68 Chinese Account of India. [Jan. 



the Fan (or Sanscrit) language ; leaves of the peuto are used to preserve 

 a record of things*. 



There is a spot in this kingdom, where are said to be, and where are 

 pointed out, ancient vestiges of the foot of Fuh (or Buddha); in their 

 creed, the followers of this religion affirm that these vestiges of Buddha 

 really exist. They relate that, by carefully reciting certain prayers, they 

 may acquire the shape of dragons, and rise into the clouds. 



In the years woo tih, of the Tang dynasty (A. D. 618 to 627), there were 

 great troubles in the kingdom. The king, She-lo-ye-tot, made war and 

 fought battles such as had never been seen before. The elephants were not 

 unsaddled in their rapid marches ; the soldiers quitted not their shields, 

 because this king had formed the project of uniting the four Indias under 

 his rule. All the provinces which faced the north submitted to him. 



At this same period of the Tang dynasty, a zealous follower of Fuh-too 

 (Buddha), surnamed Heuen-chwang, arrived in this kingdom (of India). 

 She-lo-ye-to caused him to enter his presence, and said to him : " Your 

 country has produced holy (great) men. The king of Tsin^, who has 

 routed the armies of his enemies, ought to be well satisfied ; he may be 

 compared to me ; tell me what sort of man he is?" Heuen-chwang re- 

 plied by vaunting the exploits of Tae-tsung, who had put down revolt 

 and reduced the four nations of barbarians to submission to him. The 

 Indian prince, full of fire and energy, was highly satisfied with this recital, 

 and observed : " I will send (an embassy) to the court of the emperor of 

 the East/ 



In fact, in the 15th of the years ching kwan (A. D. 642), ambassadors 

 from the king of the country called Mo-kea-to (Magadha) came to offer 

 books to the emperor (Tae-tsung), who directed that an officer of cavalry 

 of inferior rank, named Leang-hwae-king, should go at a prescribed time 

 to assure the (king of India) of the peace and harmony which subsisted 

 between them. She-lo-ye-to, surprised, inquired of the men of the king- 

 dom (Indians), saying : " From the time of antiquity to the present day, 

 have ambassadors from Mo-ho-chin-tan§ come into our kingdom?" They 

 all replied : " None have hitherto come; what is termed the kingdom of 

 the Middle, is Mo-ho-chin-tan." Whereupon, the king, going to meet the 

 ambassador, bent his knee in token of obedience and respect (md-pae) to 

 receive the letter (chaou~shoo) of the emperor of China, which he placed 

 on the top of his head. Ambassadors (from the king of Magadha) came 

 again, and directly, to the court. An imperial order directed an assistant. 



* This is a repetition of what has been before said ; but, as the object of Ma- 

 twan-lin was to combine all the ancient documents and all the authorities known 

 to him, which could tend to establish a fact, we only see in this a fresh proof of 

 the exactness of the various Chinese accounts. Some of the Sanscrit astronomical 

 treatises were translated into Chinese under the Tang dynasty. 



T This proper name might be intended to represent the Sanscrit 'SJ^feoT ^ r ^ m 

 rahita. It remains to be seen whether a king of this name reigned in India at this 

 period. [May it not rather be assimilated to the Siladitya who reigned in Saurash- 

 tra in the 6th century ? See M. Jacket's remarks in the last volume.— Ed.] 



J Tsin is the name of the dynasty which reigned over China from B.C. 249 to 202, 

 during; which the Chinese power caused it to be known for the first -time in Central 

 and Western Asia, its conquests being extended to the Caspian Sea and Bengal, in 

 the reign of Tsin-she-hwang-te, the celebrated Burner of the Books. The name of 

 this dynasty has formed that of China, in Sanscrit =i^«f China, which occurs in 

 the Laws of Menu, book x. si. 44, and therefore at a date anterior to the third cen- 

 tury before our era, which may be easily explained in referring the name of China 

 to the period of the foundation of the kingdom of Tsin in the western province of 

 Shen-se, about B. C. 1000. 



§ In Sanscrit, Maha-China, 'great China;' in the modern dialects of India, 

 Mahd-Chin"$tan, ' the country of great China,' 



