or at least the longer one, might be in some way connected with Fa-hian, led me to think that it might be desirable to direct attention to the fact, that there are records in China of other pilgrims besides Fa-hian and Hiwen Thsang, who visited India during the early centuries of our sera, and that the notices we have of them, in the work of I-tsing, though not by any means so minute or exact as those of the two just named, are yet interesting and in some respects useful for the student. I purpose therefore, after briefly alluding to the inscriptions themselves, to continue the notices of the names and journeyings of the pilgrims referred to.
The first and shorter inscription gives us the name of Chi-I, a priest of the Great Han country, presumably the writer of it. It states that Chi-I having first vowed to exhort or encourage thirty thousand men to prepare themselves by their conduct for a birth in heaven, to distribute in charity 30,000 books relating to a heavenly birth, himself to recite as many books, then, in company with others,
3 With reference to Jih-kwan mentioned by Hwai Lan (ante p. 110), it may be noted that the name is the exact Chinese equivalent of Aditya-sena. And from the inscription of Jayadeva of Nepal, A.D. 760 (vol. IX, p. 181), we learn that Adityasena king of Magadha was the grandfather of Jayadeva's mother, and if we allow 80 years to three generations, this would place Adityasena about A.D. 680-say 670-690, in perfect accordance with I-taing's allusion to him.-ED.
The head of the larger inscription stone is triangular and sculptured in three compartments. In the centre is Buddha in the Bhumisparsa múdra-that in which he at tained to Buddhahood. In each side compartment is a three
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travelled through India, and arrived at M a gadha, where he gazed upon the Diamond throne and other sacred vestiges of his religion. After this, in company with some other priests he further vowed to continue his travels through India, apparently for the same purpose. Amongst the Priests referred to, there are three named, the first Kwei-Tsê ih, the second Chi-I, the third Kwang-Fung.
Beyond this I am unable to find any sense in the inscription. The forms of the characters may possibly be as ancient as the Han dynasty. But as the inscription has nothing to do with the figures of the seven mortal Buddhas, and the Bodhisattwa Maitreya sculptured above it, I am inclined to think that the figures must have been executed after the inscription was placed in situ, and possibly much of the inscription itself erased.*
The second inscription dates from the Tienhi year of the reign of Chên Tsung of the Sung dynasty, i. e. 1022 A. D., and is to the effect that a priest H o-Yun went to Buddha Gaya with a view to worship the sacred relics of the place, and that whilst there, he carved a stone pagoda with a sarmounting pinnacle and a square base 30 paces to the north of the Bodhi Tree in honour of the 1,000 Buddhas. He would have also inscribed an entire Sútra if his fands had been sufficient, but in place of that he left behind him the record before us, which is a hymn in praise of (Udânam,) the three bodies of Buddha and the three thrones they occupy.
The three bodies are first the Nirmânakaya (fa-shin), secondly the Sambhogakaya (po-shin), and thirdly the Dharmakaya fa-shin.) In relation to the first which represents the human body,-it is described as compassionate, ready and able to deliver men from the midst of the fire. The second is the body which has appeared in various forms through countless ages, ever aiming to prepare itself for the final faced figure, probably female, with six arms holding, perhaps, vajra, sword, bow, &c. Underneath each is a human head, with three indistinctly formed objects, apparently animal heads, on one side of it, and four on the. other, seven in each case. There can be no doubt the larger ones are figures of VasudharA, the same as those drawn (though badly) in Rajendralála Mitra's Buddha Gaya, pl. xxxi. figs. 1 and 2 (see Ind. Ant. vol. IX, p. 115). The first slab is represented in the accompanying plate, which will also appear in the Jour. R. Asiat. Soc.-ED.
Dr. Bushel thinks the inscription is complete, but owing to the broken state of the characters he fails to read it.-ED.
