1899.] 
CHINESE RECORDS. 
13 
better authorities than the Persian Tayikhs of Kasmir, of the 17th and 
18th century, which he had occasion to consult in connection with his 
above-quoted Essay. They, indeed, indulge in whimsical etymologies 
like Kashmir, i.e., Kashap (Kasyapa) 4 -mar (matha), etc. But nei¬ 
ther these etymologies nor the name * Kasyapapura are in any way 
known to our genuine sources. 
Wilson would scarcely have chosen to put forth such a deriva¬ 
tion, had the whole of the Chronicle or the other Kasmirian texts been 
at the time accessible to him. Extensive as this literature is, it does 
not furnish any evidence whatever for * Kasyapapura or a similar name 
having ever been used as a designation of the country. This fact is all 
the more significant as allusions to the legendary origin of the country 
are otherwise so frequent. The philological impossibility of deriving 
Kasmira from * Kasyapapura need scarcely be specially indicated at 
the present day. 1 A reference to the theory was, however, here neces¬ 
sary, as it has found its way into works of authorities like Ritter, 
Lassen and Humboldt, and has hence been reproduced even by recent 
writers. 2 
Section II.— Chinese Records. 
8 If classical literature has thus nothing to tell us of Kasmir but 
the bare name, it is very different with the 
Earliest^ Chinese « Chinese records. Buddhist pilgrims from 
China on their way to the sacred sites of the 
Indian plains visited Kasmir and chose it as a resting place. Their 
itineraries as well as the records of the political relations established 
with Kasmir during a period of Chinese extension to the west, furnish 
us with a series of interesting data, for the old geography of Kasmir. 
It seems difficult to ascertain from the materials at present accessi¬ 
ble in translations or notices of European scholars, which is to be con¬ 
sidered the earliest Chinese reference to Kasmir. The difficulty is 
connected with the use of the geographical term Ki-pin. This name 
tion into Casliappur or Caspapur, the latter of which forms is the proper reading of 
the Greek text; ” Essay, p. 117. 
1 It is curious to note that Kasyapapura was, according to an Indian authority 
quoted by Alberuni, India, transl. Sachau, i. p. 298, one of the old names of Multan. 
S See Ritter, Erdkunde, ii. p. 1087 ; Lassen, Ind. Alt., ii. p. 635 (where for 
# Kasyapapura > Kasmira an equally unfounded derivation from # Kasyapamira 
is substituted); Humboldt, Asie Centrale , i. p. 102; for modern works, e.g., 
McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 108; Beal, Si-yu-ki , i. p. 148. 
