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
SAFFRON AND TURMERIC 321
effect that Madhyântika, the first apostle of Buddha's word in Kashmir, planted the saffron there.' If nothing else, this shows at least that the plant was regarded as an introduction. The share of the Persians in the distribution of the product is vividly demonstrated by the Tibetan word for "saffron," kur-kum, gur-kum, gur-gum, which is directly traceable to Persian kurkum or karkam, but not to Sanskrit kunkuma.2 The Tibetans carried the word to Mongolia, and it is still heard among the Kalmuk on the Wolga. By some, the Persian word (Pahlavi kulkem) is traced to Semitic, Assyrian karkuma, Hebrew karkôm, Arabic kurkum; while others regard the Semitic origin as doubtful.' It is beyond the scope of this notice to deal with the history of saffron in the west and Europe, on which so much has been written.4
From the preceding investigation it follows that the word yü-kin it , owing to its multiplicity of meaning, offers some difficulty to the translator of Chinese texts. The general rule may be laid down that yü-kin, whenever it hints at a plant or product of China, denotes a species of Curcuma, but that, when used with reference to India, Indo-China, and Iran, the greater probability is in favor of Crocus. The term yü-kin hian (" yü-kin aromatic "), with reference to foreign countries, almost invariably appears to refer to the latter plant, which indeed served as an aromatic; while the same term, as will be seen below, with reference to China, again denotes Curcuma. The question may now be raised, What is the origin of the word yü-kin? And what was its original meaning? In 1886 HIRTH5 identified yü-kin with Persian karkam ("saffron "), and restated this opinion in 1911,6 by falling back on an ancient pronunciation *hat-kam. Phonetically this is not very convincing, as the Chinese would hardly have employed an initial h for
1 SCHIEFNER, Taranätha, p. 13; cf. also J. PRZYLUSKI, Journal asiatique, 1914 II, p. 537.
2 T`oung Pao, 1916, P. 474- Cf. also Sogdian kurkumba and Tokharian kurkama.
3 HORN, Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 6. Besides kurkum, there are Persian k¢kbän and kdft.a, which denote "saffron in the flower." Old Armenian k`rk`um is regarded as a loan from Syriac kurkemd (HUBSCHMANN, Armen. Gram., p. 32o).
4 I regard to saffron among the Arabs, see LECLERC, Traité des simples, Vol. II, pp. 208-21o. In general cf. J. BECKMANN, Beyträge zur Geschichte der Erfindungen, 1784, Vol. II, pp. 79-91 (also in English translation); FLVCKIGER and HANBURY, Pharmacographia, pp. 663-669; A. DE CANDOLLE, Géographie botanique, p. 857, and Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 166; HEHN, Kulturpflanzen (8th ed.), pp. 264-27o; WATT, Dictionary, Vol. II, p. 592; W. HEYD, Histoire du commerce du levant, Vol. II, p. 668, etc.
b Journal China Branch Roy. As. Soc., Vol. XXI, p. 221. Chau Ju-kua, p. 91.
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