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| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
AROMATICS
53. The Sui .u' mentions two aromatics or perfumes peculiar to
Ktah (Sogdiana),— kan hian It2 * and a-sa-na hian I J ~= MS I. Fortunately we have a parallel text in the T`ai p`in hwan yü ki,3 where the two aromatics of K`aii are given as it * k If. Hence it follows that the kan of the Sui Annals is no more than an abbreviation of kan sun, which is well known as an aromatic, and identical with the true spikenard furnished by Nardostachys jatamansi. It is Sanskrit nalada, Tibetan span silos, Persian nard or sunbul, Armenian sumbul, smbul, snbul, etc.4 It is believed that the nard found by Alexander's soldiers in Gedrosia5 represents the same species, while others hold that it was an Andropogon.6
The Sanskrit term nalada is found in the Fan yi min yi tsi7 in the
form 45 na-to-t`o, *na-la-da. It is accompanied by the fanciful
analysis nara-dhara ("held or carried by man "), because, it is said, people carry the fragrant flower with them in their girdles. The word nalada is of ancient date, for it appears in the Atharvaveda.8 Hebrew nerd, Greek nardos,9 Persian nard and nard, are derived, therefrom.'° Being used in the Bible, the word was carried to all European languages.
' Ch. 83, p. 4 b.
2 This character is not listed in K`an-hi, but the phonetic element it leaves no doubt that its phonetic value is kan, *kam.
Ch. 183, p. 4.
4 ABU MANSUR (Achundow's translation, pp. 82, 241) mentions sunbul-i-hindi, the nard of India. SCHLIMMER (Terminologie, p. 36) identifies this name as Andropogon nardoides or Nardus indica. On the other hand, he says (p. 555) that Nardostachys or Valeriana jatamansi has not yet been found in Persia, but that it could be replaced in therapeutics by Valeriana sisymbrifolia, found abundantly in the mountains north of Teheran.
Arrian, Anabasis, VI. xXII, 5.
s JORET, Plantes dans l'antiquité, Vol. II, p. 648. See, further, Periplus, 48; and Pliny, XII, 28; WATT, Commercial Products of India, p. 792. MARCO POLO (ed. of YULE, Vol. I, pp. 115, 272, 284) mentions spikenard as a product of Bengal, Java, and Sumatra. The Malayan word ndrdwastu, mentioned by YULE (ibid., p. 287), must be connected with Sanskrit nalada.
7 Ch. 8, p. 4 b.
8 MACDONELL and KEITH, Vedic Index, Vol. If P. 437; H. ZIMMER, Altindisches Leben, p. 68.
First mentioned by Theophrastus, IX. VIII, 2, 3. '0 See above, p. 428.
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