Pranam
Whereas the British massacred our history, out of bias, and many
Indians' travelogues, History and epistemologies and Indology made out
following their cult for name, fame and dollars- yet the real truth of our
cult is seen also from the Sikkim and Bhutan and Nepal Monastery of
Buddists and Hindu cults; the chinese travellers spoke history with name of
Koings which Britishers side-lined it all. Muslim wrote so highly of our
Maths and astrology astronomy wisdom in urdu. However, we remained
taciturn, all the years; and we also prevented the Govt from coming out
high. I cut across a book and try to transmit about the 56 nations across
the bhaaratha varsha written by the chinese well known travellers. It is >
56 nations within. KR IRS 11 2 23
Buddhist records of the Western world (Xuanzang)
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/south-asia/book/buddhist-records-of-the-western-world-xuanzang>
by Samuel Beal | 1884
South Asia <https://www.wisdomlib.org/south-asia>
The full text of the Buddhist records of the Western world (Xuanzang) in
English is available here and publically accesible (free to read online).
Of course, I would always recommend buying the book so you get the latest
edition. You can see all this book’s content by visiting the pages in the
below index:
Introduction (a): General introduction
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/south-asia/book/buddhist-records-of-the-western-world-xuanzang/d/doc220095.html>
The progress which has been made in our knowledge of Northern Buddhism
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/northern-buddhism#buddhism> during
the last few years is due very considerably to the discovery of the
Buddhist literature of China
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/cina#buddhism>. This literature (now
well known to us through the catalogues already published) contains,
amongst other valuable works, the records of the travels of various Chinese
Buddhist pilgrims who visited India during the early centuries of our era.
These records embody the testimony of independent eye-witnesses as to the
facts related in them, and having been faithfully preserved and allotted a
place in the collection of the sacred hooks of the country, their evidence
is entirely trustworthy.
It would be impossible to mention *seriatim* the various points of interest
in these works, as they refer to the geography, history, manners, and
religion of the people of India. The reader who looks into the pages that
follow will find ample material for study on all these questions. But there
is one particular that gives a more than usual interest to the records
under notice, and that is the evident sincerity and enthusiasm of the
travellers themselves. Never did more devoted pilgrims leave their native
country to encounter the perils of travel in foreign and distant lands;
never did disciples more ardently desire to gaze on the sacred vestiges of
their religion; never did men endure greater sufferings by desert,
mountain, and sea than these simple-minded earnest Buddhist priests. And
that such courage, religious devotion, and power of endurance should he
exhibited by men so sluggish, as we think, in their very nature as the
Chinese, this is very surprising, and may perhaps arouse some consideration.
Buddhist hooks began to be imported into China during the closing period of
the first century of our era. From these books the Chinese learned the
history of the founder of the new religion, and became familiar with the
names of the sacred spots he had consecrated by his presence. As time went
on. and strangers from India and the neighbourhood still flocked into the
Eastern Empire, some of the new converts (whose names have been lost) were
urged by curiosity or a sincere desire to gaze on the mementoes of the
religion they had learned to adopt, to risk the perils of travel and visit
the western region. We are told by I-tsing (one of the writers of these
Buddhist records), who lived about 670 A.D., that 500 years before his time
twenty men, or about that number, had found their way through the province
of Sz’chuen to the Mahabodhi
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/mahabodhi#buddhism> tree in India,
and for them and their fellow countrymen a Maharaja
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/maharaja#buddhism> called Srigupta
built a temple. The establishment was called the “Tchina Temple.” In
I-tsing’s days it was in ruins. In the year 290 a.d. we find another
Chinese pilgrim called Chu Si-hing visiting Khotan; another called Fa-ling
shortly afterwards proceeded to North India, and we can hardly doubt that
others unknown to fame followed their example. At any rate, the recent
accidental discovery of several stone tablets with Chinese
inscriptions at Buddha
Gaya <https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/buddhagaya#buddhism>, on two of
which we find the names of the pilgrims Chi-I and Ho-yun, the former in
company “with some other priests,” shows plainly that the sacred spots were
visited from time to time by priests from China, whose names indeed are
unknown to us from any other source, but who were impelled to leave their
home by the same spirit of religious devotion and enthusiasm which actuated
those with whom we are better acquainted.
