317 
1893.] II. Beveridge — The Site of Kama Suvarna. 
It will be seen that the Si-yu-ki makes Hiuen Tsiang diverge into 
Kamrup (Assam) and arrive at Karna Suvarna from Tamluk. But the 
biography makes no mention here of the Assam visit, and brings Hiuen 
Tsiang direct from Paundra Vardhana, or from Vachpa (? Vasibha) 
to Karna Suvarna. M. Vivien de Saint Martin has pointed out the 
discrepancy in the note appended to M. Julien’s third volume (p. 389). 
His idea is that the Si-yu-ki version should be unhesitatingly preferred 
because it is the primary account, aud because it is more complete and 
consistent than that of Hwui-li.* But, as we have seen, neither account 
is exactly primary, and perhaps too M. Saint Martin has overlooked the 
difference in the character of the two works. The Si-yu-ki is a geogra- 
phical treatise, and so all the information about each country is put in 
one place, whether the traveller visited it once or twice. For a similar 
reason, the order of visiting was, perhaps, not always exactly observed, 
though I have not found another instance of this. The biography on 
the other hand, joins the various journeys as they occurred. For in- 
stance, it describes Hiuen Tsiang as twice visiting Magadha or South 
Bihar ; once on his way to Bengal and again on his return from Southern 
India, and after he had visited Gujrat, Sindh, and Mathura. But the 
Si-yu-ki says nothing about the second visit. It also contains accounts 
of twenty-eight countries t which Hiuen Tsiang did not visit. It is 
therefore much less of a personal narrative than the biography is. The 
latter contains (Book V.) a detailed account of the Assam visit and of 
what had led to it. But it represents it as occurring after the second 
visit to Magadha, and it seems likely that Hiuen Tsiang went direct 
from Magadha to Assam, both because it was the shortest route, and 
because it was when he was at Nalanda that the Ambassadors from 
Kamrup came to him. It was there, too, that S'ilabliadra urged his com- 
pliance with the invitation. Dr. Fergusson (J. R. A. S. VI. 252,) has 
also noticed the discrepancy between the two accounts. He believes 
that Hwui-li is more correct about the date and manner of the visit to 
Assam, but still he holds that he is wrong about the journey to Karna 
Suvarna ! 
There can be no question that the route through Bengal given in 
the biography is the more natural one of the two. It brings the travel- 
ler down to the delta along the course of the Ganges (in those days 
the Bhagirathi was probably the main stream), and then takes him 
west and south via Tamluk and Orissa. The Si-yu-ki on the otliei hand, 
* At p. 365, 1. c. M. Saint Martin in noticing another discrepancy between" the 
two accounts gives the preference to the itinerary in the biography. 
t The Si-yu-ki describes 138 countries, but Hiuen Tsiang only visited 110. 
Saint Martin, T. App. 
