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° What they are anxious to get is iron only; for a piece of iron as large as two fingers, one gets from them five to ten cocoa-guts. The men are entirely naked, while the women veil their person with some leaves. If the merchants in joke offer them their clothes, they wave their hands (to tell that) they do not use them. By this time the wind begins to blow from N. E.; hence the common expression: ‘Chi hao féng, Pi hao yii,’ ‘the constellation Chi (Sagittarius) loves wind, and the Pi (Taurus) loves rain,’ that is, the two draw wind and rain respectively towards themselves, and it means ‘ wind comes from the N.E., and the rain from the S.W. The Chinese Afolus is therefore Chi-po, i.e. Lord Chi or Uncle Sagittarius, ° Lit, ‘the pair of fives flew alone ;' the sail may have consisted of five lengths of canvas. Chavannes : ‘et la girouette de plumes flotta isolée.’ 1 See below. * This is I-tsing’s note. We must thus recognise Bhoga, ¢he Capital and the country of Sribhoga (=Malayn), though I-tsing uses bath names indiscriminately. The notes in Ltsing’s text have often been erroneously supposed to be by a later hand. As I have said elsewhere (pp. 8, 214, notes), we have no reason whatever to suppose this. He is wont to note any difficult passage throughout his works and translations. There are some such notes which no one but one who had been in India could add, e.g. see Memoirs, vol. ii, fol. 12; Record, vol. i, * fol. 3°; vol. iii, fols. r1*, 11>; vol. iv, fol. 14%. The commentator Kasyapa takes all the notes as by I-tsing. Besides, the note to the M@llasarvastivada-ckasatakarman quoted below (pp. xxxiji, xxxiv) clears up all doubts, where he says that Malayu then became Bhoga. * Ka-cha must be S. of the country of the Naked People, somewhere on the Atchin coast. This may represent Sanskrit kakéAa, ‘shore.’ The Chinese characters are now pronounced Hsieh-ch‘a or Chieh-ch‘a (ch’a is often misprinted for t'u; if so here, then Chieh-t'n). * Pin-lang, from the Malay pinang; Sanskrit pfiga. 5 These agree with an account given of the Nicobar Islands, see below, p. xxxviii, 1 LIFE AND TRAVELS OF I-TSING. ; xxxi This country is, I heard, in the direction of the south-west limit Shu-ch'uan (Ssii-ch'uan, in China). This island does not produce iron at all; gold and silver also are rare. The natives live solely on cocoa-nuts (ndlikera) and tubers; there is not much rice. And therefore what they hold most precious and valuable is Loha', which is the name for iron in this country, These people are not black, and are of medium height. They are skilled in making round chests of rattan; no other country can equal them. If ‘one refuses to barter with them, they discharge some poisoned arrows, one single shot of which proves fatal. In about half a month’s sail from here in the north-west direction we reached TAmralipti*, which constitutes the southern limit of E, India. It is more than sixty yoganas from Mahabodhi and Nalanda (C. India). On the eighth day of the second month of the fourth year of the Hsien-héng period (673) I arrived there. In the fifth month I resumed my journey westwards, finding companions here and there. I met for the first time Ta-ch'éng-téng (Mahdyanapradipa)* 2m Zdémraliph, and stayed with him a (part of the) year, while I learned the Brahma-language (Sanskrit) and practised the science of words (grammar, Sabdavidy4). Lastly, ; I started together with the master Téng (= Ta-ch‘éng-téng), taking the road which goes straight to the west, and many | hundreds of merchants came with us to C. India. At a distance of ten days’ journey from the Mahabodhi Vihara we passed a great mountain and bogs; the pass is dangerous and difficult to cross. It is important to go in a company of several men, and never to proceed alone, At that time I, I-tsing, was attacked by an illness of the season; my body was fatigued and without strength. I sought to follow the company of merchants, but tarrying and suffering, as I was, became unable to reach them. Although I exerted myself and wanted to proceed, yet I was obliged to stop a hundred times in going five Chinese miles. There were there about twenty priests of Nalanda, and with them the venerable Téng, who had all gone on in advance. I alone remained behind, and walked in the dangerous defiles without a companion. Late in the day, when the sun was about to set, some mountain brigands made their appear- _ 1 Le-ho in the Japanese text, but Lo-a in the Chinese. They evidently used the Sanskrit name, a 3 Page 185, note. S Page 211. A pupil of Hiuen Thsang. He travelled in Dvaravatt (W. Siam), Ceylon, S. India, and came to Tamralipti, where he stayed twelve years; skilled in Sanskrit. I-tsing goes with him to Nalanda, Vaisali, and Kusinagara ; died in the Parinirvéa Vibara at the last-mentioned town (Memoirs. i. fols. 12. 