The first Chinese traveller whose name and writings have come down to us is
the Sakyaputra Fa-hian
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/fa-hian#history>. He is the author of
the records which follow in the pages of the present Introduction. His
work, the was first known in Europe through a translation made by M. Abel
Remusat. Rat Klaproth claimed the discovery of the book itself from the
year 1816, and it was he who shaped the rough draft of Remusat’s
translation from chap. xxi. of the work in question to the end. Of this
translation nothing need be said in this place; it has been dealt with
elsewhere. It will he enough, therefore, to give some few particulars
respecting the life and travels of the pilgrim, and for the rest to refer
the reader to the translation which follows.
Introduction (b): Shih Fa-hian or Faxian (A.D. 400)
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/south-asia/book/buddhist-records-of-the-western-world-xuanzang/d/doc220096.html>
In agreement with early custom, the Chinese mendicant priests who adopted
the Buddhist faith changed their names at the time of their leaving their
homes (ordination), and assumed the title of Sakyaputras, sons or
mendicants of Sakya <https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/shakya#buddhism>.
So we find amongst the inscriptions at Mathura
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/mathura#buddhism> the title Sakya
Bhikshunyaka or Sakya Bhikshor added to the religious names of the
different benefactors there mentioned. The pilgrim Fa-hian
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/fa-hian#history>, therefore, whose
original name was Kung, when he assumed the religious title by which he is
known to us, took also the appellation of Shih or the Sakyaputra, the
disciple or son of Sakya. He was a native of Wu-Yang, of the district of
Ping-Yang, in the province of Shan-si. He left his home and became a
Sramanera <https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/sramanera#buddhism> at
three years of age. His early history is recorded in the work called
*Ko-sang-chuen*, written during the time of the Liang dynasty, belonging to
the Suh family (502-507 A.D.) But so far as we are now concerned, we need
only mention that he was moved by a desire to obtain books not known in
China <https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/cina#buddhism>, and with that
aim set out in company with other priests (some of whom are named in the
records) from Chang’an, A.D. 399, and after an absence of fourteen years
returned to Nankin, where, in connection with Buddhabhadra (an Indian
Sramana <https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/shramana#buddhism>, descended
from the family of the founder of the Buddhist religion), he translated
various works and composed the history of his travels. He died at the age
of eighty-six.
Fa-hian’s point of departure was the city of Chang’an in Shen-si; from this
place he advanced across the Lung district (or mountains) to the fortified
town of Chang-yeh in Kan-suh; here he met with some other priests, and with
them proceeded to Tun-hwang, a town situated to the south of the Bulunghir
river, lat. 39 30' N., long. 95 E. Thence with four companions he pushed
forward, under the guidance, as it seems, of an official, across the desert
of Lop to Shen-shen, the probable site of which is marked in the map
accompanying the account of Prejevalsky’s journey through the same
district; according to this map, it is situated in lat. 38° N., and long.
87° E. It corresponds with the Cherchen of Marco Polo. Fa-hian tells us
that Buddhism <https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/buddhism#buddhism>
prevailed
in this country, and that there were about 4000 priests. The country itself
was rugged and barren. So Marco Polo says, “The whole of this province is
sandy, but there are numerous towns and villages.” The Venetian traveller
makes the distance from the town of Lop five days’ journey. Probably
Fa-hian did not visit the town of Cherchen, but after a month in the
kingdom turned to the north-west, apparently following the course of the
Tarim, and after fifteen days arrived in the kingdom of Wu-i or Wu-ki. This
kingdom seems to correspond to Karshar or Karasharh, near the Lake Tenghiz
or Bagarash, and is the same as the’O-ki-ni of Hiuen Tsiang. Prejevalsky
took three days in travelling from Kara
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/kara#buddhism>-moto to Korla, a
distance of about 42 miles,so that the fifteen days of Fa-hian might well
represent in point of time the distance from Lake Lob to Karasharh. Our
pilgrims would here strike on the outward route of Hiuen Tsiang. It was at
this spot they fell in with their companions Pao-yun and the rest, whom
they had left at Tun-hwang. These had probably travelled to Karasharh by
the northern route, as it is called, through Kamil or Kamul to Pidshan and
Turfan; for we read that whilst Fa-hian remained at Karasharh, under the
protection of an important official, some of the others went back to
Kao-chang (Turfan), showing that they had come that way.
