On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c7.s9.6

v1.c7.s9.6

The *Fo-ho* (縛喝) of this passage has been identified with the city and district of Balkh and the identification is probably quite correct. But we cannot properly regard the Chinese word as a transcription of the word Balkh, or of its variant Pahl, or of Vahlika the name in the Brihat-samhitā and supposed to be the original form.¹ In the Life the name is given as *Fo-ho-lo* and I-ching writes it *Fo-ho-lo*.² These transcriptions seem to require an original like Bokhar or Bokhara, the name of the country which included Balkh. The *Fo-ho* or Balkh of our pilgrim was evidently not very far west or north-west from *Huo* (Kunduz) and it was under the same Turkish governor with that State. The pilgrim, the Life tells us, beheld Balkh as a "Better Land", with its cities and their surroundings in bold relief, and its vales and country districts rich and fertile. The description which he gives of the capital and the surrounding district agrees with the accounts of later travellers.¹