Indian Antiquary Vol 07

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 10

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1878.
of these rival religions should have proceeded guish three kinds of yojana :-the great yojaną of from a mild Buddhist monarch than from a 80 l, which is used in the measurement of level king whose sympathies were with the party countries, where the absence of mountains and of innovation, whose earliest appearances on rivers renders the road easy; the mean yojana the stage of the history of the times which su- of 60 li, when rivers and mountains oppose some ceeded Fah Hian's days are associated with bit- difficulties to the traveller; and the little yojana ter controversies, and a fanatical hatred of their of 40 li, adapted to those countries where the Buddhist opponents, which prepared the way mountains are precipitous and the rivers very for their general extermination.
deep." Fah Hian says that "the roads of the 3. It is scarcely probable that a colossal kingdom of the Dakshiņa are dangerous, toilsome, work of art, like Fah Hian's rock-cut monastery, and not easy to know;" and it therefore seems could have been undertaken by any one but a natural to suppose that the little yojana of forty powerful, rich, and prosperous king, or rather, li would be selected by him as the most appliconsidering the time which such a work would cable in this instance. M. Rémusat, in fact, require for its completion, by & succession of adopts the little yojana of 4 English miles as such kings. And it is similarly improbable "applicable with exactness to the most celebrated that a costly and everlasting monument of this localities" which have been identified in these description would have been so undertaken travels of Fah Hian. For the present purpose, unless the king or kings bad religious convic- therefore, it seems reasonable to adopt this tions in harmony with the object for which measurement of 4 miles for the yojana in the such a magnificent building was constructed. interpretation of Fa Hian's report; and his words
We may now pass on to investigate the lo- then, put into plain English, will be, "Nine cality of the kingdom of Tha-thsen.
hundred miles to the south of Banaras there is Fah Hian places it" two hundred yeouyan to a kingdom called the kingdom of the south." the south"-namely, to the south of the place The question now arises, What point had he where he was when he described it. In the in his mind at the other end of his line? He preceding chapter we find him ascending the starts from a fixed point, Banfras; and it seems Heng (Ganges) from Palianfoe (Patalipatra) natural to suppose that he is referring to some until "he came to the town of Pho-lo-nai equally definite spot, which it had been his (Varanasi, Banâras), in the kingdom of Kia-shi" wish to visit in Southern India-very probably (Kashi). Banaras, therefore, is the starting the capital city of the kingdom which he is point of his measurement of the two hundred describing, or, possibly enough, the remarkable yeouyan.
rock-cut Pigeon Monastery, which he inmediateThe yeouyan, as the equivalent of the Sans- ly proceeds to describe. krit yojana, is "a measure of distance equal One more preliminary question needs to be to four kroshas, which at 8000 cubits or 4000 answered, namely, With what degree of exactyards to the krosha or kos will be almost exactly ness does Fah Hian indicate the directions of the nine miles; other computations make the yojana localities which he mentions? What is to be but about five miles, or even no more than four understood by his expression to the south'? An miles and a half." (Wilson, Sansk. Dict.) The examination of several passages of his travels Chinese appear to have used the word not leads me to the conclusion that, short only of so much as a definite measure of length, scientific exactness, he lays down the relative as to express the distance from one halting positions of places very correctly, but he does place to another during royal progresses on the not go beyond the four cardinal points of the imperial highroads, and between the relays of compass and the four intermediate points. Any the post; and the actual length of the different place, therefore, lying between south-south-east stages appears to have depended upon the level and south-south-west would be to the south, or hilly character of the country, and so to have within the usual meaning of his words. On a varied much everywhere. "The translations map of India I mark off by its scale a line 900 of Buddhist works," says M. Rémusat, " distin- miles in length. Applying this line to the map
Hiwen Theang calls the monastery Po-lo-mo-lo-ki-l, and says it was built by king So-to-po-ho (Satavahana ?).Mém. sur les Cout. Occid. II. p. 101.