On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.s7.6

v2.c22.s7.6

In the passage with which we are now concerned the pilgrim calls the reigning sovereign of Valabhi "a nephew of Śīladitya formerly king of Mālava". For the word formerly here the original is *hsi* (昔) which has the meaning of former or formerly. But the B text, and it alone, has instead of *hsi* the character *chi* (皆) meaning "all"; as the construction shows, this is evidently a printer's or copyist's mistake, and it makes nonsense; this mistake caused the serious misunderstanding of the passage to be found in Julien's translation. The king on the throne was the nephew and successor of the good king Śīlāditya, who reigned in the latter part of the sixth century and about sixty years before the time of Yuan-chuang's visit, ruling over Mālava and Valabhi. He was also, the pilgrim tells us, "a son-in-law of the Śīlāditya reigning then at Kanyākubja". Here the words rendered "son-in-law" are *tzŭ-hsü* (子婿) and Julien took these to mean "son-in-law, of son", but the phrase means simply "son-in-law", and the Life employs the common term *nü-hsü* (女婿). Julien transcribes the name of the reigning king by "T'u-lo-p'o-po-tu" and he restores the name as Dhruvapatu; this agrees with the translation *Ch'ang-jui* (常 叡), or "permanent acuteness", added in a note to the text. But the name is *Tu-lo-p'o-po-t'a* (杜魯婆 跋陀) which is perhaps for Dhruva-bhaṭṭa. In the Life we have the same transcription but a different rendering, viz. *ti-ch'ou* (帝 幬) that is, "Indra's(?) helmet", and this seems to require a different restoration of the original.