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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
| 181. COTAN | 409 |
seven centuries later. The case of - yii (*jju) is more difficult. In KARLGREN's transcription j- is a yod, with an approximate value of y-. There is some reason to believe that in archaic Chinese the word began with g-, *giu, but we cannot say that this is certain, nor that an initial
g- still existed in the pronunciation of Han times. On the other hand, Ÿ yii is not regularly used in Buddhist transcriptions, but frequently occurs under the Han in the transcription of Hsiung-nu names or titles, for instance in the title of the 'r' t -J shan-yii. or Hsiung-nu sovereign. Unfortunately none of these early transcriptions has so far been restored to a certain original. But we must keep in mind the use of yii in the transcription of terms of Hsiung-nu origin; it will be of some moment in the discussion of the various forms mentioned for the name of Khotan.
The principal text to adduce for such a discussion is a note in Hsüan-tsang's Memoirs which has passed, though in a more or less curtailed form, into various works, including the Hsin T'ang
shu (cf. JA, 1895, II, 362-363; CHAVANNES, Doc. sur les Tou-kiue, 125; WATTERS, On Yuan Chwang's Travels, II, 299; LEvi, in BEFEO, iv, 560; v, 260; STEIN, Ancient Khotan, 153; Ta T'ang hsi-yü chi, ed. of Kyoto University, XII, 24, and Apparatus criticus, 125-126). Here is the complete text :
«... One arrives at the kingdom of 11,V H r Ch'ü-sa-tan-na (*G'iu-sât-tân-nâ). [Note :]
In the language of the T'ang (= in Chinese), [this] means ' Earth-teat' (It {"[, Ti-ju); it is the
elegant name [used] locally (gyp :[l: tt Al. The local language (41! su-yii) says ' Kingdom
of tfk ll$ Huan-na (*Xuân-nâ)'. The Hsiung-nu call it - j Yu-tun (*Jiu-d'uan); the Hu
(Iranians), f q Ho-tan (*Xuât-tân); the Hindus (Yin-tu), )j - Ch'ü-tan (*K'ivat-tân). Formerly [the Chinese] said Yii-t'ien; it is an incorrect [form]. »
This note is of much greater value than has been assumed hitherto, and can be verified in most particulars.
Ch'ü-sa-tan-na, said to mean « Earth-teat », was restored by JULIEN as Kustana; and this is still the only form mentioned by STEIN (Ancient Khotan, 153-154), by HERRMANN (Southern Tibet,
VIII, 440), and by THOMAS ( Tibetan Texts and Documents, I, 18). A seeming confirmation was
provided by the form kustanagasa of a Kharothi document (STEIN, loc. cit.; RAPSON, Kharos hi Inscriptions, 3393) ; STEIN did not revert to the question in Serindia or in Innermost Asia. It is
to be regretted that no greater attention was paid to the remarks published by LEvi in 1905
(BEFEO, v, 258-260). Ltvi showed that it ch'ii, was always used by Hsüan-tsang to render go-or gu-, not ko- or ku-, and that Gostana meant « Earth-teat » just as well as and even better than
Kustana. Moreover, Indian lexicographers mention gostani as a name of the grape, and 'ANTI
explained gostani as « Khotanese », the name being that of the grape of Khotan spoken of by the Chinese and by Polo. LEvi's restoration « Gostana » ought to have been accepted at once; it
the only one which is in agreement with the Chinese transcription (KARLGREN'S Dictionary is
here misleading; while giving the two pronunciations chü and ch'ii of la in modern Chinese, it restores only *kiu as the ancient sound; but ch'ii is *g'i.u, and it is only with this second pronuncia-
tion that the character occurs in transcriptions). As to kusta%agasa, it is an isolated example, with a first consonant of ambiguous value, and it occurs in a text where it may mean something )ther than Khotanese (cf. BSOS, ix, 541), particularly if we remember that the name of Khotan
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