592 Sino-Iranica 



does not form part of the transcription. This is most likely, but the 

 Sino-Indian word is thus recorded in the Pen ts x ao kan mu. 



64. Add: Skr. also bilala, birdla. 



65. Sikkim nolle, Dhimal nyul, Bodo nyulai ("ichneumon"). 



74. ban-de, as suggested by my friend W. E. Clark of the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago, is connected with Pali and Jaina Prakrit bhante, Skr. 

 bhadanta ("reverend"). V 



79. I have traced Tibetan sendha-pa to Sanskrit sindhuja. This, as 

 a matter of fact, is correct, but from a philological viewpoint the Tibetan 

 form is based on Sanskrit saindhava with the same meaning ("relating 

 to the sea, relating to or coming from the Indus, a horse from the Indus 

 country, rock-salt from the Indus region"). The same word we find in 

 Chinese garb as % ££ §1 sien-t'o-p'o, *sian-da-bwa, explained as "rock- 

 salt" (Fan yi min yi tsi, section 25). Tokharian has adopted it in the 

 form sindhap or sintdp (S. Levi, Journal asiatique, 191 1, II, pp. 124, 139). 



158. The recent discussion opened in the Journal of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society (19 17, p. 834) by Mr. H. Beveridge in regard to the 

 title tarxan (tarkhan, originally tarkan), then taken up by Dr. P. W. 

 Thomas (ibid., 1918, p. 122), and resumed by Beveridge (1918, p. 314), 

 induces me to enlarge my previous notes on this subject, and to trace 

 the early history of this curious term as accurately as in the present state 

 of science is possible. 



The word tarkan is of Old-Turkish, not of Mongol, origin. It is first 

 recorded during the T'ang dynasty (a.d. 618-906) as the designation of 

 a dignity, usually preceded by a proper name, both in the Old-Turkish 

 inscriptions of the Orkhon (for instance, Apa Tarkan) and in the Chinese 

 Annals of the T'ang (cf. Thomsen, Inscriptions de l'Orkhon, pp. 59, 

 131, 185; Radloff, Altturk. Inschriften, p. 369, and Wdrterb. Turk- 

 Dialecte, Vol. Ill*, col. 851; MarquArt, Chronologie d. altturk. In- 

 schriften, p. 43; Hirth, Nachworte zur Inschrift des Tonjukuk, 

 PP- 55 - 56). An old Chinese gloss relative to the significance of the 

 title does not seem to exist, or has not yet been traced. According to 

 Hirth, the title was connected with the high command over the troops. 

 The modern Chinese interpretation is "ennobled:" the title is be- 

 stowed only on those who have gained merit in war (Waiters, Essays, 

 p. 372). The Tibetan gloss indicated by me, "endowed with great 

 power, or empowered with authority," inspires confidence. The subse- 

 quent explanation, "exempt from taxes," seems to be a mere make- 

 shift and to take too narrow a view of the matter. A lengthy disserta- 

 tion on the meaning of the title is inserted in the Ain-i Akbari of 1597 

 (translation of Blochmann, p. 364); but it must not be forgotten that 

 what holds good for the Mongol and Mogul periods is not necessarily 



