Yetgeul › Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) › Book 10

The Country of Daluopitu達羅毗荼國

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) 大唐西域記 · Xuanzang · compiled by Bianji · 646 (Tang, 20th year of the Zhenguan era) · 4 passages · 387 Chinese characters · reading time 1.5 min

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) Book 10 The record Xuanzang laid before Emperor Taizong of the Tang after seventeen years of walking through the Western Regions and India, a hundred and thirty-eight countries in all. It is the stuff from which Journey to the West was made, but what stands here is not monsters — it is the compass and the climate and the speech and the faith of one country after another. The road runs two hundred years after Faxian and eighty years before Hyecho.

達羅毗荼國周六千餘里,國大都城號建志補羅,周三十餘里。土地沃壤,稼穡豐盛,多花果,出寶物。氣序溫暑,風俗勇烈。深篤信義,高尚博識,而語言文字,少異中印度。伽藍百餘所,僧徒萬餘人,皆遵學上座部法。天祠八十餘所,多露形外道也。如來在世,數遊此國,說法度人,故無憂王於諸聖跡皆建窣堵波。

The country of Daluopitu is more than six thousand li around. The great capital city of the country is called Jianzhibuluo, and it is more than thirty li around. The land is rich and fat, and sowing and reaping are ample and full. Flowers and fruits are many, and it yields precious things. The climate is warm and hot, and the customs are brave and keen. The people are deep and firm in faith and in duty, and they hold wide knowledge in high honor. Their speech and their letters differ a little from Central India. The monasteries are more than a hundred, and the monks more than ten thousand, and all of them follow and study the Law of the Sthavira school. The temples of the gods are more than eighty, and most of the followers of other ways there go naked. While the Tathagata was in the world he often traveled in this country, spoke the Law, and carried men across, and so King Wuyou raised stupas at all the holy traces.

2The city where the bodhisattva Hufa was born

建志補羅城者,即達磨波羅菩薩本生之城。菩薩此國大臣之長子也,幼懷雅量,長而弘遠。年方弱冠,王姬下降。禮筵之夕,憂心慘淒,對佛像前殷勤祈請。至誠所感,神負遠遁,去此數百里,至山伽藍,坐佛堂中。有僧開戶,見此少年,疑其盜也,更詰問之。菩薩具懷指告,因請出家。眾咸驚異,遂允其志。王乃宣命,推求遐邇,乃知菩薩神負遠塵。王之知也,增深敬異。自染衣已,篤學精勤,令問風範,語在前記。

The city of Jianzhibuluo is the very city where the bodhisattva Damopoluo was born. The bodhisattva was the eldest son of a great minister of this country. As a child he held a fine measure of mind, and as he grew he became wide and far. He was just twenty years old when a daughter of the king was given to him in marriage. On the evening of the wedding rites his heart was heavy and bitter with care, and he faced an image of the Buddha and prayed earnestly before it. His utmost sincerity moved them, and a spirit carried him on its back and fled far away, and set him down several hundred li from that place, in a monastery in the mountains, seated in the hall of the Buddha. A monk opened the door and saw this young man, and took him for a thief and questioned him closely. The bodhisattva told him fully what was in his heart, and asked to leave his home for the way. The company was all startled and thought it strange, and in the end they granted him his purpose. The king then sent out an order and searched for him far and near, and so learned that the bodhisattva had been carried on a spirit's back far from the dust of the world. When the king knew it, his respect and his wonder grew deeper still. After he put on the dyed robe he studied earnestly and worked with a fine mind, and his good questions and his bearing and his ways are written down in the earlier record.

Interlinear notes 1

唐言護法。

In the language of the Tang it is Hufa.

3The great monastery south of the city

城南不遠有大伽藍,國中聰睿同類萃止。有窣堵波,高百餘尺,無憂王所建也。如來在昔於此說法,摧伏外道,廣度人天。其側則有過去四佛坐及經行遺跡之所。

Not far south of the city there is a great monastery, where the clever and wise men of the country all gather and stay. There is a stupa more than a hundred feet high, raised by King Wuyou. Long ago the Tathagata spoke the Law here, broke down the followers of other ways, and carried men and gods across in great numbers. Beside it there is the place with the traces left where the four Buddhas of the past sat and walked.

自此南行三千餘里,至秣羅矩咤國。

From here one goes south for more than three thousand li and comes to the country of Moluojuzha.

Interlinear notes 1

亦謂枳秣羅國,南印度境。

It is also called the country of Zhimoluo. It is the border of South India.