On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s17: A-Tien-P‘O-Chih-Lo
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s17
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A-Tien-P‘O-Chih-Lo
v2.c22.s17.1
The pilgrim next relates that from Sindh he travelled south-west 1500 or 1600 *li* to the *A-tien-p‘o-chih-lo* country. This he describes as being above 5000 *li* in circuit. Its capital named *Kie(ka)-chi-ssŭ-fa-lo* was above 30 *li* in circuit; it was away in the west on the Sin-tu (Indus) and near the sea; its houses were handsome and rarities abounded. The country had latterly been without a sovereign and was under Sindh. The land was low and moist and the soil saltish. There were above 80 monasteries with above 5000 Brethren the most of whom were of the Hinayānist Sammatiya school. In the capital was a large handsomely ornamented Maheśvara Temple, the image in which had supernatural powers. As the Buddha had preached and taught in this land, Asoka had raised six topes in places associated with the Buddha’s visit.
v2.c22.s17.2
According to the Life it was from Suraṭh that the pilgrim going westward travelled to this country, and from Po-fa-to he went south-east back to Nālandā. The Chinese transcription *A-tien-p‘o-chih-lo* has been tentatively restored by Julien as Adhyavakila, but this cannot be right. The sounds of the characters give us rather a word like Ādinava-chila which is a Sanskrit compound. Cunningham makes the country to be “the fourth province of Sindh which in the seventh century was Kachh”, and he proposes to restore the Indian name as “Audumbatira or Audumbara, which Professor Lassen gives as the name of the people of Kachh”. Julien restores the name of the capital as Khajīśvara, and Lassen makes it Kachchheśvara, which is probably the correct word; but Cunningham's restoration Koṭiśvara is quite impossible.¹
v2.c22.s17.3
¹ A. G. I. p. 302; Julien, III, p. 411; Haig's 'Indus Delta Country' p. 36.