L. A. Waddell — Upaguptcc\ 
[No. 1, 
following biographical account the details wliere not otherwise stated 
are taken from the original Tibetan text of Taranatlia. 
Upagupta is said to have been the son of one Gupta, a perfume- 
seller 1 of Benares, 2 3 4 * (or ‘Chali’ 8 or Mathura; 41 ; and he entered the 
Buddhist order at the age of seventeen, 6 “ one hundred ye ars after the 
Nirvana of the Blessed one (Qfikya Muni).” 6 This date is given 
according to the same generally consistent chronology of the Northern 
Buddhists which also places the great A 9 oka at one hundred years after 
the Nirvana, 7 and which knows of no second A^oka or the Kala^oka 
of Ceylonese tradition. 
He was converted by the arahat Ya^as or Yasheka, who seems to 
be the same as the president of the council of Vaicali, which as both 
northern and southern accounts agree was held one hundred and ten 
years after the Nirvana. 
Tin ee years after entering the order, he attained Arahatship, of 
an exceptionally high order, becoming ‘ a Buddha without the marks ,’ 
(Alaksanak5 Buddhah) ; 8 and he converted many to the faith. 
Succeeding to the patriarchate of the Buddhist Church on the 
death of (Janavasika, the third patriarch, in Campa (Bhagalpur) “he 
crossed the sunken Ganges (or * the Bargal river ’) to Yideha (Bettiah) 
in western Tirahuti (Tirhut) and went to the monastery erected by 
the householder Vasusara.” After a short stay there he proceeded to 
Mt. Gandlia 9 10 II where he made many converts. Thence he went to 
“Mathura in the north-west of the Middle Country” and resided at 
the monastery on the top of Mount ‘ Shir a ’ (Qira or U^ira or Uru- 
munda L0 or Murundha u ) founded during the time of the patriarch 
(Janavasika, by the two chief merchants of the place Nata and Bhatta. 12 
While here, he converted crowds of people who had been beguiled 
1 Rockhill’s Life, Sfc., p. 164. Burnouf’s Intro., p. 336. Sckiefner, his trans¬ 
lation of Taranatha has omitted the word Gupta which occurs in the Tibetan text. 
2 Der Weise und der Tlvor., 47 chap. 
3 So a Chinese gentleman reads for me the Chinese word in Eitel’s Dictionary , 
p. 187, and which Mr. Eitel renders ‘ Pataliputra.’ 
4 Burnouf’s Intro., 336. 
6 Beal’s Si-yu-ki, I, p. 182 n. 
8 Rock hill's Life, 8fc., p. 164. Baniyo Naujio’s History of Japanese Buddhist 
Sects, 24. 
I Beal’s Si-yu-ki, II, 85, and Burnouf’s Intro., 330. 
8 Cf. also Burnonf’s Intro., 337 and n. 1: Rockhill’s Life, 8fc., 164. 
9 Or Gandhara, or Gandamadana. 
10 Conf. also Burnouf’s Intro., 337. 
II Rockhill’s Life, ffc , 164. 
12 Conf. also Rockhill and Burnouf as above. 
