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Notes on Marco Polo : vol.2 |
230. FEMELES (ISLAND OF WOMEN) 699
(SACHAU, I, 303). S. LÉvI, however, was content to give the name in its Chinese transcription (cf. Mémorial Sylvain Lévi, 422), and I think he was right; for the Chamba State is too much to the north-west and, moreover, in Hsüan-tsang's very strict system of transcription, P'o-to-hsimo-pu-io (*B`ua-la-xiap-mua-puo-lâ) hardly can render Brahmapura. The first part of the name is probably bdlao or vâra°, and the second part is almost certainly OhimaO, « snow ». (5) IMUlf
Ch'ü-p'i-shuang-na was restored by JULIEN (Mém., I, 233) as *GôviMana ?, and by WATTERS (I, 331) as *Gôvisanna; but the transcription seems rather to render *Govisamna = Govisana, « ox-horn ».
(6) Ahicchattra. JULIEN'S « Ahikchêtra » (Mém., I, 234) is a mistake. (7) ant 1111IJ P'i-lo-
shan-na (*B`ji-13.-san-nja) is unidentified. JULIEN (Mém., I, 235) doubtfully restored it as *Vira4ânâ, and WATTERS (I, 332) as *Vilasâna or *Bhilasana. Instead of P'i-lo-shan-na, which is the reading
of most Mss. and editions and of the Shih-chia fang-chih, , I, 94 a, the authors of the critical
edition of the University of Kyôto have adopted (4, 30) the reading P'i-lo-na (#)-na of the Corean edition and of the Life (JULIEN, Vie, 110). (8) *Kapitha (Mém., I, 237) is also known as Sànkâ§yâ. It will be noticed that, while most of the names in Hsüan-tsang's Memoirs correspond to names well known from other sources, the majority of those in the present section are either doubtful or unattested.
It is in the notice devoted to the Kingdom of P'o-ho-hsi-mo-pu-lo that the following paragraph occurs : « North of the boundaries of that kingdom, in the Great Snowy Mountains (Ta-Hsüeh-shan, Great Himalaya), there is the kingdom of Suvarnagotra [Note in the text : « In Chinese, this means
g Chin-shih, « Gold-clan »], which produces superior gold, hence its name. It is extended
from east to west, but narrow from north to south. This is the Eastern Kingdom of Women (TungNü-kuo). From generation to generation they make a woman their sovereign and therefore the kingdom is called of Women'. Her husband is king also, but does not share in the government. Men only fight the wars and cultivate the fields. The land yields barley (su-mai), and they breed many horses and sheep. The climate is cold and hard, and the nature of the people is violent. To the east, it reaches the kingdom of the T'u-fan (Tibetans); to the north, it reaches the kingdom
of Khotan; to the west, it reaches the kingdom of p=pf San-po-ho. » In 650, i. e. four years
after Hsüan-tsang's Hsi-yü-chi had been published, it was summarized in the Shih-chia fang-chih; part of the paragraph on Suvarnagotra is reproduced there (tt, I, 94 a), but with this addition after the mention of the « Eastern Kingdom of Women » : « It is not within the boundaries of India,
and it is also called the Kingdom of J [FJJ `Great Yang-t'ung'. »
Nearly two centuries after Hsüan-tsang, Hui-ch'ao also heard in India of the same kingdom (cf. W. Fucns, Huei-ch'ao's Pilgerreise, in SPA IV, xxx [1938], 439) : « [From Jalandhara,] after a journey of one month, and passing the Snowy Mountains (Hsüeh-shan), there is to the east a small kingdom called Suvarnagotra, which is in the dependency of the Tibetans. The clothes are similar to those of northern India, but the language is different. The land is extremely cold. » Hui-ch'ao too speaks (p. 443, 445) of the kingdom of [3B raj Yang-t'ung, as being to the east of the Great Po-lü (Baltistan), but does not connect it with Suvarnagotra.
In the Chiu T'ang shu (197, 4-5), there is a notice on the « Eastern Kingdom of Women » (Tung-Nü-kuo), which reads as follows : « The Eastern Kingdom of Women is a particular branch of the western Ch'iang. As there is also in the Western Sea (Hsi-hai) a Kingdom of Women, this
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