Indian Antiquary Vol 09

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 25

JANUARY, 1880.]
CHINESE ACCOUNTS OF INDIA.
19
to the west of China), sent Feï-tu to induce* the Si-fan" (Tibetans) and other people to pay homage to him. Many princes responded to his appeal; those of India being the only ones who refused to enter into relations with him. Their refusal irritated him very much.
The Kings of India are of the Ki-li-chi family, called also Tsali (Kshattryås). For centuries they have held the throne without once acquiring it either by usurpation or murder.
There are four crops of rice in the year; the greatest of cereals is called mo-to-tho.*
The women wear necklaces of gold, silver and pearls. The bones of the dead are burned and their ashes placed in a so-tu (Stúpa) ;* sometimes however they leave the dead in the middle of a desert, or throw them into a river; they serve then for food for birds and beasts of prey, fishes and turtles. There is no law to determine the duration of mourning. Those who have been guilty of treason or revolt are put to death in secret, those who have com- mitted light offences may buy themselves off with money, and those who have failed in the duties of filial piety either suffer amputation of the hands or foet, nose or ears, or are banished to the frontiers.
The Indians have a written language, and they excel in astronomical calculations and the science of the calendar. They use characters invented by the god Fan,* and write memorable things on leaves called pei-to-ye. In all parts of India ancient traces of Fo (Buddha Så kyamuni)* are found. The people have faith in solemn oaths, and transmit magical formulas which they say can bring dragons and call down rain.
In the Wu-te period (in the reign of Kao
tsu) of the Thang dynasty (618-627) serious disturbances broke out in India. King Shi. 1o-y-to (šiladitya)" raised a great army, and fought with irresistible valour. The men neither took off their own armour nor the elephants thoir housings. He punished the kings of four parts of India, so that they all with their faces turned towards the north acknowledged his superiority.
At this time, a Buddhist monk called Hiwentheang came to the kingdom of Sila ditya; the king invited him to come and see him, and said to him,-" In your country a very pious monarch appeared, and a war-song was composed to celebrate the conquests of the emperor of China ;" try, I pray you, to teach it to me."
Hiw on-thsang told him briefly how Tha T-tsong had, by his divine valour, quieted the misfortunes and troubles of the empire, and brought the foreign peoples' into subjection. Cho a ng-wang (in Sanskrit Sliditya) was delighted at these words, and cried out-"It becomes me to turn towards the east and to do homage to him.” In the fifteenth year of the Ching-kwan period (641), Siladitya assumed the title of king of Mo-kie-tho (Magadha), and sent an ambassador with a letter to the emperor. This monarch ordered Liang-hoaïking, under the title of Yun-ki-weï, to go to him furnished with an imperial brevet, and to invite him to submission.
Silâditya full of astonishment asked his officers whether an ambassador had ever come from Mo-ho-s hintan before? “Never," they simultaneously replied. In the language of the barbarians (that is of these people) the author adds, the middle kingdom (China) is called Moho-shin-tan, in Sanskrit Mahachinasthana).
10 In Chinese, to go before.' •1 Western Barbarians,' see Bretachneider, W. 8. p. 112. -ED.
* This word does not appear to be porely Indian, for the two last syllables mean in Chinese-camel. The character mo (ma) seems to be an abbreviation of Sanskrit word. The word 'camel' is doubtless used in allusion to the extraordinary height of this cereal.
** Read So-tu-po. (Cf. Fan-i-ming-i-tsi book xx. fol. 52). From this word stupa, the word 'tope' has been formed. The text literally means" and a tomb was built for him."
** Ma-twan-lin hae omitted the word before (cf. Pei. wen-yun-fu, book lxxxv. fol. 191 r.)
45 This word Fan is an abbreviation of Fan-lan-mo, BrahmA (Cf. San-thsang-fa-su, book xlvi. fol. 3). It is usually written Fan-mo--Brahms (Cf. Fan-s-ming-i-tsi, book , fol. 11, line 4).
. *This passage is already found in a foregoing extract, taken from the collection of sonals. We preserve it, in order to give the text of Ma-twan-lin in full.
" I think that he means here vestiges of ancient monu.
ments erected in places visited by Buddha. In Chinese the word ku-tsi often means remains of ancient monumenta (see the Thai-tsing-i-tong-chi, in the section entitled Ku-tsi).
* Harghavarddhana-see ante vol. VII. pp. 196 ff.-ED.
40 Tain is the name of the dynasty which reigned over China from B.C. 249 to 202, during which the Chinese power caused itself to be known for the first time in Dentral and Western Asia, its conquests being extended to the Caspian ses and Bengal, in the reign of Tsin-shehwang-te, the celebrated Burner of the Books. The name of this dynasty has formed that of China, in Sanskrit China, which occurs in the Laws of Manu (book x. 41. 44), and therefore to a date anterior to the third century before our era, which may be easily explained in referring the name of China to the period of the foundation of the kingdom of Tain in the western province of Shen-8e, about B.C. 100.-J. A. S. B. 4. 3. p. 68.
50 It is in Chinese Sset, the "four strangers, which means strangers from the four cardinal pointe-North, South, East, and West. .