6.2   Begram  and  a  Reexamination  of  Hsüan-Tsang's  Kapisa

6.2.1 The Connecting of Hsüan-Tsang’s Kapisa to Begram

Born in the beginning of the seventh century CE in the province of Hunan, China, Hsüan-tsang was an ordained Buddhist priest at the age of twenty.  He was only twenty-six years old when, in 629 CE, he began his travels in order to visit places connected to the Buddha's life and,  dissatisfied with the available Chinese translations,  to bring back core Buddhist texts.  By the time he returned in 645 CE,  his journey had taken him overland from China through Central Asia, down to India and back.  Hsüan-tsang did not return to China empty-handed:  he is said to have brought back relics of the Buddha and several statues of the Buddha made of gold, silver and sandalwood,  as well as hundreds of sacred Buddhist texts (Beal 1906:  xx).   On his return, an account of his journey  was compiled and written as the Ta-T'ang-Si-Yu-Ki or "Records of the Western Lands of the Great Tang Period", ^[1]   and copies of which were circulated (Watters 1904: 1).   In addition, there exists an account of the life of Hsüan-tsang which, as it adds many details not mentioned in Hsüan-Tsang's own account,  can be considered,  albeit with the several cautions discussed herein,  as a supplement to the Records of the Western Lands (Beal 1911; Li Yung-hsi 1959).

One of the areas in this long journey described by Hsüan-tsang is the region of Kapisa (Beal 1906:  54-68).  Hsüan-Tsang's description is a relatively long one and it does not serve the purposes of this thesis to delve into the entire account.  Rather, the focus in the present context will be on certain specific aspects of his account of the region's geography and on Kushan history.

About the geography of Kapisa,  Hsüan-tsang records:

 "This country is (Ka-pi-shih)  4000 li ^[2] or so in circuit.  On the north it abuts on the Snowy Mountains, and on three sides it borders on the black ridge.  The capital of the country is 10 li or so in circuit.  It produces cereals of all sorts, and many kinds of fruit-trees.  The shen horses are bred here, and there is also the scent called Yukin ^[3] . Here also are found objects of merchandise from all parts.  The climate is cold and windy" (Beal 1906:  54).

Hsüan-tsang describes entering the region of Kapisa after traveling eastward from Fan-yen-na ^[4] -- taken to be Bamiyan -- into the narrow passages of the "Snowy Mountains" (‘those mountains whose tops are continuously covered in snow’)  and traversing the  "Black Ridge" (Beal 1906:  53).  If the identification of Fan-yen-na with Bamiyan is correct, that would place the region Hsüan-tsang identifies as Kapisa as including the larger Kabul area, which is surrounded by mountains on three sides.

Hsüan-tsang goes on to describe the social and political condition of the country:

          "The people are cruel and fierce;  their language is coarse and rude;  their marriage rites a mere intermingling of the sexes.  Their literature is like that of the Tukhara ^[5] country,  but the customs,  common language,  and rules of behavior are somewhat different......The king is Kshattriya by caste......he has brought into subjection the neighboring countries,  some ten of which he rules.  He cherishes his people with affection,  reverences much the three precious objects of worship.  Every year he makes a silver figure of Buddha eighteen feet high.......he gives alms to the poor and the wretched and relieves the bereaved.

          There are about 100 convents in this country and some 6000 priests.  They mostly study the rules of the Great Vehicle.  The stupas and sangharamas are of an imposing height, and are built on high level spots,  from which they may be seen from every side,  shining in their grandeur." (Beal 1906:  54).

The account of Kapisa in the Life of Hsüan-tsang adds:

          "When (Hiuen-Tsiang) was about to arrive at the capital,  the king and all the priests went forth from the city to escort him.  There are some hundred or so religious foundations,  the residents in which had sharp words together,  each convent wishing to induce the Master to stop there". (Beal 1911:  54).

From the above passages,  the region of Kapisa seems to have been a powerful independent kingdom that directly ruled over vassal states,  the economy of which may have been based upon a combination of agriculture and trade.  It is also apparent from these passages that Hsüan-tsang did not hold a very high opinion of the lay population or the social customs he encountered.  More significantly for purposes of this discussion,  he was not inclined to describe the lay world in great detail.   In this regard it must be recalled that this was a pilgrimage,  a journey whose defining context was religious.   Hsüan-tsang was primarily interested in the extent to which Buddhism had penetrated and prevailed in the regions he traversed,  and in the forms it took there.  In the passage immediately above, for example,  he fails to elaborate on the regions and the peoples held in subjugation to the king or on the king himself, who remains unnamed, even though the Life of Hsüan-tsang suggests that Hsüan-tsang actually met the ruler; on the other hand, he describes in some detail the extent to which this king upheld Buddhist ideals.

