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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XXXI. TIDE PROVINCE OF KESHIMUR
169
the history of that religion. Thenceforward that country became a mistress in the Buddhist Doctrine and the headquarters of a particular school. . . . The influence of Káshmir was very marked, especially in the spread of Buddhism beyond India. From Káshmir it penetrated to Kandahar and Kabul, . . . and thence over Bactria. Tibetan Buddhism also had its essential origin from Káshmir ; . . . so great is the
importance of this region in the History of Buddhism." ( Vassilyev, Der Budd-
hisnius, I. 44.)
In the account which the Mahawanso gives of the consecration of the great 'Pope at Ruanwelli, by Dutthagamini, King of Ceylon (s. c. 157), 280,000 priests (!) come from Káshmir, a far greater number than is assigned to any other country except one. (J. A. S. B. VII. 165.)
It is thus very intelligible how Marco learned from the Mongols and the Lamas with whom he carne in contact to regard Káshmir as " the very original source from which their Religion had spread abroad." The feeling with which they looked to Káshmir must have been nearly the same as that with which the Buddhists of Burma look to Ceylon. But this feeling towards Káshmir does not 720W, I am informed, exist in Tibet. The reverence for the holy places has reverted to Bahar and the neighhouring " cradle-lands " of Buddhism.
It is notable that the historian Firishta, in a passage quoted by Tod, uses Marco's expression in reference to Káshmir, almost precisely, saying that the Hindoos derived their idolatry from Káshmir, " the foundry of magical superstition." (Rajasthan, I. 219.)
NOTE 4.—The people of Káshmir retain their beauty, but they are morally one of the most degraded races in Asia. Long oppression, now under the Lords of Jamu as great as ever, has no doubt aggravated this. Yet it would seem that twelve hundred years ago the evil elements were there as well as the beauty. The Chinese traveller says : " Their manners are light and volatile, their characters effeminate and pusillanimous. . . . They are very handsome, but their natural bent is to fraud and
trickery." (Pèl. Boud. II. 167-168.) Vigne's account is nearly the same. (II.
142-143.) " They are as mischievous as monkeys, and far more malicious," says Mr. Shaw (p. 292).
[Bernier says : " The women [of Kachemire] especially are very handsome ; and it is from this country that nearly every individual, when first admitted to the court of the Great Mogul, selects wives or concubines, that his children may be whiter than the Indians, and pass for genuine Moguls. Unquestionably, there must be beautiful women among the higher classes, if we may judge by those of the lower orders seen
in the streets and in the shops." ( Travels in the Mogul Empire, edited by
Archibald Constable, 1891, p. 404. )]
NOTE 5.--In the time of Hiuen Tsang, who spent two years studying in Káshmir in the first half of the 7th century, though there were many Brahmans in the country, Buddhism was in a flourishing state ; there were loo convents with about 500o monks. In the end of the IIth century a King (Harshadeva, 1090-1102) is mentioned exceptionally as a protector of Buddhism. The supposition has been intimated above that Marco's picture refers to a traditional state of things, but I must notice that a like picture is presented in the Chinese account of Ilulaku's war. One of the thirty kingdoms subdued by the Mongols was " The kingdom of Fo (Buddha) called Kishimi. It lies to the N.W. of India. There are to be seen the men who are counted the successors of Shakia ; their ancient and venerable air recalls the countenance of Bodi-dharma as one sees it in pictures. They abstain from wine, and content themselves with a gill of rice for their daily food, and are occupied only in reciting the prayers and litanies of Fo." (Rém. N..4Iél. Asiat. I. 179.) Abu'l Fazl says that on his third visit with Akbar to Káshmir he discovered some old men of the religion of Buddha, but none of them were literati. The Rishis, of whom he speaks with high commendation as abstaining from meat and from female society, as chari-
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