On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s5: A-T'A-Li
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s5
- Language
- English
A-T'A-Li
v2.c22.s5.1
Proceeding with his narrative the pilgrim relates that "south-west from this he entered an estuary, and going north-west 2400 or 2500 li he arrived at the A-t'a(or -ch'a)-li country". This, he states, was above 6000 li in circuit, and its capital was above twenty li in circuit. The inhabitants were rich and flourishing, they were more traders than farmers; the soil was sandy and brackish and fruits and flowers were rare. The country produced a pepper-tree the leaves of which were like those of the *Shu-chiao*, and also the olibanum tree the leaves of which were like those of the *t'ang-li*. The climate was hot, and there was much wind and dust; the people were mean-spirited, prizing wealth and slighting moral worth. In speech and writing, and in social regulations and laws the inhabitants resembled those of Mālava; the majority did not believe in happiness (i. e., religious merit) but there were some who did; they worshipped Devas and of Deva-temples there were some more than ten (or, according to the B text, more than 1000); the followers of the various systems lived pell-mell.
v2.c22.s5.2
The term here rendered by "estuary" is *hai-chiao* (海交) which Julien translates "confluent de deux mers". This may be right but the expression denotes rather a place where a river joins the sea and so forms an estuary. In the *Fang-chih* instead of *hai-chiao* we have *hai-tao* or "sea-way", and the clause is a separate sentence—"from this, south-west, is an entrance to the sea". This may be the correct interpretation, the pilgrim merely making the general statement that there was a seaport or an estuary on the south-west side of the capital, and his description evidently applies to a maritime district. In the Life the estuary to the south-west is not mentioned, and the pilgrim proceeds north-west from Mālava, or rather from the brahmin's city, twenty *li* to the north-west of the capital, direct to *A-t'a-li*. Although there does not seem to be anything in the texts to support the view, yet we may with some probability assume that the pilgrim did not actually proceed to this country; there was no Buddhist sacred spot in it to attract him, and it was out of his way. Julien restores the original name of the country as Atali, but the characters may represent a word like Adal, or Akshal, or Atli, and the country here described still remains unidentified. It produced, the pilgrim tells us, a pepper-tree which had leaves like the *Shu* (that is, Ssŭ-chuan)-*chiao*, a species of Xanthoxylon, the fruit of which possesses properties like those of the pepper-plant. There was also the olibanum tree which he calls *hün-lu* (薰陸), a Chinese transcription of the Turkish word *ghyunluk*, as Dr. Hirth has shown. This tree, the pilgrim states, had leaves like the t'ang-li (棠梨), a name applied in China to a Pyrus and other trees. By his statement that "the majority of the people did not believe in happiness", he merely wished to intimate that they did not believe in karma, and so were not Buddhists.