Likewise, the description by Hsüan-tsang of the ancient capital of Kapisa is incidental to his description of a Buddhist monastery:

          "To the east of the capital 3 or 4 li,  at the foot of a mountain in the north is a great sangharama with 300 or so priests in it.  These belong to the Little Vehicle and adopt its teaching.

          According to tradition,  Kanishka Raja of Gandhara in old days having subdued all the neighboring provinces and brought into obedience people of distant countries,  he governed by his army a wide territory,  even to the east of the T'sung-ling mountains.  Then the tribes who occupy the territory to the west of the river,  fearing the power of his arms,  sent hostages to him.  Kanishka-raja having received the hostages,  treated them with singular attention,  and ordered for them separate establishment for the cold and hot weather;  during the cold they resided in India and its different parts,  in the summer they came back to Kapisa,  in the autumn and spring they remained in the kingdom of Gandhara;  and so he founded sangharamas for the hostages according to the three seasons.  This convent is the one they occupied during the summer,  and it was built for that purpose.   Hence the pictures of these hostages on the walls;  their features,  and clothing,  and ornament are like the people of the Eastern Hia (China).......To the south of the eastern door  of the hall of the Buddha belonging to this sangharama there is a figure of the Great Spirit King;  beneath his right foot they have hollowed the earth for concealing treasures therein.  This is the treasury place of the hostages,  therefore we find this inscription,  "When the sangharama decays let men take (of the treasure) and repair it." (Beal 1906:   55-59).

In the Life of Hsüan-tsang, the monastery is actually named:

          "There was a temple belonging to the Little Vehicle,  which was named Sha-lo-kia.  The story goes that the temple was built some time ago, when the son of the Han Emperor was held as an hostage.  The priest of this temple said:  ‘Our temple was originally founded by a son of the Han Emperor,  and now, as you come from that country,  you ought first to stop with us’........." (Beal 1911:  54).

Hsüan-Tsang's passage relating a story of the Kushan king Kaniska, who reigned in the late first or early second century CE,  describes a monastery near the capital city of Kapisa.   From Beal's translation of that passage included above,  it is not clear whether the hostages and/or the Kushan emperors took up residence according to the season.  Watters's translation,  however, is more explicit on the point:

          "On the arrival of the hostages Kanishka treated them with great courtesy and provided them with different residences according to the seasons.  The winter was spent in India,  the summer in Kapisa,  and the spring and autumn in Gandhara.  At each residence a monastery was erected,  this one being at the summer residence". ^[6] (Watters 1904: 124)

Seeking a monastery to confirm Begram’s claim to be the summer residence of the Kushan, scholars found one at Shotorak ^[7] .  The plateau of Begram is  adjoined in the northeast by a small mountain called Kuh-i Pahlavan or "mountain of Heroes". At the foot of this mountain on the south bank of the Panjshir River, the ruins of Shotorak comprise the remains of a small Buddhist monastic complex. The remains at Shotorak were uncovered by a team of French archaeologists under the direction of  Jacques Meunié in 1936 and 1937 (Meunié 1942).   The monastery consisted of a number of stupas and living quarters surrounded by courtyards, and has yielded many sculptures of the Buddha as well as panels of schist, the common material used in Gandharan sculpture,  depicting Jataka stories.  The plan of the monastery recalls those of Hadda and Taxila.  It is not clear exactly when the monastery was built.  However, the Buddha images and the reliefs have been dated stylistically to the third century CE.  (Rowland 1966:  65). For most scholars, the presence of these monastic ruins at Shotorak at the foot of a moderate-size mountain at approximately the distance given by Hsüan-tsang to the east of the extensive Kushan period site of Begram was the final rod connecting Hsüan-Tsang's capital of Kapisa with the site at Begram (Fig.4a).

