On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s21: Fa-La-Na
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s21
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Fa-La-Na
v2.c22.s21.1
We next read that from Avaṇḍa the pilgrim went north-east above 900 *li* to *Fa-la-na*. This country he describes as being over 4000 *li*, and its capital over twenty *li*, in circuit; it was well populated and was subject to Kapis. The country abounded in hills and woods, and had regular crops with a cool climate. The people were bold, fierce, and low-minded; their language had a little resemblance to that of "Mid-India"; their religion comprehended orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and they had no love for knowledge. There were some tens of Buddhist monasteries of which many were in ruins, and there were above 300 Brethren all Mahāyānists; there were also five Deva-Temples chiefly belonging to the Pāśupatas. Near the capital on the south side was an old monastery where the Buddha had preached and gladdened and stimulated mortals; beside it were places where the Four Past Buddhas had sat and walked for exercise. The pilgrim adds that he was informed by local report that a adjoining this country on the west was the *Ki-kiang-na* (稽 薑 那) country among mountain valleys, with local chiefs and no supreme sovereign. This country abounded in sheep and horses, including a breed of excellent horses very large and highly prized by other lands.
v2.c22.s21.2
The *Fa-la-na* of this passage may be restored as Varaṇa (Julien) or as Varṇa. St. Martin thinks the country corresponds to the modern Vanèh in the middle part of the river Gumal's course. Cunningham confidently identifies Varaṇa with Banu (Bannu) in the Kuram river district; he also regards it as identical with Fa-hsien's *Po-na*.¹ The *Ki-kiang-na* of the above passage has been supposed to be an unknown district called Kaikānān and Kikān, and conjectured by Cunningham to be "somewhere in the vicinity of Pishin and Kwetta". But all these proposed identifications by Cunningham are open to serious exceptions, and they do not seem to be reconcileable among themselves. According to the Life when the pilgrim left Avaṇḍa he proceeded east 700 *li*, and crossing the Indus, entered Sindh: from that he went back to Nālanda in Magadha, and thence to Prayāga as has been related in a previous chapter. From Prayāga he resumed his journey, and passing through Jālandhara, Simhapura, and Takshaśilā came to the Indus again, and went on to the Capital of Lan-p'o (Laghman). From this last a journey of 15 days due south brought him to the Varaṇa of this passage. In a very mountainous country 50 *li* or 10 miles would probably be an average day's journey, and the river Gumal is above 150 miles due south from Laghman.
v2.c22.s21.3
¹ Julien, III, p. 414; A. G. I. p. 84—86; Fo-kuo-chi, *ch*. 14.