On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c6.s5: Su-Li
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c6.s5
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Su-Li
v1.c6.s5.1
The pilgrim adds—
v1.c6.s5.2
From the city of the Su-she water to the Kasanna country the territory and its inhabitants are called *Su-li*. This name is applied also to the language and the writing of the people. The letters of their language are only 20 (in the B text 30) odd which have come to produce a vast vocabulary: they read their writing vertically: teacher transmits instruction to his successor in unbroken continuity. Their garments, which are tight-fitting, are felt (in B *tich*) and serge for inside and skins and wool (or Cotton *tich*) outside. They cut the hair even leaving the top of the head exposed, some shave off all the hair, and they bind the forehead with a silk band. They are of large stature but of a cowardly disposition: they are treacherous and deceitful in their ways and very avaricious. Father and son scheme for gain: wealth gives eminence: there is no distinction between the well-born and the low-born: one who is extremely rich may live on poor food and wear coarse clothing. The people are half-and-half traders and farmers.
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The country and people here called *Su-li* (窣利) are apparently almost unknown, at least by this name. I-ching several times mentions a region and people which he calls *Su-li* (速利) and this word is probably the Su-li of our passage. But whereas Yuan-chuang restricts his name to a small defined district, I-ching seems to use his Su-li as a general name for the northern extra-India people called Hu (胡) or at least for a main division of the Hu.¹ So also in his Sanskrit-Chinese Vocabulary I-ching gives Sali transcribed *Su-li* as the Sanskrit equivalent for Hu: the transcription for Sali is generally Su-li but in one place it is, perhaps by mistake, *Sunlin*. As to what Sali or Su-li means we seem to be left in ignorance. Alberuni mentions a country Sūlika which he places in the north, and another Sūlika which he puts in the north-west, but the latter name, which is taken from the Brihat-Samhitā should perhaps be read Mūlika.¹ It seems probable that the Su-li of our pilgrim corresponds to the "Sārts" of later times. This is a term applied, we are told, by the nomads of Central Asia to all dwellers in towns and villages without regard to race or origin. But, according to M. de Ujfalvy, the Tajiks are not counted as Sārts. These Tajiks, it is important to remember, are Iranians (Eranians) of three kinds, (1) indigenous Iranians, (2) Persian colonists, and (3) the descendants of Persian slaves. It is interesting to compare M. de Ujfalvy's "Carte ethnographique de l'Asie centrale" with Yuan-chuang's narrative and the description of the Su-li with that of the Sārts.² But although the descriptions may correspond it does not seem right to regard Su-li as a transcription of Sārt. Like another word to be noticed hereafter it may stand for the Turkic Suliq in the sense of "having water", a term which seems to be very appropriate to at least a portion of the Su-li region but not to all. We should probably regard the pilgrim's statement that the country was called Su-li as a mistake and the name should perhaps be regarded as applying only to the inhabitants and their language.
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¹ Nan-hai-ch'i-kuei Chs. 9, 10, 25, and Takakusu pp. 49, 68, 69, 119.
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¹ Alberuni Vol. I. pp. 300, 302: Ind. Ant. Vol. XXII. p. 190.
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² Le Kohistan, Le Ferghanah et Kouldja pp. 59, 187.
Cites (1)
- Bṛhatsaṃhitā — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit