On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c23.s19.2

v2.c23.s19.2

A Chinese note inserted in the text of this passage tells us that *Ka* (or *K'a*)-*sha* is the old *Su* (or *Shu*)-*leh*, that this latter was the name of the capital of the country, and that it was incorrect for *Shih-li-ki-li-to-ti* which was the correct name. The last is restored by Julien as "Śrīkritati", a word which does not seem to be known to the dictionaries. It is possibly a mistaken identification by the Chinese annotator. But the *Ka-sha* of our text is apparently the *Su-leh* of Chinese writers from the time of the Han dynasty down to that of the Mongols (Yuan). In the latter period the foreign name Kāshghar or Kashgar came to be used, but some Chinese writers still occasionally employ the old name. The country called *Su-leh* was evidently in former times of much greater extent than the modern district of Kashgar. Our pilgrim's *Ka-sha* is apparently the *Ka-shih* (伽師) which was the capital of *Su-leh* in the time of the After-Wei and T'ang dynasties.¹ It may be also the *Ka-sha* mentioned in a Mahāyāna treatise as the name of a foreign land the people of which had "fine", that is shrill voices,² and it may be the Khasa which was in the Brihat-Samhitā's north-east division.³ In the Chinese translations of the Divyāvadāna one text gives *Ka-shih*, and the other *Ka-sha*, as the name of the country to which Prince Asoka went from Takshaśilā. This seems to favour Burnouf's suggested correction of Khaśa for the "Śvaśa" of the original text.⁴ *Ka-sha* (or *Ka-shih*) that is perhaps Kāsh, was the name of the capital and of the country. The city, we are told, was in the water, and hence perhaps the name *Su-leh*, that is *Su-lik* or *Su-laq*, from *su*, "water". Its modern designation is translated by the Chinese "Motley (kash) houses (gar),¹ but this seems to be an improbable rendering. There is a Turki word *Kasha* (or Kashka) which means "variously coloured", but *gar*, in Mongolian *ger*, is perhaps for the Chinese interpretation of a corruption of the Hindu word *ghar* which means "a house".