On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c23.s1.3

v2.c23.s1.3

The *Fu-li-shih-t'ang-na* of this passage has been tentatively restored by Julien as Vrijisthāna, and St. Martin restoring the name as Vardasthāna has identified the country with that of the Vardaks (Wardaks) about 40 miles north of Ghazni.¹ This restoration seems to be impossible and Julien’s suggestion is interesting but doubtful. Cunningham identifies the country with the Kabul district and restores the pilgrim’s name for it as Urddhasthāna, a restoration in favour of which nothing can be said.² Then St. Martin identifies the capital of this country, *Hu-pi-na*, with the modern Hupian or Opian, while Cunningham restores the name as Kophene and makes the city to be Kabul. In the D text of the Life the country is called *Fo-li-shih* (佛栗氏)-sthāna, and in the other texts we have *Fo-li-shih-kuo* and *Sa-t'ang-na* (sthāna)-kuo. The insertion of *kuo*, "country" after *Fo-li-shih* is probably due to a copyist or printer, but this transcription does not seem to suit the restoration Vrijisthāna. The T'ang-Shu, quoting the pilgrim’s account, writes the name of the country as it is in the texts of the Records, but in other passages the historian seems to call the country *Hu-shih-kien* (護時健).³ This term perhaps represents a word like Gozkand, and it may give the local and popular name, while our pilgrim uses the designation employed by the Buddhist Brethren. It is in favour of the restoration Vrijisthāna that the three characters which make Vriji here are those used by Yuan-chuang to transcribe this word as the name of the Vṛiji or Vajjian people who lived in the Vesāli country. But Yule takes the transcription of the present passage to be possibly for Parāchisthāna, the Parāchis being one of the many tribes which inhabited the villages and districts of Kabul at the time of Baber.¹ This tribe, which was a distinct race with a language of its own, may have given its name to the district it occupied, but the characters Fu-li-shih cannot be taken to represent Parāchi.