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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Sec. ix]   KHAROSTI-II DOCUMEN'T'S FROM THE LOU-LAN SITE   415

the purchaser Yapgu 5 and his sons, Lampurta, Putnnadeva, Dhatnnila, and Dhamnapala. The land is described as situated at Kroraina ' in the south ôf the great town '. This local name, with a slight difference of spelling, is mentioned again in two other documents from the site, and one of them leads us to what I believe to be a likely identification of it. In L.A. vi. ii. 0234, an almost complete paper document reproduced in Plate XXXIX, we have, as Professor Rapson's abstract shows, a personal letter addressed by Vasudeva to his father, the great Gusura Bhatiga'. In it the writer, after the usual complimentary formulas, states that he came, to a place, subsequently referred to as ` this market ', from Krorayina, bringing a camel and some other property not yet identified. ` So far I have done no buying or selling. I now wish to return to Krorayina.' Leaving aside the remaining contents, which have not as yet been completely deciphered, we can scarcely go wrong in assuming that, as Professor Rapson himself has duly recognized, by Krorayina or Kroraina was meant here the locality where the letter was found, i. e. the Lou-lan Site.

That the term was not restricted to the ruined station L.A., but equally applied also to the surrounding tract, is made very probable by the third document in which the name occurs, the double wedge-tablet L.B. Iv. v. 1+ vi. 1. This is addressed to Kori Maldraya and the ramana Anamdasena (Ananclasena), and conveys the king's order that the farm of Caraka at Krorailyna is to be handed over to a certain Kalaselha together with a woman belonging to it. Now the mere fact of this last-named document having been found at the ruin L.B. iv, and thus quite seven miles away from the ancient station L.A., would suffice to suggest that the name Kroraina ° had a more extended use and was borne by the whole abandoned settlement. And this impression is indirectly strengthened by another record from the same house, which shows that the ramana Anamdasena must have actually resided for a time at L.B., presumably while effecting the chief's order. It is a letter, which has also an interest of its own, contained in the rectangular double tablet, L.B. Iv. i. 6 + 7 (Plate xXxVIII), and addressed from Cuvalayina and his wife Atamsiyae to his father, the Gusura Lesvamna, and his mother Bhuvidanoe. It conveys to the parents the glad news that Atamsiyae has been safely delivered of a son, and, after referring to several items of information sent by one Ponigana, tells them that the Sramana Anamdasena intends to visit them, and that if he does, great attention may be paid to him. Considering that this private letter and the doable wedge-tablet entrusting to the Sramana Anamdasena the execution at Kroraina of an official order from the king were found in the same ruined dwelling L.B. iv, it seems safe to conclude that this western portion of the ancient settlement was also comprised in Kroraina.

The evidence recorded at the end of the preceding section has shown us that in the Chinese documents recovered from L.A. the ruined military station is designated by the name of Lon-lan. On the other hand, the Chinese historical records discussed above in Chapter Ix, and below, too, make it perfectly clear that this name had also a wider application, being borne originally by that Lop tract which lay on the ancient route leading north of the terminal Tarim mârshes.7 It is obvious that this term Lou-Tan, which already figures in Chang Ch`ien's report, the earliest Chinese account of the Tarim Basin, must reproduce an indigenous local name, and in view of the identity

Kroraina named in L.B. iv. records.

Lou-Tan transcribes Kroraina ?

5 It seems difficult not to connect this name Yap; u, which occurs as a personal name also in Niya Site tablets, e.g. N. xviii. I, N. iv. 3, 6, 29. a, with the ancient Turkish princely title of jabgu, which was rendered by the Chinese as

hsi-hou (*yap-hou) , 4. This title (first recognized in its

,origin by Prof. Hirth) was in use among the Huns already in the second century B. c., and is attested also for chiefs of the Great Yüeh-chih at the time of their settlement in the Oxus region ; cf. Chavannes, Young pao, 1907, p. 189, note 3 ;

Marquart, Zrdn-sahr, p. 204. Parallels of such use of honorific titles for personal names are common in India.

e The form Kroraimna is only a graphic variation of Kroraina. The insertion of the Anusvara mark, without any phonetic reason, in the case of an Aksara followed by a nasal is of very frequent occurrence throughout these texts; thus Kholamna for Khotana; jamna for jana, etc.

7 See above, pp. 336 sqq. ; below, pp. 417 sqq.