6.2.2 Breaking the connection of Kapisa and Begram

It is the seemingly unbroken line from Hsüan-Tsang's description of the capital to the discovery of a ‘royal’ hoard which the present analysis seeks to reexamine. Fundamental to that task is a reconsideration of the identification of the site of Begram as Hsüan-Tsang's capital of Kapisa, a reconsideration that will demonstrate a number of its components to be problematic. 

To be sure,  there existed a region of Kapisa and a city of Kapisi in ancient times.   Some coins of the Indo-Greek king Eucradites bear a legend which scholars assert refers to a city-deity of Kapisi (Whitehead 1969-70:  27-28).   In Kharosthi script, the legend reads ‘Kavisiya nagaradevada’ which, according to some scholars, should be read as ‘Kapisiya-nagara-devata’,  city-deity of Kapisi (Gupta 1989:  130;  Rosenfield 1967:  47).    Another reference is found in Pliny,  according to whom the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great,  in one of his eastern campaigns, conquered the main city "Capisa" of Capissena, located in the Hindu Kush (Beal 1906:  54,  fn. 190; Cunningham 1975:  16).  In addition,  the Bisutun inscription of the Achaemenid king Darius  makes mention of a fort at Kapishakanish where Darius' troops fought a battle against rebel armies (Chattopadhyaya 1974::  12;  Vogelsang 1992: 126-127).  Column III  53-64  at Bisutun reads:

          "Proclaims Darius, the king:  That Vahyazdâta who called himself Smerdis,  he had sent forth an army to Arachosia -  (there was ) a Persian,  Vivâna by name, my vassal,  satrap in Arachosia - against him,  and he had made one single man their chief.  Thus he had said to them:  "Go forth,  defeat Vivâna and that army which calls itself (that) of Darius,  the King!".  Afterwards that army which Vahyazdâta had sent forth against Vivâna marched off to fight a battle.  (There is) a fortress,  Kâpishâkani by name - there they fought the battle.” (Schmitt  1991:  65-66)

 Ancient Indian sources also note the existence of a Kapisa or Kapisi.   An inscription from Manikyala in the Punjab mentions a satrap of Kapisi (Raychaudhuri 1950: 443).  And the Sanskrit grammarian Panini refers to wine from the region of Kapisa,  calling the grapes grown in the area  as 'Kapisayani' (Chattopadhyaya 1974:  58). ^[8]   

Beginning with these early references,  some authors presume that the Kapishakanish of the Achaemenid inscription and the Kapisi and Capisa of the later Indian and Classical sources all refer to the same settlement (Vogelsang 1992: 196-197).  But if this is so,  Begram should be excluded as Kapisi since,  according to both extant ^[9] architectural and numismatic evidence,  the site did not yet exist during Achaemenid times ^[10] .   Of course it is possible that,  after Cyrus's destruction of the original capital Kapisi,  it was rebuilt somewhere else,  perhaps at Begram.  However,  none of the sources, including Hsüan-tsang,  is geographically specific as to the region or the capital.   Cunningham ( 1975: 16) suggests that the region of Kapisa included  Kafiristan and the Ghurband and Panjshir river valleys, and places the seventh century CE capital -- the one to which Hsüan-tsang would have referred -- near the modern town of Charikar to the north of Kabul but several miles to the west of Begram.  Beal (1906: 56 fn.) proposes that the capital was nearer the town of Ghurband, i.e. to the west of Opian and Begram.  Foucher, on the other hand,  identifies Kapisa with the area of Kabul all the way north to the Hindu Kush ranges, and as previously mentioned,  places Begram as its most important city and summer residence of the Kushan emperors (Foucher 1931:  341ff). 

In his Records of the Western Lands,  Hsüan-tsang does not describe Kapisa's royal city.  Indeed,  one of the more confusing aspects of his account is his lack of clarity over whether he is talking about the ancient Kushan royal capital or the capital at the time of his visit, or whether he is contending that they are one and the same.  Also unclear is how much, if any, of the remains of the ancient Kushan city was still visible to Hsüan-tsang.  If the accepted interpretation of the extant archaeological record of the site is accurate, then ancient Begram had been abandoned almost two centuries before Hsüan-Tsang's journey through the area.  This would suggest that the monastery supposedly founded by Kaniska for the Chinese hostages, and identified by Hsüan-tsang as still in operation, was in fact located somewhere else in the region, adjacent not to Begram but to a different seventh century capital referred to by Hsüan-tsang.

