On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c21.s9: Kung-Yü (Gu or Ya)-T‘O
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c21.s9
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Kung-Yü (Gu or Ya)-T‘O
v2.c21.s9.1
The narrative in the Records proceeds to tell us that from the Oṭa country a journey south-west, through a forest, for over 1200 *li*, brought the pilgrim to the Kung-yü (or -gu or -ya)-t‘o country. This country was above 1000 *li* in circuit, and its capital was above twenty *li* in circuit. It was a hilly country bordering on a bay of the sea, with regular harvests, a hot climate. The people were tall and valorous and of a black complexion, having some sense of propriety and not very deceitful. Their written language was the same as that of India, but their ways of speaking were different, and they were not Buddhists. Deva-Temples were above 100 in number, and of Tirthikas there were more than 10 000. The country contained some tens of towns which stretched from the slopes of the hills to the edge of the sea. As the towns were naturally strong there was a gallant army which kept the neighbouring countries in awe, and so there was no powerful enemy. As the country was on the seaside it contained many rare precious commodities; the currency was couries and pearls; and the country produced large dark-coloured elephants which were capable of long journeys.
v2.c21.s9.2
The *Kung-yü-t'o* of this passage has been tentatively restored by Julien as *Konyodha* and this restoration has been accepted. But the characters (恭御陀) were pronounced *Kong-gu-t'o* or *Kong-ya-t'o* and the original was probably a word like Kongudha or Konyadha. In his translation of the text Julien makes the author state that "Les frontières de ce royaume embrassent plusieurs dizaines de petites villes qui touchent à des montagnes, et sont situées au confluent de deux mers". But there is no word for *two* in the text aud the term *hai-chiao* (海交) here means "the meeting of sea and land". The pilgrim wished his readers to understand that the towns at one extremity "continued the hills" (*chie-shan-ling* 接山嶺), and at the other were on the sea-shore (據海交). This is also the sense in which the compiler of the Fang-chih understood the description. Cunningham and Fergusson agree in identifying *Kung-yü-t'o* with the district about the Chilka Lake, and the latter investigator thought that the capital "was situated to the northward of the Chilka lake and somewhere between Kuttack and Aska, where one of Asoka's great edict tablets still exists".¹ This *Kung-yü-t'o* of our pilgrim's narrtive may perhaps be the Kūṇḍya of the Hemakūṇḍya (called also Hemakuṭya) in the south-eastern division of the Bṛihat-Saṃhitā's topography.²
v2.c21.s9.3
¹ A. G. I. p. 513: Fergusson op. c. p. 250.
v2.c21.s9.4
² Fleet in Ind. Ant. Vol. XXII, pp. 171, 179.
v2.c21.s9.5
It is strange to find Yuan-chuang here describing *Kung-yü-t'o* as a great military country without a formidable enemy. At the time of the pilgrim's arrival in these parts, as we learn from the Life, this country had been invaded by Śīlāditya, king of Kanyakubja, and it was then apparently a part of that great sovereign's kingdom. It will be noticed that the pilgrim, in this description of the country, does not tell us anything about the government.
Cites (1)
- Bṛhatsaṃhitā — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit