588 Sino-Iranica 



Ainslie, 1 the plant was brought to India from Persia, where it is 

 common, by Sir John Malcolm. This is quite possible; but the fact 

 cannot be doubted that the basil was known in India at a much earlier 

 date, for we have a variety of Sanskrit names for it. Also G. Watt 2 

 holds that the herb is indigenous in Persia and Sind. It is now culti- 

 vated throughout tropical India from the Panjab to Burma. 



The Chinese name of Ocimum basilicum is lo-lo M-W) (*la-lak). 

 It is first described in the Ts'i min yao $u of the sixth century, where it 

 is said that Si Lo (273-333) tabooed the name (on account of the 

 identity of the second character with that in his own name, cf. above, 

 p. 298) and changed it into Ian hiaii U3 W; but T'ao Hun-kin (451-536) 

 mentions it again as lo-lo, and gives as popular designation Si-wah-mu 

 ts'ai Hit ^ ("vegetable of the goddess Si-wan-mu"). The Ts'i 

 min yao Su cites an older work Wei hunfu sii ^ BL 1st M. ("Preface to 

 the Poems of Wei Hun") to the effect that the plant lo-lo grows on the 

 hills of the K'un-lun and comes from the primitive culture of the 

 Western Barbarians ({i} ® i£ £ f&). This appears to be an allusion to 

 foreign origin; nevertheless an introduction from abroad is not hinted 

 at in any of the subsequent herbals. Of these, the Pen ts'ao of theKia-yu 

 period (1056-64) is the first which speaks of the basil as introduced 

 into the materia medica. The name lo-lo has no meaning in Chinese, 

 and at first sight conveys the impression of a foreign word. Each of the 

 two elements is most frequent in transcriptions from the Sanskrit. In 

 fact, one of the Sanskrit names of the basil is karalaka (or karala), and 

 Chinese *la-lak (*ra-lak) corresponds exactly; the first syllable ka- is 

 sometimes dropped in the Indian vernaculars. 3 If this coincidence is 

 fortuitous, the accident is extraordinary; but it is hardly possible to 

 believe in an accident of this kind. 



There is, further, a plant ££ #8 M. Wlfou-lan-lo-lo, *fu (bu)-lan-la-lak, 

 solely mentioned by C'en Ts'an-k'i of the eighth century as growing in 

 Sogdiana (K'an) and resembling the hou-p'o }$■ tr (Magnolia hypoleuca) , 

 Japanese hd-no-ki. 4 The Pen ts % ao kah mu has therefore placed this 

 notice as an appendix to hou-p'o. This Sogdian plant and its name 

 remain unidentified. At the outset it is most improbable that a Mag- 

 nolia is involved; this is a typical genus of the far east, which to my 

 knowledge has not yet been traced in any Iranian region. Boissier's 



1 Materia Indica, Vol. II, p. 424. 



8 Dictionary, Vol. V, p. 441. 



8 Cf. for instance kakinduka (" Diospyros tomentosa") — Uriya kendhu, Bengal, 

 kend. 



* Cen lei pen ts'ao, Ch. 12, p. 56 b; Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 35 A, p. 4; StuartI 

 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 255. 