There are other problems with Hsüan-Tsang's account,  some relating in general to its use as an historical record,  others in particular to the identification of the ancient settlement at Begram.  One of the overarching concerns is with the translations of the work.  Almost all scholars have relied on Samuel Beal's extensive Buddhist Records of the Western World,  initially published in 1884,  and to a lesser extent on Thomas Watters's  translation On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India,  published in 1904-5.   For many years,  however,  there have been no critical analyses of these early English translations and no new complete translations have been published.  In his footnotes,  Beal himself acknowledges the difficulties of translating some of the early Chinese phrases and in many cases admits that he is not certain of the translations he has rendered (Beal 1906:  54-68).  To complicate matters further, Beal also indicates the existence of various Chinese versions,  stating that the 'original' text used by the French scholar M.  Julien for his translation "Vie de Hiouen Thsang"  is different from the copy Beal obtained for his translation (Beal 1906:  58, fn 203).  Watters (1904:  3) also mentions the existence of various editions which "...present considerable variations both in the texts and in the supplementary notes and explanations", and indicates that he used copies of four different editions for his translation.

In  this regard,  a scholarly review of the extant translations might be of great moment in attempting to reach some consensus on certain referent terms in Hsüan-tsang.  For example,  a clear picture of geographical terms might more closely identify the specific routes  Hsüan-tsang traveled.  Likewise,  in his passage on Kapisa,  Hsüan-tsang makes reference to flora of the region which Beal translates as "fruit trees";  in the next sentence,  the herb Yukin is taken to be curcuma by Beal and saffron by Watters.  It may be worthwhile examining the early Chinese word or character used by Hsüan-tsang and translated as "fruit tree",  to determine whether it can be broken down to a particular sort,  perhaps citrus or apple.  If,  for example,  Hsüan-Tsang's term were found more precisely to mean citrus,  the cold climate in the Hindu Kush foothill region of Begram would militate against Hsüan-Tsang's Kapisa being located there.

Another general problem with Hsüan-Tsang's record is his commingling of myth with data.  In the section of the account describing the monastery built by Kaniska for the hostages, for example, Hsüan-tsang relates:

          "Not long ago there was a petty (frontier) king of a covetous mind and of a wicked and cruel disposition;  hearing of the quantity of jewels and precious substances concealed in this convent,  he drove away the priests and began digging for them.  The King of the Spirits had on his head the figure of a parrot,  which now began to flap its wings and to utter screams.  The earth shook and quaked,  the king and his army were thrown down prostrate on the ground; after a while,  arising from the earth,  he confessed his fault and returned". (Beal 1981: 59).

Similarly,  it is difficult to assess the evidentiary value of a passage describing the Kushan king Kaniska's political endeavors in this region,  including the keeping of Chinese hostages in a monastery close to a capital,  because only a few paragraphs after this description Hsüan-tsang relates a story about Kaniska in a clearly mythologized version.  In this passage,  king Kaniska battles a Naga-raja who threatens to destroy a Buddhist religious complex:

          "The king Kanishka,  hesitating to comply [to withdraw his troops],  the dragon [Naga-raja] returned to his lake.  His voice,  like the thunderclap,  shook the earth,  and the fierce winds tore up the trees,   whilst stones and sand pelted down like rain;  the sombre clouds obscured the air,   so that the army and the horses were filled with terror.  The king then paid his adoration to the Three Precious Ones,  and sought their help,  saying, ‘My abounding merit during former births has brought about my state as king of men.  By my power I have restrained the strong and conquered the world.   But now,  by the onslaught of a dragon-beast overcome,  this verily,  is proof of  my poor merit!   Let the full power of all my merit now appear!’

          Then from his shoulders there arose a great flame and smoke.  The dragon fled,  the winds hushed,  the mists were melted,  and the clouds were scattered.  Then the king commanded each man of his army to take a stone and thus to fill up the dragon lake". (Beal 1906:  65).

The passage goes on to relate how Kaniska then rebuilt the monastery and stupa.   It is obvious that Kaniska is being heralded in this passage as a champion of Buddhism;  here,  as elsewhere,  his name is often mentioned in connection with the construction or renovation of Buddhist monuments.   Yet because of the mythical powers assigned to him in this telling,  it is difficult to determine to what extent the passage referring to the monastery built for hostages is more a reflection of the image of Kaniska as a great Buddhist king than it is a reiteration of historical detail.

