Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c32.s1.71

c32.s1.71

¹ Mention of *Chīna* is innocuous, for *Chīna* which invariably comes along bwit *Darada* or other Himalayan countries in ancient Sanskrit literature clearly refers to ‘*Shina*,’ the Gilgit tribe still retaining the word and having mulberry tree and silk industry. See the article in Ency. Brit. on ‘China,’ and the identification by Sir George Grierson in LSI., X., Part 4, p. 5, n [‘but I would suggest that in this (Manu X. 44) and ‘similar passages, they are the great Shin race, still surviving in Gilgit and the vicinity.’] It may be added that the Chīnas were regarded to have been of Kshatriya origin. They spoke a language of Sanskrit base as shown by the AŚ. which says that the silks produced in Chīna-country bore the names *kauteya* and *chīnapaṭṭa*. Neither *kauteya* nor *paṭṭa* (Skt. *pattra*) is a Chinese word. All the members of the group where Chīna occurs are Himalayan peoples. *Chīna* alone cannot jump over thousands of miles away into China. In the same Chapter (XI. 11) chīna-*si* furs or skins are mentioned as coming from Bālhava, which according to Bhaṭṭasvāmin is a Himalayan country. Gilgit and Cashmere still produce both skins and silk. Interchange between *ch* and *sh* (Shin=Chīn) is common in Shin, e.g. *push*-*puch*. Similarly, *ālakanda* of the AŚ. (p. 78) is misunderstood as being connected with Alexandria on a wrong philology. Alexandria becomes *alasadda* as in the *Milinda P.* A coral variety is called *ālakandaka* in the AŚ. Any root-like thing is *kanda* in Sanskrit. A coral-shoot will be called *kanda*. *Ala* means yellow (orpiment, orpiment-colour)—*āla-kandaka*=‘root-coral with yellow tinge.’