On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c21.s2: Ka-Chu-Wên(?)-K'I-Lo
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c21.s2
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Ka-Chu-Wên(?)-K'I-Lo
v2.c21.s2.1
From Champā, the pilgrim proceeds to relate, he travelled east above 400 li to the kie(ka)-chu-wên(?)-k'i-lo Country. This country was above 2000 li in circuit, low and moist, yielding good crops; the climate was warm and the people were straight forward; they esteemed superior abilities and held learning in respect. There were six or seven Buddhist Monasteries and above 300 Brethren; the Deva-Temples were ten in number and the various systems lived pell-mell. The native dynasty had been extinguished some centuries before the time of the pilgrim's visit, and the country had come under a neighbouring state, so the capital was deserted and the people lived in towns and villages. Hence when king Śīlāditya in his progress to "East India" held his court here, he cut grass to make huts, and burned these when leaving. There were many wild elephants in the south of this country. In the northern part of the country, not far from the Ganges, was a lofty belvedere built of stone and brick; its base was broad and high, and its artistic ornamentation was exquisite; on each of its sides were carved images of holy beings, the Buddhas and the devas being made different in appearance.
v2.c21.s2.2
The name of the country here described by our pilgrim is "Kie-schou-ou-khi-lo" in Julien's transcription. This agrees with the reading in the D text which is 羯朱喝祇羅, but instead of the third character of this transcription (read wu or wo) the other texts have 竭, which is properly pronounced wên or mên. The Fang-chih agrees with the D text; and in one text of the Life we have mo (末) instead of chu and the name is given as Ka-mo-wu-k'i-lo. As we are told to pronounce the character for wên here as wo, and as this character is used in another place to transcribe the syllable ut or ū, we should perhaps read the name here Ka-chu-wo-k'i-lo. Julien restores the Indian original as Kajughira, and this restoration has been generally followed, although it seems to leave out the third character. In a note to our text we are told that the popular name for the country was Ka-ying-kie-lo. Julien's reading here was apparently Ka-shêng-kie-lo which may be the correct reading. This would give us an original like Kajangala, and Kajangala or Kajangalā is the name of a place in this neighbourhood mentioned in very early Buddhist Pali texts.¹
v2.c21.s2.3
¹ [See J. R. A. S. 1904 pp. 86-88.]
v2.c21.s2.4
Cunningham makes the country of our passage to be Kānkjol now Rājmahal, and Fergusson fancies that "the place must be sought for either at Sicligully or Rajmahal, or somewhere between these places". In the T'ang-Shu we have the name of a country given as in our text except for the omission of the character for *khi*, probably a slip of the copyist. There this country is described as being 400 *li* south-west from *Pun-na-fa-tan-na*, in the east of "Mid-India", and on the south of the Ganges.¹
v2.c21.s2.5
¹ A. G. I. p. 478; Fergusson op. c. p. 238; T'ang-Shu, *ch*. 43.
v2.c21.s2.6
For the last clause of the above passage Julien has—"Sur les quatre faces de la tour, on a exécuté en bas relief, dans des compartiments séparés, les images des saints, des *Bouddhas* et des *Dêvas*". This does not seem to express the author's meaning, which seems to be that the images of the Buddhist worthies, or of the Buddha, were of a different character from those of the devas. The phrase *chü-pie* (區別) which we have met already, is explained as meaning *yi-chung* or "of different kinds", and we read of the *chü-pie*, distinctive differences of the 80 000 axioms of Buddhism.