478 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [September, 1910 



c c 



Asvaghosa, Pitrceta, Matrceta, Durdharsa, 

 Dharmika and Subhuti. He was, on the 

 supposition of his being the same as Pitrceta, 

 born in a Brahmana family andwas convert- 

 ed to Buddhism by Deva or Arya Deva, as 

 is evident from the following story l : 



The King (Candra Gupta) built a monastery called 

 Kusumalankara, and his brother's son, King Sn-Candra, built a 

 temple of Ayalokitesvara as well as 14 chapels in Nalanda and 

 worshipped Acarya Pitrceta and Upadhyaya Rahula the junior. 

 Regarding Pitrceta it is said that in a certain eastern city 

 there was a merchant who had given his youngest daughter in 

 marriage to the family of a Brahmana named Sargha-guhya. 

 Her offspring called Krsna was siddJm of Mahadeva and by 

 his grace became a great master of the Tlrthika lores. En- 

 gaged in controversies with the Buddhist Panditas in Orissa, 

 Gauda and the Tirhoot provinces, he defeated every one of 

 them. His victories filled him with an overweening pride. 

 But his mother, who was a Buddhist, told him that the Bud- 

 dhists in the above countries were only as many as the hair 

 contained in a horse's ear, but that towards Magadha they were 

 as numerous as the hair upon the entire body of the horse. 

 He set out for Magadhabut was defeated thrice in three con- 

 troversies by Acarya Arya Deva. He was thereupon con- 

 verted to Buddhism." 



According to the Chinese pilgrim Hwen-thsang' z too, Mati- 

 citra alias A&vaghosa was a contemporary _of Deva or Arya 

 Deva. Perhaps there is a covert allusion to Arya Deva in the 

 following lines of Maticitra's letter to Kanika: — 



1ST* WfiTF™ 1 ! 





y^9*ra^prap-5^ |j 



(Maharaja-Kanika-lekha, verse 44) 



op^|^^^ 



^•pq-jj-pq-^-^rrj^.^^.^^q-^-^^y^ 



*5[Ppr^J || (Pag-sam-jon-zang, p. 91). 



1 Pag-sam-jon-zang ,p. 9i. 



2 Watters' on Yuan-Chwang, Vol 1 



