________________
APRIL, 1904.)
FURTHER NOTES ON THE INDO-SCYTHIANS.
118
" On going from there to the south-west, one finds the convent of the king's wife. In “this convent there is a Feou-t'ou of copper, & hundred tol'eu high. In this Feone-t'ou there " are relics. On the six days of abstinence it diffuses in the night & luminous effulgence; the "brightness spreads all round it from the base to the capola, then re-enters the interior at the "break of dawn."
On pp. 447-468, under the sub-heading Les monastères du Kapica - Les Han et les Yue-tchi, M. Lévi comments upon these passages.
The monastery of the Ancient King, where Wang Hiuen-ts'e was in 661, is mentioned by Hionen-tsang (Mém. 1, 63). The other monasteries named in the Si-yu-tchi are also described by Hiouen-taang; the pilgrim Ou-k'ong, who visited the same region between 760 and 764, gives the names of several monasteries; but these names are not Sangkpit: they are probably Turki. The convent of the Ancient King is the monastery of the king Yen-t'i-li (read Yen-ti chai; see page 110 above) of Ou-k'ong (J. A., Jaly-Dec., 1895, 357). The convent of the king with the milk-tooth of the Buddha is described under the same name by Hiouen-tsang (1, 53). The convent of the wife of the king (ibid.) is the convent Pin-tche of Ou-k'ong (loc. cit. 356). a designation which recalls the title of Pin-tcheon given to the queen of the Kingdom of the Women, Niu-Wang (History of the T'ang, quoted by Bushell, Early History of Tibet, in J. R. 4. S., 1880, N. S., 12, 532).
There remains the monastery of the Han. The relics deposited there, according to the Si-yu-tchi, are exactly those which Hionen-tsang saw in the Convent of the Ancient King. But the origin which is here attributed to it, closely recalls the tradition related by Hiouen-tsang, regarding a convent enigmatically designated in the Memoirs by the name Jin-kia-lan (1, 42), and Cha-lo-kia in the Biography (1, 71 and 75). Neither of these names can be reduced to Sanskrit originals.
It is probable that the name "Monastery of the Han" given in the Si-yu-tchi, corresponds to the T"chen-tan-how-li of Ou-k'ong. "Hou-li " seems to be the Tartar translation of " vihāra" (J. A., July-Dec., 1895, 389). As to Tchen-t'an, M. Lévi has shewn (Mélanges de Harles, 182 seg.) that it corresponds to China-sthāna, Chin(a)tthan (a), "China," and subsidiarily to the title dēvaputra, "Son of Heaven" (see also Vol. XXXII. above, p. 421). In fact, the Chinese origin of the monastery is hardly doubtful : the disagreement between Hiouen-tsang and the Si-yutchi does not even imply two divergent traditions. The official compilors of the Si-yu-tchi would have had a repugnance to relate the history of a Chinese prince kept as a hostage by the Yue-tchi, and would have transformed the prisoner into an official envoy. Perhaps also they borrowed from Wang Hinen-ts'e, or some other traveller, the tradition they adopted.
Founded among the Yue-tchi, whether by a Chinese hostage or by a Chinese envoy, the monastery of the Han links together the Indo-Scythians and the Chinese. It brings forcibly to mind the journey of that enigmatical "King," who passes as the first propagator of Buddhist texts in China. M. Lévi's discussion of this tradition has been given above (Vol. XXXII. p. 419). M. Specht, in the J. A., Jaly-Dec., 1897, p. 166, disapproved of his translation and interpretation; and M. Lévi here meets these criticisms, and publishes new texts which he has since collected.
The dispute is essentially about a passage in the Wei-leao, “ Abridged History of the Wei," quoted in an annotation in the San-koro-tchi and other compilations. The text, as it has come down to us, is full of uncertainties and obecurities. Its author, in dealing with the introduction of Buddhism into China, relates that a person named King entered into communication with a king of the Yue-tehi in 2 B. C. But did this Chinaman receive Buddhist sūtras from the Yue-tchi, or did they from him? The question may seem idle: it is really of
* On the convent of Cha-lo-la, comparo, now, aloo Marquart, op. cit. (page 110 abovo), p. 283.- S.L.
