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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1904.
FURTHER NOTES ON THE INDO-SCYTHIANS. BY SYLVAIN LÉVI.
Extracted and rendered into English, with the author's permission, by W. R. PHILIPPS.
THE articles which were written and published by M. Lévi under the express title of "Notes on the Indo-Scythians" have been presented to the readers of this Journal in Vol. XXXII. above, pp. 381 and 417, and at p. 1 ff. of the current volume, with a few supplementary notes and remarks. The present article brings together, under a title which has been adopted to mark the connection prominently, some more contributions on the same subject, found in other articles written by M. Lévi, which could not be conveniently incorporated in the "Notes on the Indo-Scythians."
A.The relations between China and Kanishka.
From the "Journal Asiatique," July-Dec., 1897, pp. 526 f.
The Fa-yuen-tchou-lin [already mentioned in Vol. XXXII. above, p. 420] enables us to complete and correct one of the data furnished by Hiouen-tsang as to the relations between China and Kanishka. The compiler took his information from an official collection, the Si-yu-tchi, Memoirs on the Western Countries," drawn up in A. D. 666 by the Emperor's orders, and divided into two sections, the text in 60 chapters, and the illustrations (maps, &c.) in 40.
The Si-yu-tchi says:-"] "In the kingdom of Ki-pin (Kapisa) the doctrine of the Baddha is "very wide-spread. In the interior of the capital there is a monastery (vihara) called Han-seu "(monastery of the Han). Formerly an envoy of the Han, yielding to his own inclination, "erected a Feou-t'ou (Buddha, pagode). He made it of stones laid together, a hundred tch'eu "(feet) high. The practices of worship there differ from the ordinary. In the monastery there "is a bone of the skull of the Buddha and there is a hair of the Buddha: the colour of it is
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deep blue, and it is twisted like a shell. They have deposited them in the seven jewels, and "they have placed them in a casket of gold. To the north-west of the capital there is the "monastery of the king. In the monastery there is a milk-tooth of the infant Sakya "Bodhisattva. It is an inch long. On going from there to the south-west, one finds the "monastery of the king's wife. In the monastery there is a Feou-t'ou of copper, a hundred "tch'eu high: in this Feou-t'ou there are relics. Every six days, it diffuses during the night "a luminous effulgence; the brightness spreads all around from the base to the cupola; it "re-enters the interior when the dawn appears."1
Hiouen-tsang (Mémoires, 1, 58) describes the monasteries mentioned in this passage. He gives to the convent which possessed the milk-tooth the same name and the same location; but, according to him, the convent which had the skull-bone and hair was called the "convent of the ancient king."
The Itinerary of Ou-k'ong (J. A., July-Dec., 1895, p. 857) also points out this monastery which has as relic a bone of the skull of Sakya the Tathāgata." He calls it the "monastery of Yen-ti-li of the king Ki-ni-tch'a." It is therefore certain that the person styled "the ancient king" is Kanishka. Under the enigmatical name Yen-ti-li is perhaps hidden the solution of the problem set by the text of the Si-yu-tchi; perhaps the name in some way refers to the Chinese envoy who came to Kanishka's court. To this, however, M. Lévi, in revising this abstract, has now added a remark, as follows:- Compare, now, Marquart, Eränshahr nach der Geographie des Ps. Moses Xorenaci, Berlin, 1901, p. 282. We must read Yen-ti chai, instead of Yen-ti-li. The character chai transcribes exactly the title which the Sanskrit denotes by Saki, and which the kings of Kapiés bore regularly from the time of Kanishka. The reference therefore is to "the monastery of Yen-ti sahi of the king Kanishka."
1 [For a later translation, presumably a revised one, see further on, p. 112 f.-W. E. P.]
