Huen Tsang

During the reign of Emperor Harsha, the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang) visited India. He returned to China and wrote a detailed account of India during Harsha's reign in his book "Si-yu-ki," or "Record of the Western Countries." His description is widely regarded as the most reliable source of information about India's administrative, social, and cultural conditions at the time. His account of India, on the other hand, is not entirely trustworthy. It's a little confusing at times, but mostly it's biassed because Hiuen Tsang used his description to glorify Buddhism and Harsha as a follower of it.

 

Hiuen Sang was born in Guoshi Town Luozhou (near present-day Luoyang, Henan) in 600 A.D. and died in China in 664 A.D. Hiuen Sang was the youngest of four children, and his family had a reputation for erudition for generations. Before converting to Buddhism, he received a classical education. He left for India in 629, troubled by discrepancies in sacred texts, to study religion at its source.

 

In 633, he crossed Central Asia on foot and arrived in India. He studied in India's famous Nalanda monastery. Hiuen Sang visited Assam (Kamarupa) in 642-43 A.D. during his time in India. He had attended King Bhaskar Varman's court during his visit to Kamarupa.

 

The western border of the Kamarupa kingdom was until the Karatoya river, and the eastern border was at Dikkaravasini, according to his book (Presently in Sadiya). He also mentioned that Buddhism in Assam was not widely practised in Kamrupa at the time, as well as the jackfruit and coconut. Hiuen Sang has testified to the greatness of this kingdom and its ruler in his accounts. In his book, he wrote a lot about those days in Assam.

 

Harsavardhana then invited the Buddhist scholar Bhaskar Varman and his friend to his kingdom. Hieun Tsang was accompanied to Kanauj by Bhaskar Varman, who was greeted with a rousing welcome.

 

Tang China and the Gokturks were at war in AD 627, and Tang Emperor Taizong had banned foreign travel. Hiuen Tsang managed to escape the empire in 629 by persuading some Buddhist guards at Yumen Pass to let him pass through Liangzhou (Gansu) and Qinghai. He crossed the Gobi Desert to Hami City (then Kumul), then went west to Tian Shan.

 

He met the king of Turpan, a Buddhist, in AD 630, who helped him prepare for his journeys. His painting ‘journey to the west' (Si-Yu-Ki) depicted China's hottest mountain, the Flaming Mountains in Turpan. While travelling west, Hiuen Tsang eluded robbers and arrived in Karasahr (an ancient Silk Road town). He then travelled to Kucha's non-Mahayana monasteries.

 

He travelled through Central Asia (covering Kyrgyzstan, Tashkent, Samarkand in Uzbekistan). He also passed through the Iron Gate and the Pamir Mountain (a mountain range that runs through Central Asia, South Asia, and East Asia, where the Himalayas meet the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush).

 

He went on to Termez and the Amu Darya (a river in Central Asia and Afghanistan), where he met over a thousand Buddhist monks. Upon his arrival in Afghanistan, he visited a number of Buddhist sites and relics, including the Nava Vihara, the world's westernmost vihara (as described by Hiuen Tsang).

 

He met the monk Dharma Simha in Afghanistan and discovered over 3,000 non-Mahayana monks, including Prajnakara, with whom Hiuen Tsang studied early Buddhist scriptures. He also got his hands on the important Mahavibhasa text, which he later translated into Chinese.

 

Hiuen Tsang travelled to Central Afghanistan with Prajnakara and saw dozens of non-Mahayana monasteries as well as two large Bamiyan Buddhas carved out of the rockface.

 

Resuming their journey, they arrived in Kabul, where they discovered over 100 monasteries and 6000 monks, the majority of whom were Mahayana.

 

Xuanzang arrived in Gandhara (then the north-west Indian subcontinent), which is now Pakistan and Afghanistan, in AD 630. He met the first Jains and Hindus he would meet on his journey here. He saw various Stupas on his way out of Adinapur (now Jalalabad in Afghanistan), crossed the Khyber Pass, and arrived in Purushapura, the capital of Gandhara (Now Peshawar in Pakistan). He came across the Kanishka Stupa here.

 

He crossed Swat Valley and arrived in Uddayana, where he saw 1,400-year-old monasteries that once housed 18,000 monks. He crossed the Indus River at Hund and arrived in Taxila, on his way to Burner Valley and Shahbaz Grahi. Due to fighting among local rulers, Hiuen Tsang discovered most of the Sangharamas (temples and monasteries) in Taxila ruined and desolate.

