IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
286 SING-IRANICA
likewise from Iranian regions, presumably in the first centuries of our era. The tree is not mentioned in Vedic, Pali, or early Sanskrit literature; and the word dâlima, dâcdima, etc., is traceable to Iranian *dulim(a), which we have to reconstruct on the basis of the Chinese transcription. The Tibetans appear to have received the tree from Nepal, as shown by their ancient term bal-poi seu-in ("seu tree of Nepal ").1 From India the fruit spread to the Malayan Archipelago and Camboja. Both Cam dalim and Khmer tatim2 are based on the Sanskrit word. The variety of pomegranate in the kingdom of Nan-6ao in Yün-nan, with a skin as thin as paper, indicated in the Yu yan tsa tsu,3 may also have come from India. J. ANDERSON4 mentions pomegranates as products of Yün-nan.
Pomegranate-wine was known throughout the anterior Orient at an early date. It is pointed out under the name dsis in Cant. VIII, 2 (Vulgata: mustum) and in the Egyptian texts under the name .edeh-it.5 Dioscorides6 speaks of pomegranate-wine (Potins o1vos). Ye-lu C`uts`ai, in his Si yu lu (account of his journey to Persia, 1219-24), speaking of the pomegranates of Khojand, which are " as large as two fists and of a sour-sweet taste," says that the juice of three or five fruits is pressed out into a vessel and makes an excellent beverage.' In the
country Tun-sün 21 (Tenasserim) there is a wine-tree resembling
the pomegranate; the juice of its flowers is gathered and placed in jars, whereupon after several days it turns into good wine.' The inhabitants of Hai-nan made use of pomegranate-flowers in fermenting their wine.'
I have not found any references to pomegranate-wine prepared by the Chinese, nor is it known to me that they actually make such wine.
It is known that the pomegranate, because of its exuberant seeds, is regarded in China as an emblem alluding to numerous progeny; it has become an anti-race-suicide symbol. The oldest intimation of this symbolism looms up in the Pei si 1I , where it is told that two pome-
granates were presented to King Nan-te of Ts'i iht on the occasion
1 This matter has been discussed by me in T'oung Pao, 1916, pp. 408-410. In Lo-lo we have sa-bu-se in the A-hi dialect and se-bu-se in Nyi. Sa or se means "grain" (corresponding to Tibetan sa in sa-bon, "seed"). The last element se signifies "tree." The fruit is se-bu-ma (ma, "fruit").
2 AYMONIER and CABATON, Dictionnaire Gam-français, p. 220.
s Ch. 18, p. 3 b.
4 Report on the Expedition to Western Yunan, p. 93 (Calcutta, 1871). b V. LORET, Flore pharaonique, pp. 77, 78.
6 v, 34.
? BRETSCHNEIDER, Mediwval Researches, Vol. I, p. 19.
Liais Su, Ch. 54, p. 3.
9 HIRTH, Chau Ju-kua, p. 177.
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