Indian Antiquary Vol 09

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 22

16
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY, 1880.
Tsieu bird (gridhra, vulture). At this period all these kingdoms belonged to the Yu ei-chi."
The Yuei-chi slew the kings of these kingdoms, and filled their places with generals, to whom they gave the governorship. The people practise Buddhism (Feü-t'u-tao), which forbids the taking of the life of any living creature and the drinking of wine. This prohibition soon passed into the customs of the people. The soil is low and damp, and the climate is extremely warm.
This kingdom is near that is to say watered by) a large river. The soldiers fight mounted on elephants. The inhabitants of the country are not so strong as the Yuei-chi.
The emperor Wu-ti, of the Han dynasty, (which reigned from 140 to 85 B. c.,) sent officers twelve times out of China by the southwest, to try to effect an entrance into Shin-tu (India), but they were stopped by the Kuenming, and none of them succeeded in penetrating into the country."
India several times paid tribute to the em. peror Hoti, (who belonged to the later Han dynasty, and reigned from 89 to 105 A. D.,) but soon after, this homage was interrupted by the revolt of the Si-y u people.
In the second year of the Yen-hi period during the reign of the emperor Hwan-ti (158159 A.D.), Indian ambassadors passed the boandaries of Ji-nan (the present Tonquin), and paid tribute to the emperor of China.
Tradition relates that the emperor Ming-ti (of the later Han dynasty, who reigned from
58 to 76 A. D.) saw in a dream a tall man of the colour of gold, from whose head & flame of fire issued. He questioned his officers for the subject, and one of them said to him-"In the West there is a god called Fo (Buddha), he is six chi high, and yellow like gold"."
Upon hearing this the emperor sent messengers to Thien-chu to learn the doctrine of Fo (Buddha), and soon after images and statues of Fo were scattered throughout China. Ying, king of Thsu, was the first who pat faith in Buddhism. His conversion led to a great number of people in China embracing the new religion.
In course oftime, theemperor Hwan-ti, who was strongly addicted to the worship of spirits, began often to offer sacrifices to Feu-thu (Buddha) and Lao-tsen. By degrees people embraced the Buddhist religion, and soon after it began to flourish. Under the Weïand Tsin dynasties (220 to 419 A. D.) the relations between China and India were broken up, and were not renewed for a long time. Only nnder the U" dynasty (222-227 A.D.) Fan-chen, king of Fu-nan (Siam), sent a relation of his called Su-we on an embassy to India. Once out of Fun an, he set sail from the mouth of the river Teu-keu-li, and coasted along till he came to a large gulf on the north-west. He travelled through several kingdoms situated on the coast of the gulf, and at the end of a year, arrived at the mouth of the river of Thien-chu (of India). He followed the course of the river for about 7,000 li (700 leaguos), and arrived at his destination.
10 It is situated south of Mo-kie-ti (HT), a kingdom Indica Commentatio, p. 56. The first of these cites an which also forms a part of Thien-chu. (Chu.fa-wet.fo. ancient scholiast on Varaha Mihira, who thus explains the kue-ki.)
word Suka employed by this astronomer to denote the 11 This important epoch in the history may be fixed with Samvat era : "epoch when the barbarian kings named Saka precision by means of Chinese historians; and it is not one (the Sacs) were defelsted by Vikramaditya." - J. A. S. B. of the least advantages derivable from the study of the
14. 8. p. 63. writers of this nation, Ma-twan-lin, in his sooount of the great 1 This same emperor gained some trifling particulars Yud-chi, or Indo-Skythians (book ceexxxviii, fol. 9), states respecting Shin-tu, or India, by bis General Chang-kien, that the Chinese General Chang-keen was sent as an ambas. whom he had sent to the Yue-che, which are preserved by sador to the Yue-chi by the Emperor Wu-ti (B. C. 126), and the historian Sze-ma-taien, in his se-ke (book cxxiii, fols. 6 that, about 100 years after, prince of this nation, who pos- and 7), where it is stated that Shin-tu is situated to the sessed one of tho five governments of the country of Dahae, east of Ta-hia, the capital of which was the city of Lan. subjected the Getes in Kophenes, and that Thien-ahu, or she.- J. A. S. B. u. 8. p. 63. India, was again subjugated by the Yud-chi. This other 15 At this period, China was still considered as the para. conguest of India by the Skythians must be placed, therefore, mount state of all the half-civilized nations inhabiting about the year B. c. 26. Ma-twan-lin adds, that these Yuě
Central Asia. It is not, therefore, surprising that the chi having become rich and powerfal (by these conquesta), chiefs of India, subject to the Yue-chi, or Skythians, should remained in this state till the time of the latter Hans, who have thought of sending ambassador to China, in search began to reign A. D. 222. It results from hence that the of means of delivering their country from barbarians, by Skuthienslor Yud.chi) must have been masters of Western the aid of the Chinese armies, which could oblige their re. India from about B. c. 26 till A. D. 222, that is, for & space volted subjects to return to their duty. Thus we may easily of 248 years. The first invasion of India by the Yue-chi, explain facts apparently so improbable.-J. 4. S. B. u.s. or Skythians, must have taken place before the reign of 1. Pauthier's Examen, p. 11. Vikram Aditya, whose celebrated era, which begins fifty-six 15 A. D. 147-167.-Pauthier's Examen, p. 13. years before ours, originated from the complete defeat of 14 Pauthier's Eramen, p. 27. the Skythian armies by this Indian prince; an event which 11 Or Wu, one of the three dynasties which reigned simul. deserved to be thus immortalized : see Colebrooke's Indian taneously over three divisions of the Chinese empire: it wabAlgebra, (preface p. 48) and Lassen's Do Pentapotamia I sisted from A. D. 922 to 280.-J. A. 8. B. 4. s. p. 64.