1893.] 
H. Beveridge — The Site of Karna Suvarna. 
315 
The Site of Karna Suvarna. — By H. Beveridge, B. C. S. (Retired). 
Hiuen Tsiang, the Buddhist pilgrim, visited a town in Bengal 
which is spelt in Chinese, Kie-la-na-su-fa-la-na. M. Stanislaus Julien 
transliterates* this into the Sanscrit words Karna Suvarna, which may- 
mean Karna the Golden, or Golden Bar, or simply, wearing gold 
earrings.f So far as I am aware, the site has not yet been satisfactorily 
identified, although it has been conjectured, chiefly from the similarity 
of name, that it lay on the Suvarna Rekha, or Streak of Gold, a 
river which traverses Midnapur, and used to be the boundary between 
Bengal and Orissa. Some have placed it in Birbhum, and some in 
Singhbhum; and quite recently Dr. Waddell, f has suggested that 
it lay close to Burdwan and is the place now known as Kanchan- 
nagar. My chief object in this paper is to show that Karna Suvarna 
is probably identical with Rangamati, in the Murshidabad district, and 
situated on the right bank of the Bhagirathi, about six miles below 
Berhampur. But before I discuss this point, I am obliged to say a few 
words about the records of Hiuen Tsiang’s travels. 
It is well known that we have two accounts of his journeying. One 
is called the Si-yu-ki, or Descriptions of Western Countries, the other 
is his biography by Hwui-li and Yen-Tsung. The Si-yu-ki is in twelve 
books, and is regarded as the original and more authoritative account. 
It was not, however, entirely drawn up by Hiuen Tsiang. He gave the 
materials, but the composition is by one Pien-ki. M. Julien conjectures 
that Hiuen Tsiang’s absence from China for seventeen years had made it 
difficult for him to write his mother tongue with the elegance required 
by Chinese officialism, and so the task was assigned to another monk. 
The biography is in ten books, and is mainly the work of Hwui-li. Both 
he and his continuator were contemporaries of Hiuen Tsiang, and as M. 
Julien remarks, their work is the livelier and more interesting of the 
two. It is also, I understand, written with greater elegance. That 
it is more interesting can easily be understood, for it is a biography 
and a record of Hiuen Tsiang’s adventures ; whereas the Si-yu-ki is a 
sort of gazetteer or treatise on geography. It is necessary to give 
these details because there is a remarkable discrepancy between the two 
records about the route by which Hiuen Tsiang reached Karna Suvarna, 
and it is desirable to decide which account should have the preference. 
# III. 84. Beal’s translation, II, 201. 
f II. 248n. At 250 1. c. the Chinese translation Kin-eul is used, 
j: See note at end of this paper. 