14: Chavannes. § 22, p. 68). xxxii GENERAL INTRODUCTION. ance ; drawing a bow and shouting aloud, they came and glared at me, and one after another insulted me. First they stripped me of my upper robe, and then took off my under garment. All the straps and girdles that were with me they snatched away also. I thought at that time, indeed, that my last farewell to this world was at hand, and that I should not fulfil my wish of a pilgrimage to the holy places. Moreover, if my limbs were thus pierced by the points of their lances, I could never succeed in carrying out the original enterprise so long meditated. Besides, there. was a rumour in the country of the West (India) that, when they took a white man, they killed him to offer a sacrifice to heaven (Devas). When I thought of this tale, my dismay grew twice as much. Therenpon I entered into a muddy hole, and besmeared all my bof@y with mud. I covered myself with leaves, and supporting myself on a stick, I advanced slowly. The evening of the day came, and the place of rest was as yet distant, At the second watch of night I reached my fellow-travellers. I heard the venerable Téng calling out for me with a loud voice from outside the village. When we met together, he kindly gave me a robe, and I washed my body in a pond and then came into the village. Proceeding northwards for a few days from that village, we arrived first at Nalanda and worshipped the Root Temple (Mala- gandhakusi), and we ascended the Grzdhrak(/a (Vulture) mountain, where we saw the spot on which the garments were folded’. Afterwards we came to the Mah4- bodhi Vibara*, and worshipped the image of the real face (of the Buddha). I took stuffs of thick and fine silk, which were presented by the priests and laymen of Shan-tung, made a kashdya (yellow robe) of them of the size of the Tathagata, and myself offered this robe to the Image. Many myriads of (small) canopies (also), which were entrusted to me by the Vinaya-master Hiuen of Pu, I presented on his-behalf. The Dhyana-master An-tao of Ts‘ao ‘ charged me to worship the image of Bodhi, and I discharged the duty in his name. Then I prostrated myself entirely on the ground with an undivided mind, sincere and respectful. First I wished for China that the four kinds of benefits ® > Hiuen Thsang, tom. iti, p. 21 : ‘Au milieu d’un torrent, il y a une vaste pierre sur laquelle le Tathagata fit sécher son vétement le religieux. Les raies de I’étoffe détachent encore aussi nettement que si elles avaient été ciselées.” * Near the Bodhi tree, built by a king of Ceylon (Memoirs, Chavannes, p. 84). This Vibra belonged to the Theravada, yet adhered to the Mahayana (Hiuen Thsang, iii, p. 487 seq.); this fact perhaps misled Hiuen Thsang, who mentions Ceylon as belonging to both. Bharukakkha and SurAshra also belonged to both, according to Hiuen Thsang. Compare Oldenberg, Vinaya- pn aan Nae aca pes LIFE AND TRAVELS OF I-TSING. xxxiii should widely prevail among all sentient beings (Han-shih= sattva) in the region of the Law (Dharmadhatu), and I expressed my desire for a general reunion under the Naga-tree to meet the honoured (Buddha) Maitreya and to conform to the true doctrine *, and then to obtain the knowledge that is not subject to births. I went round to worship all the holy places; I passed a house which zs known {to the Chinese) as ‘ Fan-chang’ (in Vaisdlt)? and came to Kusinagara, everywhere keeping myself devout and sincere. I entered into the Deer Park (M#gadava at Benares) and ascended the Cock Mountain (Kukkuéapadagiri near Gay); and lived in the Nalanda Vih4ra for ten years (probably a.p. 675-685). *In the first year of the Ch'ui-kung period (685) I parted with Wu-hing in India (in a place six yoganas east from Nélanda) *. After having collected the scriptures, I began to retrace my steps to come back ®. I then returned to Tamralipti. Before I reached there, I met a great band of robbers again; it was with difficulty that I escaped the fate of being pierced by their swords, and I could thus preserve my life from morning to evening. Afterwards I took ship there and passed Ka-cha®. The Indian texts TI brought formed more than g00,000 slokas, which, if translated into Chinese, would make a thousand volumes, and with these I am now staying at Bhoga. "Roughly speaking, the distance from the middle country (Madhyamadesa) of India to the border lands (Pratyantaka) is more than'300 yoganas in the east and in the west. The border lands in the south and in the north are more than 400 yoganas distant. Although I myself did not see (all the limits) and ascertain (the distance), yet I know it by inquiry. TAmralipti is forty yoganas south from the eastern limit of India, There are five or six monasteries; the people are Page 213, note 1. Tsung here =‘ school,’ ‘ tenet,’ ¢ doctrine.’ ? Fan-chang= ‘ten cubits square.