1893.] 
H. Beveridge — The Site of Karna Suvarna. 
319 
I now come to the principal object of my paper. 
Hiuen Tsiang’s accounts of Karna Suvarna are to be found at I. 
181 and III. 84-88, of M. Julien’s work.* He describes the kingdom 
as having a circumference of about 900 miles, and the capital as being 
about four miles round. The country was fertile and populous, and 
produced all kinds of fruit and flowers. The inhabitants were well 
off and had literary -tastes, but they were a mixture of true believers 
(Buddhists), and heretics. There were thirteen monasteries, including 
those which followed the ritual of Devadatta, and there were fifty 
Hindi! temples. Then comes the description which I rely upon : “ By 
the side of the capital there rises the monastery called Lo-to-wei-chi- 
seng-kia-lan. Its halls are spacious and well-lighted, and its towers 
and pavilions are lofty. All the men of this kingdom who are distin- 
guished for their talents, their learning and their intelligence, assemble 
in this monastery.” 
Lo-to-wei-chi-seng-kia-lan is, according to M. Julien, the phonetic 
rendering of the Sanskrit words Raktaviti Sahghdrdma, i. e., the monas- 
tery of Redlands, and the word Raktaviti is, I submit, merely a synonym 
for Rangamati. Sangharama is the Buddhist word for a monastery, 
its original meaning being the grove, or enclosed garden of the con- 
gregation. Wei-ehi is phonetic for viti, and Lo-to for rakta (blood,) and 
M. Julien and Mr. Beal agree in translating Lo-to-wei-chi as meaning- 
red earth, one saying “ limon rouge” and the other, “ red mud.” In 
his Index, III. 468, M. Julien uses a still more appropriate word for he 
renders wei-chi by “ argile ” or clay. Every one who has seen Rahga- 
mati knows that its remarkable feature is the cliffs or bluffs of red clay. 
These extend for miles, are from 30 to 40 ft. high, and formed the 
bank of the river in the days when the Bhagirathi was the main stream 
of the Ganges. I must acknowledge that I have not been able to find in 
the Sanscrit dictionary the word Viti, though it is clear from the Chinese 
translation that it means earth. Raktaviti would, of course, mean red, 
but I suppose that the Sanskrit equivalent of Rangamati would be 
Ragamrittika or Raktamrittika. Possibly mrittikd or mritti was what 
Hiuen Tsiang wrote, for in the biography! the word is given as Ki-to- 
mo-chi for which M. Julien substitutes, in accordance with the Si-yu-ki, 
Lo-to-wei-chi. But mo-chi may be right and may be phonetic for 
mritti. However this may be, I submit that the facts of the monastery 
being known by the name of Redlands and of Karnasuvarnagarha, i. e., 
the golden fortress of Karna, being the traditional name of Rangamati, 
are almost conclusive of the latter’s being the place visited by Hiuen 
Tsiang. 
* Beal, Life, 131, Si-yu-ki, II, 201. 
J. i. 41 
f I. 181 ; Beal’s translation, 132. 
