540 SlNO-lRANICA 



("yellow plum"). 1 Both fruits are referred to in Pahlavi literature 

 (above, pp. 192, 193). 



As to the transplantation of the Chinese peach into India, we have 

 an interesting bit of information in the memoirs of the Chinese pilgrim 

 Htian Tsafi. 2 At the time of the great Indo-Scythian king Kaniska, 

 whose fame spread all over the neighboring countries, the tribes west of 

 the Yellow River (Ho-si in Kan-su) dreaded his power, and sent hostages 

 to him. Kaniska treated them with marked attention, and assigned to 

 them special mansions and guards of honor. The country where the 

 hostages resided in the winter received the name Cmabhukti ("China 

 allotment," in the eastern Panjab). In this kingdom and throughout 

 India there existed neither pear nor peach. These were planted by the 

 hostages. The peach therefore was called cmanl ("Chinese fruit"); 

 and the pear, cmarajaputra ("crown-prince of China"). These names 

 are still prevalent. 3 Although Hiian Tsafi recorded in A.D. 630 an oral 

 tradition overheard by him in India, and relative to a time lying back 

 over half a millennium, his well-tested trustworthiness cannot be 

 doubted in this case: the story thus existed in India, and may indeed 

 be traceable to an event that took place under the reign of Kaniska, 

 the exact date of which is still controversial. 4 There are mainly two rea- 

 sons which prompt me to accept Huan Tsafi's account. From a botani- 

 cal point of view, the peach is not a native of India. It occurs there only 



1 In the Pamir languages we meet a common name for the apricot, Minjan 

 eri, WaxI ciwan or loan (but Sariqoll no$, Signi na&). The same type occurs in the 

 Dardu languages (jui or ji for the tree, jarote or jorote for the fruit, and juru for 

 the ripe fruit) and in Kacmlii (tser, tser-kul) ; further, in West-Tibetan cu-li or co-li, 

 Balti su-ri, Kanaurl lul (other Tibetan words for "apricot "are k'am-bu, a-u, and 

 Sa-rag, the last-named being dried apricots with little pulp and almost as hard as 

 a stone). KLAPROTH (Journal asiatique, Vol. II, 1823, p. 159) has recorded in Bu- 

 khara a word for the apricot in the form iserduli. It is not easy to determine how this 

 type has migrated. TOMASCHEK (Pamir-Dialekte, p. 791) is inclined to think that 

 originally it might have been Tibetan, as Baltistan furnishes the best apricots. 

 For my part, I have derived the Tibetan from the Pamir languages (T'oung Pao, 

 1916, p. 82). The word is decidedly not Tibetan; and as to its origin, I should 

 hesitate only between the Pamir and Dardu languages. 



2 Ta Tan Si yil ki t Ch. 4, p. 5. 



8 There are a few other Indian names of products formed with "China": 

 cinapitfa ("minium"), cinaka ("Panicum miliaceum, fennel, a kind of camphor"), 

 cinakarpura ("a kind of camphor"), cinavanga ("lead"). 



4 Cf. V. A. SMITH, Early History of India, 3d ed., p. 263 (I do not believe with 

 Smith that "the territory of the ruler to whose family the hostages belonged seems 

 to have been not very distant from Kashgar"; the Chinese term Ho-si, at the time 

 of the Han, comprised the present province of Kan-su from Lan-c"ou to An-si); 

 T. WAITERS, On Yuan Chwang's Travels, Vol. I, pp. 292-293 (his comments on 

 the story of the peach miss the mark, and his notes on the name Clna are erroneous; 

 see also PELLIOT, Bull, de VEcolefranQaise, Vol. V, p. 457). 



