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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

I I2   MARCO POLO.   VOL. II. BK. III.

his Türkische Manichaica, which agree with the legend given by

the Persian Ibn Bâbawaih of Qum, who died in 991. (S.

d'OLDENBOURG, Bul. Ac. I. des Sc., Pet., 1912, pp. 779-781 ;

W. RADLOFF, Alttürk. Stud., VI., zu Barlaarn und Joasaph).

M. P. Alfaric (La Vie chrétienne du Bouddha, J. Asiatique, Sept.-

Oct., 1917, pp. 269 seq. ; Rev. de t'Hist. des Religions, Nov.-Dec.,

1918, pp. 233 seq.) has studied this legend from a Manichean

point of view.

15.  p. 327.

See La Vie des Saints Barlaanz et Josaphat " et la légende

du Bouddha, in Vol. I., pp. xxxxvii-lvi, of Contes populaires

de Lorraine par Emmanuel COSQU IN, Paris, Vieweg, n.d. [1886].

16.  p. 335 n.

TANJORE.

Speaking of Chu-lién (Chola Dominion, Coromandel Coast),

Chau Ju-kwa, pp. 93-4, says

" The kingdom of Chu-lién is the Southern Yin-tu of the

west. To the east (its capital) is five li distant from the sea ; to

the west one comes to Western India (after) 1500 fi; to the

south one comes to Lo-lan (after) 2 500 li; , to the north one

comes to Tun-t'ien (after) 3000 li."

Hirth and Rockhill remark, p. 98 : " Ma Tuan-lin and the

Sung-shï reproduce textually this paragraph (the former writer

giving erroneously the distance between the capital and the sea

as 5000 li). Yule, Marco Polo, IL, p. 335, places the principal

port of the Chola kingdom at Kaveripattanam, the ` Pattanam

par excellence of the Coromandel Coast, and at one of the mouths

of the Kaveri. He says that there seems to be some evidence

that the Tanjore ports were, before 1300, visited by Chinese

trade. The only Lo-lan known to medieval Chinese is mentioned

in the T'ang-shu, 2218, and is identified with the capital of

Bamian, in Afghanistan. I think our text is corrupt here and

that the character lo should be changed to si, and that we should

read Si-lan, our Ceylon. Both Ma and the Sung-shy say that

2500 li south-east of Chu-lién was ` Si-lan-ch'ï-kuo with which it

was at war. Of course the distance mentioned is absurd,

but all figures connected with Chu-lién in Chinese accounts are

inexplicably exaggerated."