>From Karasharh Fa-hian and the others, favoured by the liberality of Kung
sun (who was in some way connected with the Prince of Ts’in), proceeded
south-west to Khotan. The route they took is not well ascertained; but
probably they followed the course of the Tarim and of the Khotan rivers.
There were no dwellings or people on the road, and the difficulties of the
journey and of crossing the rivers “exceeded power of comparison.” After a
month and five days they reached Khotan. This country has been identified
with Li-yul of the Tibetan
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/tibetan#history> writers. There is
some reason for connecting this “land of Li” with the Lichchhavis of Vaisali
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vaishali#buddhism>. It is said by
Csoma Korosi “that the Tibetan writers derive their first king (about 250
B.c.) from the Litsabyis or Lichavyis.” The chief prince or ruler of the
Lichchhavis was called the “great lion” or “the noble lion.” This is
probably the explanation of Maha
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/maha#buddhism>-li, used by Spence
Hardy as “the name of the king of the Lichawis.” Khotan would thus be the
land of the lion-people (*Siṃhas*). Whether this be so or not, the polished
condition of the people and their religious zeal
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/zeal#buddhism> indicate close
connection with India, more probably with Baktria. The name of the great
temple, a mile or two to the west of the city, called the Nava
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/nava#buddhism>-sangharama, or royal
“new temple,” is the same as that on the south-west of Balkh, described by
Hiuen Tsiang; and the introduction of Vaisravana
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vaishravana#buddhism> as the
protector of this convent, and his connection with Khotan, the kings of
that country being descended from him, indicate a relationship, if not of
race, at least of intercourse between the two kingdoms.
After witnessing the car procession of Khotan, Fa-hian and some others (for
the pilgrims had now separated for a time), advanced for twenty-five days
towards the country of Tseu-ho, which, according to Klaproth, corresponds
with the district of Yangi-hissar, from which there is a caravan route due
south into the mountain region of the Tsung-ling. It was by this road they
pursued their journey for four days to a station named Yu-hwui, or, as it
may also be read, Yu-fai'; here they kept their religious fast, after
which, journeying for twenty-five days, they reached the country of
Kie-sha. I cannot understand how either of the last-named places can he
identified with Ladakh.Yu-hwui is four days south of Tseu-ho; and
twenty-five days beyond this brings the pilgrims to the country of Kie-sha,
in the centre of the Tsung-ling mountains.
Nor can we, on the other hand, identify this kingdom of Kie-sha (the
symbols are entirely different from those used by Hiuen Tsiang, ii. p. 306,
for Kashgar) with that of the Kossaioi of Ptolemy, the Kliasas of Manu
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/manu#buddhism>, and the Ivhasakas of
the *Vishnu* <https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vishnu#history> *Purana*
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/purana#buddhism>. These appear to
have been related to the Cushites of Holy Scripture.( But the British said
Vishnu purana is unreliable) KR
Advancing for a month across the Tsung-ling range towards India, the
pilgrims reached the little country of To-li, that is, the valley of Derail
in the Dark country. This valley is on the right or western bank of the
Indus, long. 73 *44'* E., and is watered by a river Daril. Still advancing
south-west for fifteen days, they strike the Indus (or probably the Swat
river), crossing which, they enter on the kingdom of Udyana, where they
found Buddhism in a flourishing condition. Concerning this country and its
traditions, we have ample records in Hiuen Tsiang, Book iii. (p. 119). Here
then we may leave Fa-hian; his farther travels may be followed by the
details given in his own writings, and to these we refer the reader.
11 2 23 Part 1
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