When Xuanzang arrived in Kashmir in AD 631, he discovered over 100 monasteries and over 5,000 monks. Hiuen Tsang spent 14 months with Vinita Prabha, 4 months with Candravarman, and “a winter and half a spring” with Jaya Gupta between AD 632 and early 633, writing about the Fourth Buddhist Council and studying with various monks.

 

Xuanzang travelled to Chiniot and Lahore before arriving in Matipura in AD 634. (known as Mandawar today near Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh). Xuanzang studied under Mitrasena at Matipura Monastery. Jalandhar in Punjab, Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, Bairat in Rajasthan, and Mathura in Uttar Pradesh are among the places he visited in India. Despite being a hindu-dominated city at the time, Mathura had 2,000 monks from both major Buddhist branches.

 

Xuanzang travelled south to Kannauj, the grand capital of the northern Indian King Harsha Vardhan's empire, crossing the rivers Yamuna, Shrughna, and Ganges. Hiuen Tsang saw 100 monasteries with 10,000 monks (both Mahayana and non-Mahayana) in this area, and was impressed by King Harsha's support for both scholarship and Buddhism. He studied early Buddhist scriptures in the city for a while.

 

Givishan (Kashipur), Ayodhaya, the home of the Yogacara school, and Koshambi were among the cities Xuanzang visited during Harsha's reign in AD 636. He then travelled north to Uttar Pradesh's Shravasti and then to Nepal's Terai. Kapilavastu was his final stop before arriving in Lumbini (the birthplace of Buddha). Hiuen Tsang left Lumbini in the year 637 and travelled to Kushinagar, Sarnath, Varanasi, Vaishali, Patiputra (Patna), and Bodh Gaya. He also paid a visit to Bhagalpur's Champa Monastery.

 

He studied for about five years at Nalanda, the great Indian university in Bihar at the time. During his time at Nalanda, Hiuen Tsang studied logic, grammar, Sanskrit, and the Yogacara school of Buddhism. Xuanzang met the venerable Silabhadra at Nalanda (expert of yogchara teaching and personal teacher of Hiuen Tsang). Xuanzang discovered ten commentaries on Vasubandhu while studying Buddhism in India at Nland University. When writing his own detailed explanation of the Triik-vijaptimtrat, which became the Cheng Weishi Lun, he drew on these commentaries, particularly the commentary of Dharmapla. Hiuen Tsang's great philosophical treatise, the Cheng Weishi Lun, is "the fruit of seven centuries of Indian Buddhist thought."

 

Hiuen Tsang travelled from Nalanda to Bangladesh, where he discovered 20 monasteries with over 3,000 monks studying both the Hinayana and Mahayana. He found over 700 Mahayana monks from all over East India at the Vasibha Monastery. He then visited viharas in Amravati and Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh (then Andhradesa). He studied the texts of the ‘Abhidhamma Pitaka' in Amravati. He continued his journey to Kanchi, the Pallavas' imperial capital and a strong Buddhist centre. He visited Nasik, Ajanta, Malwa, Multan, and Pravata before returning to Nalanda.

 

Xuanzang travelled east to the ancient city of Pragjyotishpura in the kingdom of Kamarupa at the invitation of Assamese king Kumar Bhaskar Varman (now Guwahati). He visited Sylhet (a modern city in Bangladesh) before going to Kamarupa and gave a detailed account of the culture and people of Sylhet.

 

Hiuen Tsang was escorted back to Kannauj at the request of King Harshavardhana to attend a great Buddhist Assembly. Neighboring kings, Buddhist monks, Brahmans, and Jains all attended the meeting. Hiuen Tsang was also invited by King Harsha to the Kumbh Mela in Prayag, where he witnessed King Harsha's generous gift-giving to the poor. The king then gave him a grand farewell.

 

After travelling through the Khyber Pass, Hindu Kush, Kashgar, Khotan, and Dunhuang, Xuanzang returned to China and arrived in Chang'an on the 7th day of the first month of AD 645, after a 16-year journey.

 

Xuanzang retired to a monastery and devoted his time to translating Buddhist texts until his death in Yuhua Palace in AD 664 on February 5th (presently Tongchuan, Shaanxi).