Hui Chao
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Hui Chao (704–787) was a Korean Buddhist monk from Silla, one of Korea's Three Kingdoms. He is primarily remembered for his account of his travels in medieval India, the Wang Ocheonchukguk Jeon.
Variants of name
Life
Hyecho studied esoteric Buddhism in Tang China, initially under Śubhakarasiṃha and then under the famous Indian monk Vajrabodhi who praised Hyecho as "one of six living persons who were well-trained in the five sections of the Buddhist canon."
On the advice of his Indian teachers in China, he set out for India in 723 to acquaint himself with the language and culture of the land of the Buddha.
Works
During his journey of India, Hyecho wrote a travelogue in Chinese named the Memoir of a Pilgrimage to the Five Kingdoms of India (往五天竺國傳, Wang Ocheonchukguk Jeon).
The travelogue reveals that Hyecho, after arriving by sea in India headed to the Indian Kingdom of Magadha (present-day Bihar), then moved on to visit Kushinagar and Varanasi. However Hyecho's journey did not end there and he continued north, where he visited Lumbini (present-day Nepal), Kashmir, the Arabs.[1] Hyecho left India following the Silk Road towards the west, via Agni or Karasahr,[2] to China where the account ends in 729 CE.
He referred to three kingdoms lying to the northeast of Kashmir which were "under the suzerainty of the Tibetans…. The country is narrow and small, and the mountains and valleys very rugged. There are monasteries and monks, and the people faithfully venerate the Three Jewels. As to the kingdom of Tibet to the East, there are no monasteries at all and the Buddha's teaching is unknown; but in [these above-mentioned] countries the population consists of Hu, therefore they are believers."[3] Rizvi goes on to point out that this passage not only confirms that in the early eighth century the region of modern Ladakh was under Tibetan suzerainty, but that the people were of non-Tibetan stock.
It took Hyecho approximately four years to complete his journey. The travelogue contains much information on local diet, languages, climate, cultures, and political situations.
It is mentioned that Hyecho witnessed the decline of Buddhism in India. He also found it quite interesting to see the cattle roaming freely around cities and villages.
The travelogue was lost for many years until a fragment of it was rediscovered by Paul Pelliot in the Mogao Caves in China in 1908 and was subsequently translated into different languages over the years. The original fragment is now in France.
Account of Korean Buddhist Hui Chao
Buddha Prakash[4] mentions .... [p.130]: The Panjab became independent under a ruling house with its capital at Jullundur. In the first quarter of the-eighth century, the Korean pilgrim Hui Ch’ao (704–787) toured through this country and noted that its king had 300 war-elephants and lived at a city which he built on hill side. His account shows that, this king of Jullundur was an important power in North India, but the kings of Kashmira and Middle India frequently invaded and annexed his territory forcing him to retire to the hill retreat. One drawback of this kingdom, according to him, was the dearth and scarcity of horses, the king having only 100 and the chiefs three to five. This may be due to the fact that the sources of horse supply were cut in the north by the Turki Shahis and in the west by the Muslim invaders of Sind as well as by the king of Middle India Yashovarman, who had conquered and controlled Rajasthan and Hariyana, as Vakpati states in his Gaudavaho.
The Korean pilgrim states that the kings of Kashmira and Middle India frequently invaded and annexed the territory of the kingdom of Jullundur. The king of Kashmira at that time was Chandrapida (713-722) of the Naga or Karkota dynasty, who also possessed a force of 300 elephants according to that pilgrim, and the king of Middle India, having his capital at Ke-na-chi-tzta (Kanauj), was Yashovarman, about whom he writes as follows ;
- “The territory of this Central Indian king is very broad, the inhabitants here are populous. The king possesses 900 elephants, the rest of great chiefs, each possesses two to three hundred elephants. The king himself often led troops
- [p.131] in battles, frequently fought with other rulers and the Central Indian king is always victorious” (Fujita Toyohaohi, Hui-Ch'ao wong wu-t'ien-chu-kuo chuan chien-shih, p. 10) translated by Jan Yun-hua, ‘Some Fresh Reflections on Yashovarman of Kanauj and Muktapida of Kashmira, Journal of Indian History, Vol. XLV (April 1967.)
This king, called Yi-sha-fu-mo, is reported to have sent one Bhadanta, named Po-ta-hsin (Bhaṭṭasena ?) to the court of the Tang in China between November 4 and December 3, 731 A.D. with presents of local products. The Gaudavaho represents him as a conqueror of the whole of India.
Yashovarman followed a vigorous policy in regard to the Panjab also. The Gaudavaho (verse 484) refers to his conquest of Rajasthan (Marudesha), and Hariyana (Shrikantha-Kurukshetra). Hui Ch’ao mentions his frequent invasions of the kingdom of Jullundur and annexations of its territory and the Nalanda Inscription (Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XX, pp.37-46) suggests his conquest of Western Panjab after which he appointed a governor with the title of Udicipati (lord of the north) and mārgapati (warden of the marches) there. This Udicipati-mārgapati is called pratita-tikina (one who has rivalled or excelled the tikin) showing that he took arms against the Turki Shahi rulers of the North-West. The discovery of Yashovarman’s coin in the Manikyala stapa also indicates his influence over that region. In spite of a clash of interests over the Panjab, particularly the kingdom of Jullundur, Yashovarman maintained workably good relations with the kings of Kashmira, obviously to stem and stave off the menace of the Tibetans who were pressing on Baltistan. This is clear from the account of an embassy under Bhadanta Wu-li-to sent by Lalitaditya Muktapida, who came to the throne of Kashmira after his brother Tarapida in 726, to the court of the Tang emperor Hiuen-Tsung on May 10, 733. The Hsin Tang-slut (New History of the T’ang Dynasty) states that the envoy of Kashmira presented a memorial to the Chinese emperor conveying the following message of Lalitaditya:
- “I, an humble subject of Your Majesty, along with the king of Central India, control the five principal routes of communication of Tibet having fought against the Tibetans with constant victories. If Your Majesty, the Heavenly Khan, will despatch the Imperial armies to Po-lu (Baltistan), I
- [p.132] would be able to supply food to two hundred thousand soldiers. Moreover, there is a dragon pool in the country named Mo-ho-poto-mo ( Mahapadma). I wish to build a memorial building for Your Majesty, the Heavenly Khan. I, therefore, pray for an Imperial appointment by proclamation”.
See also
References
- ↑ Yang Han-sung; et al., eds. (1984), Hye Ch'o Diary: A Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India, Fremont: Jain Publishing Co., ISBN 978-0-89581-024-3, pp. 52-58.
- ↑ Sen, Surendranath (1956), India through Chinese Eyes, Sir William Meyer Endowment Lectures, Madras: University of Madras.p. 186.
- ↑ (Petech, The Kingdom of Ladakh, p. 10), Rizvi (1996), p. 56.
- ↑ Evolution of Heroic Tradition in Ancient Panjab, XII. The Guard on the North Western Frontier,p.130-132
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