Indian Antiquary Vol 35

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 14

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1906.
Mountain (Glair-ru = Goçţiga) dwells Go-ma-sa-la-gan-dha. If we compare these two versions we have no longer any doubt that the Cow's Head Mountain is identical with Mount Gocróga. The site of the Goçråga has been recognised by M. Grenard (Mission Dutreuil de Rhins, 8e partie, p. 142) and verified by Dr. Stein (Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, p. 244); it is the hill now known as Kohmari," the conglomerate cliff rising almost perpendicularly above the right bank" of Kara-Kash (Stein). This is certainly the "precipitous rock" of the Chinese version and the "hilly (Mos) shore" of the Tibetan. The saint Gomasālagandha is, without doubt, the Arhat of whom Hiouen-tsang speaks : plunged in the ecstasy which extinguishes thought, he awaits, within a chamber bollowed out of the rock, the coming of Maitreya." Finally it is this grotto which is considered, rightly or wrongly, to be the repository of the celebrated manuscript of the Dhammapada in the Kharostri character, found in 1872, and acquired partly by the Dutreuil de Rhins Mission and partly by M. Petrovsky.
The Tibetan version of the Süryagarbha gives the Sanskrit name of the Kara-Kash in the Hindu period of Khotan; the river was then called the Gomati. One of the great monasteries of Khotan also bore this name: Gomati-mahāvibāra (Kiu-mo-li ta-tcheu); it is there that Ngan-yang Heou (Nanj. App. II. 68 and 83) met the Hindu monk Buddbasens at the beginning of the Vth century (T'chou-can-trang-ki-tri, Chap. 14; Tók, ed. XXXVIII. 1, p. 861).
Since the holy place of Kharogtra was in the neighbourhood of Khotan, we need not be surprised if the name Khotan alternates with that of Kharoştra in the geograpbical nomenclature of the sūtras. But, according to the testimony of the Tibetan version of the Süryagarbha, Khotan was situated "in the land of Khaça" (Kla-ça'i yul na sa'i nu-ma'i gnas). The name Khaça is well known in Sanskrit literature ; it is familiar in epic poems, codes and religious works. I have already had Occasion to discuss it with reference to Nepal, where the name still survives in current usage; the Gurkhas like to call themselves Khas (Khascs) and their language is best known by the name Khas (or Parbatiya); not to multiply detailed references, which will be found in my book on Nepal, I will Content myself with pointing out that the name Khasa or Khaça (the two forms are equally authorized) applies, in current Hindu usage, to all the half-Hinduized tribes inbabiting the Himalayan region. But in Central Asia this name had acquired a more precisely limited meaning. The list [667] of writings in the Lalitavistars mentions a writing of the Khaças ; Khāçya or Khāsya, in Chinese K'ia-cha or Koo-cha or K 0-80, corresponding to the Sanskrit variants, Khaca, Khaşa, Khasa, and this writing is classed between that of the Daradas (To-lo; Ta-lo-to, with the note "mountain on the borders of Ou-lahang," that is, of Udyāna) and the writing of Cina (the gloss on which is: Soei, the name of the dynasty reigning in China at the time of the translation). Thus, the land of Khaça occupied the space between Dardistan on the lower Indus and the frontiers of China proper. Jñānagupta, who translated the Biography of the Buddha between 589 and 618 (Fo-pen-hing triking, Nanjio, 680 ; Tôk. ed. XIII. 7, 406) simply adds to the name of the R'o-cha (Khaşa) script the gloss : "Chou-le," that is, Kashgar. In the T'ang period, Khasa was uniformly accepted as the equivalent of Chou-le. Hiouen-tsang (Mémoires, II. 219) describes Kashgar under the name başa and only mentions Chou-le as the ancient name of the kingdom. Others relied on his testimony from that time and it has been constantly repeated. The Annals of the T'ang give the two names Chou-le and K'a-cha side by side. Çikşînanda was not therefore, properly speaking, mistaken in translating the Sanskrit name Kharoạtra : Chou-le. According to one of the sacred texts, the Süryagarbha-sútra, the mountain Goçriga is in the Khaça country, and orthodox opinion held Khaça to be no other than the name of Kashgar.
But if Khotan and Kashgar have each a claim to be considered the regular equivalent of Kharostra, the translation proposed by Buddhabhadra has the merit of reconciling these rival
19 A coording to M. Grenard the natives interpret the name Kohmari, "the serpent of the mountain." According to the Süryagarbha this site was inhabited by the Naga Ki-li-ho-po-ts (Tib. Khyim-bdag), that is Ghapati. The modern interpretation, whether correct or not, certainly carries on the ancient traditioa.