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

to a certain extent a compilation.¹ The editor has only one reproach to make,
namely, that the author does not always quote the sources from which he has got
his information. However, Tieffenthaler tells us that he has wandered through
several parts of India and made annotations of remarkable things. In fact his geog-
raphy of India was in his own days regarded as a very important work, the re-
sult of thirty years' travel and hard work (1743—1773) He says himself that he
travelled all over Oudh for a period of five years. »I have not only explored these
regions myself, but I also sent a man, aquainted with the elements of geographical
science, to the Kumaon mountains, to the waterfalls of the Ghogra, and even as far
as the Saltus Deucaronos', to ascertain the distances of the places there from each
other, and the direction of the river.» In 1765, when his means were exhausted,
he went to Bengal to procure some assistance from »the famous english nation, that
is known for its generosity and is philantropic to the miserables and poor», and in
1766 he started on his journey to Gogra. He made a map of the Ganges with
all its bends. In his preface he mentions all the places he has seen himself. The
sources he never visited. But he tells his readers, that beyond the huge glacier, from
underneath which the river issues three yards deep, there is no path leading to
the sources of the Ganges. And he adds that there had been a few persons,
»that climbed over this icy cliff, at the risk of their lives, in the hope of reach-
ing Mount Kela, Mahadeo's abode, and in it eternal bliss; but they either found
a grave in the snow or died from hunger and cold».² It is obvious that he has
not been to the lakes either. Regarding them one can apply to Tieffenthaler his
own words about the ancients, when they call, as he puts it, the actual Kumaon
Imaus: »they have not seen these countries and are usually wrong in their determination
of distant regions». But in one point he is decidedly right and that is when he says
that the source of the Indus is to be found in the Tibetan mountains. Concerning Tibet
he has heard that it is 5 months under snow. There is a very soft wool, musk and
white cow-tails. The country is governed by a regent called Lama Goru of clerical
rank and belonging to an order of hermits and adored as a god. There is in the
work quoted above an amusing illustration of »Patala or Patāra», which is the res-
idency of the Lama Goru or Lama grù, i. e. the high teacher or high lord (magnus
magister).
In the present chapter, however, we have only to deal with Tieffenthaler's
maps so far as the lakes and the sources of the great rivers are concerned. As

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