国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

SATLEJ ORIGINATING FROM THE MANASAROVAR.   289

great water-courses entering the lake or leaving it, and all the small ones as well. The Rakas-tal does not enter into the circle of pilgrimage. This is the cause why the Mansaroar is, comparatively, so well laid down, whereas the Rakas-tal is very wrong both in form and size. The Indian pilgrim has seen a river at the eastern shore, in direct communication with the lake, and he has crossed it, certainly not without difficulty. He may have forgotten in which direction the water was running but it is more likely that he wished to make the Brahmaputra begin from the sacred lake. The natives, as a rule, are very good observers in the field, but when religion comes in they have to become blind. The year of his wandering has been very rich in precipitation, as can easily be seen from the rest of the map. And hardly any other river can have made the pilgrim think of the Brahmaputra except the Tage-tsangpo, I which always and under all conditions carries a much greater volume of water than the other rivers at the eastern side. So, what the pilgrim calls Brahmaputra is in reality Tage-tsangpo.

At the S.W. shore of the lake we find another river, which obviously is one of those which enter the lake from Gurla Mandata. There is no indication on the map as to the direction of its course, but we know that it can only be an entering river. Near its mouth there is a temple and a village, the Tugu-gompa.

The information that the lake should be 6o Indian miles in circumference does not agree with the scale below, but it does not matter, as natives always exaggerate such things. The mountains south and north of the lake, Gurla and Kailas, are drawn in very thin outlines and represented as seen from the side. They have no names.

The most interesting information given on the map is, however, the existence of a big river issuing from the N.W. shore and running to the N.W. The Persian legend is very short and clear and does not leave any room for doubt: Daria-iSatloudj taraf Pendjab raftéh, or, the river Satlej going in the direction of Panjab. The first part of the remarks on this river is correct: 2 »It is said that the Satloudj, which goes to Belaspour and Ludiana, issues from this lake»; that is to say, he has obtained this information from native sources, and it should be noticed that the native informant does not say that the river takes its beginning in or from the lake, but only that it issues from the lake, which leaves room for the assumption that the river Satlej enters the lake somewhere else. The information Tieffenthaler obtained from his Indian pilgrim, who had been at the place and who, on this point, was perfectly correct and trustworthy, was, however, spoilt by himself or Anquetil du Perron when he adds : »but this assertion is not at all worthy of being believed, as it is more probable that it joins the Alaknanda, which irrigates Badrinath and Srinagar, or some other river.»

C

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I This is also Bonin's opinion. Vide 1. c. p. 346 and his Royaumes des Neiges, p. 27o.

2 Bonin says that these legends can only be attributed to Anquetil du Perron. But probably the original information has been gathered by Tieffenthaler.

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