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0066 Serindia : vol.1
Serindia : vol.1 / Page 66 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000183
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20   ACROSS SWAT AND DIR   [Chap. I

taken place before A. D. 768, but may fall much later, he resided, apparently for some time, at the monastery of Mang-o-p`o. Yet all he then tells us of the country is that it contained also monasteries of Su-ho-pa-t`i (Sukhavati) and Po-mang-pa-t`i (Padmavati). Otherwise, he is content to observe that ` during these peregrinations he visited all the holy vestiges ; there is not the slightest difference between what he saw and that which the Hsi-yü-chi says '.35 His return journey to China, which was effected between the years A. D. 783-90, and apparently by the route of the Kabul Valley and Badakhshan, will have to be touched upon elsewhere.

Apart from the accounts of pious pilgrims the Chinese records of Udyana are confined to brief notices in the Annals of the Northern Wei and Tang dynasties. What these tell us of the country and its people is drawn mainly from the itineraries already discussed. But some details added about the political relations with distant China are of interest.

The general description given by the notice of the Tang Annals, of which M. Chavannes has published a translation,36 is based upon the H.ri yii-chi. It estimates the circumference of the kingdom, which is called here Wu-ch`a A* or Wit-ch`ang ,0 E, at five thousand li. On the east, P`o-iii is stated to be six hundred li distant. This measurement seems to be derived from that given by Hsüan-tsang between Po-lu-lo, i.e. P`o-lii, and the valley of Ta-li-lo or Darél ; 37 the latter the Tang notice subsequently mentions as situated in the north-east of the kingdom, and as ` the ancient territory of Wu-ch`ang'. On the west, four hundred li are allowed for the distance to Chi-pin, by which may be understood, perhaps, Purusapura or Peshawar, the capital of Gandhara, then united under one rule with the Kabul Valley. ` The mountains and valleys form a continuous succession. The soil produces gold, iron, grapes, saffron ; the rice ripens once a year. The inhabitants are weak and crafty ; in magic arts they excel. In this kingdom capital punishment does not exist ; those who deserve death are exiled into the depth of the mountains ; if the guilt is doubtful the accused is made to drink a drug, and on his urine being examined to see whether it is clear or troubled he is punished accordingly.36 The country contains five towns ; the king resides in the town of Shu-mêngyeh-li, also called Mêng-chieh-li. In the north-east is the valley of Ta-li-lo, which is the ancient territory of Wu-ch`ang.'

The mention made in A. D. 642 of an embassy which Ta-mo-yin-t`o-ho-ssû, king of Udyana, dispatched to the Imperial court to offer perfume of camphor, is of interest as the reference made by the Annals to a royal present in the same year from Chi-pin shows that Udyana and KapigaGandhara were then not united under a single rule." This certainly was the case a century later, as an imperial decree, quoted by the Annals, granted to Po-fu-chun, king of Chi-pin, the right to inherit the titles of ` King of Chi-pin and Wu-ch`ang'.40 That the Chinese court had practical political reasons for fostering these relations with distant Udyana is proved by interesting passages in the Tang-shit and the Tz1-chih-tung-chien. These jointly show that in A. D. 720 the Emperor Hsüan-tsung sent ambassadors to confer the title of king on the ruler of Wu-ch`ang, as well as on those of Ku-t`u (Khotl), and of Chü-wei or Mastûj, as a reward for their refusal of the advances of the Arabs who had repeatedly tried to win them over. The Arabs are here mentioned as touching the eastern borders of Wu-ch`ang, a statement which reflects the impression conveyed by their successful raids from Sind far up the Indus during the first decades of the eighth century.41

Udyana in the Chinese Annals.

Relations between Udyana and Gandhara.

35 See Ilinéraire d'Ou-k`ong, p. 22 sq. 3e See Turcs occid., pp. I28 sq.

37 See above, p. r 2 and note 46 ; Julien, Mémoires, i. p. 15o.

38 Cf. above, p. 12, for the exactly corresponding statement of Sung Yiin from whose account these remarks are, perhaps, borrowed.

33 Cf. Chavannes, Turcs occid., pp. 129, 131.

4° Cf. ibidem, p. 132.

41 Consideration of these early and well-authenticated Arab inroads into the Punjab and up to Gandhara (cf. Marquart, Érân-Iahr, p. 271 ; Reinaud, Mémoire sur l'Inde, pp. 195 sq.) obviates the necessity for the correction of the text proposed in Turcs occid., p. 129, note r.