Indian Antiquary Vol 09

SR No.: 032501
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 398
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 23

JANUARY, 1880.]
CHINESE ACCOUNTS OF INDIA.
17
The king of India was filled with astonish- ment, and cried out-What! there still exist such men on the shores of the most distant seas ? Thereupon he invited them to visit the interior of his kingdom.
In the suite of this ambassador, he sent two officers, Chin-song and another, to present Fan-chen and Su-we with four horses from the Yu ei-chi country, as a token of recognition. They arrived only at the end of four years. At this time, the emperor of the U dynasty had sent Khang-thaï, with the title of Chong-lang, on a mission to the kingdom of Fu-nan. Upon meeting with Chin-song and his companion, he questioned them about the customs of India. It is, they replied, a country where the Buddhist law flourishes. The people are upright and honest, and the soil is very fertile. The king's name is Meu-lun"; and the capital in which he resides is surrounded by walls. The rivers and streams are divided into a great number of smaller streams which run in canals and ditches and fall into a large river. The palaces are decorated with beautiful carved workio, in the streets and the public places, the houses, the pavilions, and raised galleries is heard the sound of little bells or of the drum and melodious songs, one sees rich clothing, and breathes the perfume of flowers.
Merchants arrive there by land and sea, and gather in great numbers offering, according to the public taste, skilfully wrought vessels and curiosities of very great value.
Right and left are sixteen large kingdoms,
namely Kia-weï (Kapila), She-weï (Śrâvasti) Y e-po, ao etc.
Several kingdoms, although two or three thousand lis from Thien-chu, yield obedience to it, because they consider that this kingdom is situated in the middle of the universe.
In the fifth year of the Yuen-kia period in the reign of We n-ti, of the Song dynasty (in the year 428 A. D.), Yu ei-'a ï (that is to say
loved by the moon,'in Sanskrit-Chandrapriya), king of Kia-pili (Kapila) in Thien-chu," sent an ambassador to present a letter to the emperor, and to offer him a ring set with diamonds, a bracelet of pure gold, along with other valuable articles, and two parrots, one red and the other white.
In the second year of the Thai-shi period, in the reign of Ming-ti (466 A.D.), he sent again an ambassador to pay tribute. The emperor conferred on him the title of Kien-weï-tsiang-kiun (literally the general who establishes authority').*
At the beginning of the Thien-kien period, in the reign of Wu-ti of the Liang dynasty (502 A.D.), Kioto, (Gupta,) king of India, sent Cha-lo-ta, with the title of Chang-shi, to present the emperor with a letter, 3 a spitoon of lieü-li (vaidúryya, lapis lazuli), different kinds of perfumes, stuffs of kie-peï (karpása, cotton), etc. His kingdom was near a large river called Sinth a 0% (Sindh), which rises in the Kwan. lun" (Anéuta) mountains, and divides into five rivers, of which the collective name is Hengshui (the river Heng or Ganges). At the bot
15 This title must be the Chinese transcription of Maharana, there can be no doubt in respect to the first syllable mana in composition) great' ; but the Sanskrit word represented by lun (or run, ran) is less certain. At all events this nust be a king of India whose reign corresponded with this date, between A. D. 222 and 280.--J. A. S. B. u. 3. p. 65.
10 This is the case at Banaras, where many of the hones have seven or eight storeys; and the numerous temples and public edifices are covered with sculptures and basreliefs.-J. A. S. B. 11. 8.
30 The name of this kingdom is not found in the excellent history of Hiwen-thsaug, and I have not met with it else. where, it appears to me to have been altered.
31 Conf. Pauthier's Eramen, p. 17.
" In the eighteenth year of the Yuen-kia period (441 A.D.), the king of Su-mo-li sent an ambassador to offer some of the products of his country. In the second year of the Hiao-kien period, in the reign of Hino wa (455 A.D.), the king of Kin-tho-li sent an officer with the title of Chiang shi to offer precious Vases of gold and silver. Still later, in the first year of the Yuen-hoei period in the reign of Fal-ti (read Tsang-u-wang, the year 473 A. D.), the kingdom of Po-li paid tribute. These kingdoms believed in the doctrine of Buddha. (Note of Ma-twan-lin.)
Are the Kin-tho-li the Gandari of Herodotos and Str bo In Sanskrit Gandhari' or Gandhara, J.A.S.B...
23 For the letter see Pauthier, u. 8. pp. 30-33.
3. These curious details, the exactitude of which may excite surprise, prove that the Chinese 1 istorians were better informed than might have been expected of facts and circumstances concerning Central and Western Asia. We are indebted to Colebrocke for the mens of ascertain ing the accuracy of the Chinese writers. In fact the Chinese words Sin-thao are but the transcription of the Sanskrit word Sita, the name of one of the sources of the Ganges. In memoir on the sources of this river, this scholar cites the following passage from the astronomer Bhaskara Achirya :-"The holy stream which escapes from the foot of Vishnu descends from the abode of Vishnu on mount Meru (the Kwan-lun), whence it divides into four currents, and passing through the air, it reaches the lakes on the summit of the mountains which sustain them. Under the name of stta, this river joins the Bhadr awa: as the Ala kanand A, it enters Bharatavaraha (Hindustau): 1.8 the Chakshu, it proceeds to Ketumala, and as the Bhadra, it goes to Kuru of the north."-Siddhantasiro. mani: Bhavana-kosha, 87 and 38.-J. A. S. B. u. 8. p. 66.
25 Mount Mera. «The Hindas say that the Ganges falls from heaven upon its summit, and thence descends in four currente: the southern branch is the Ganges, the eastern branch is the Site, and the western is the Chakshu or Oxu."-Wilson, Sanskrit Dict., 2nd edit. Art. meri-- the namo Meru is the Mepos of the Greeks. J. 4.. B. th. $.