There are also a number of problems in the Hsüan-tsang account particular to the question of Begram as the capital city Kapisi.  Hsüan-tsang uses phrases like "according to tradition,  Kanishka Raja.......".   We have no idea from his accounts,  however,  of the source for this  "tradition",  or of who related it to Hsüan-tsang and in what context.   Given the problems inherent in oral transmission over time,  one must take heed of the fact that Hsüan-tsang came to the region in the seventh century CE,  whereas Kaniska ruled in the late first or early second century CE.   Moreover,  to the extent that Hsüan-tsang was receiving his information first hand from local inhabitants,  he was receiving it in a foreign tongue he describes as  "coarse and rude".   The accuracy of his translations -- or, more problematic still,  of any translation he received through others -- likewise adds a compromising layer to his accounts.

Given these problems in determining what were Hsüan-Tsang's sources,  it must be considered that Hsüan-Tsang's identification of a particular monastery as the one which Kaniska constructed for the accommodation of Chinese hostages might be the result of uncritically received wisdom.   Equally,  the modern identification of the monastic complex of Shotorak near Begram as the monastery which Hsüan-tsang describes may likewise not be fully defensible.   In the first instance,  the sculptural decoration of Shotorak has been dated, on stylistic grounds,  to the third century CE.   Although such dating does not absolutely preclude that the first or second century ruler Kaniska a century earlier built the foundations of the later decorated walls at Shotorak,  it certainly casts doubt on the identification.  Further,  if the monastery which existed during Hsüan-Tsang's seventh century visit -- a great monastery with "300 or so priests in it" -- was indeed Shotorak,  why does the archaeological record of Shotorak show no post-third century CE remains?   Nor is there, to this writer's knowledge,  any archaeological evidence at Shotorak for the architectural and sculptural decoration mentioned by Hsüan-tsang,  such as the inscription which refers to a treasure hidden in the monastery,  and wall paintings of the hostages (Beal 1906: 55-59) ^[11] .   Of course,  the inscription may simply have been lost and the wall paintings may have disintegrated.   On the other hand,  we cannot even tell from Hsüan-Tsang's account -- or,  rather,  from the translation of certain versions of his account -- whether he actually saw these decorations in the monastery he mentions.  Indeed,  it is only from the secondary account of the Life of Hsüan-tsang that we are told that he visited the monastery at all:

          "The Master of the Law seeing them thus, was deeply impressed;  and as his companion,  Hwui-Sing,  Master of the Law, belonged to the school of the Little Vehicle,  to which these priests were attached,  he did not desire to live in a temple belonging to the Great Vehicle;  accordingly they went to stop at the temple made for the hostage". (Beal 1911: 54).

If, in fact,  Hsüan-tsang merely had the monastery -- that is,  some monastery -- described to him in the context of the Kaniska legend but did not independently view the inscriptions and panels described or did not delve into the relations between the legends and what he actually saw, then a fanciful conflation of different stories,  legends and places becomes a real possibility.   The point here is not utterly to discredit or dismiss Hsüan-Tsang's record,  but to indicate that its political and geographic references cannot necessarily be accepted at face value.  Rather,  when utilizing any reference in Hsüan-Tsang's account,  it becomes incumbent to separate to the extent possible his personal observations from his received information,  and to submit the actual text to as close a linguistic scrutiny as possible.  

 In addition to the account of Hsüan-tsang,  Foucher also had at his disposal when identifying Begram as Kapisi, ancient epigraphic evidence that there had existed somewhere in the region an important Kushan settlement or city known as Kapisi;  but this evidence gave no more of an indication than did Hsüan-Tsang's that Kapisi had been located on the same site as Begram.  Nor did this evidence establish that Kapisi had been,  in fact,  a royal summer residence rather than an outpost,  of greater or lesser importance,  which did not rise to the level of a summer  'capital'.

  In summary, where both epigraphic and physical remains are scarce and furnish no details regarding an ancient site,  accounts like that of Hsüan-tsang  become important tools in an attempt to reconstruct a view of past civilizations.  However,  where significant material remains exist,  as with Begram,  Hsüan-Tsang's account must be reexamined against the extant archaeological record.   Such close comparison not only leads to a better understanding of the account itself, but also to a clearer picture of the scholarship that has relied upon it in the attempt to identify the site at Begram.

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