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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
The famous Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang travelled throughout India during the second quarter of the seventh century a.d.: he proceeded eastwards as far as Samataṭa, and when he was turning back he mentioned six countries which he had heard of but could not visit. Their names are given in serial order: “(1) Shihli-Ch'atalo to the north-east (from Samataṭa) among the hills near the sea; (2) south-east from this, on a bay of the sea, Kamolangka; (3) Tolopoti to the east of the preceding; (4) east from Tolopoti was Ishangnapulo; (5) to the east of this was Mohachanp'o; and (6) to the south-east of this was the Yenmonachou country.”
page 1 note 1 Watters, ' Yuan Chwang, vol. ii, pp. 187–8.Google Scholar Watters' work has been followed in this article as he is the most reliable authority.
page 2 note 1 For details vide Watters, ' Yuan Chwang, vol. ii, pp. 188–9.Google Scholar
page 2 note 2 Vide Preface to Watters, ' Yuan Chwang, vol. i, p. v.Google Scholar
page 2 note 3 Watters, ' Yuan Chwang, vol. ii, pp. 188–9.Google Scholar
page 2 note 4 Ibid., p. 189.
page 2 note 5 Ibid., p. 340.
page 2 note 6 Ibid., p. 187.
page 2 note 7 Ibid., p. 189.
page 3 note 1 Lient.-General SirPhayre, Arthur P.'s History of Burma, ed. 1884, p. 18.Google Scholar
page 4 note 1 Epigraphia Indica, vol. xii, pt. ii, No. 13, p. 67.Google Scholar The point whether Śrīhaṭṭa (Sylhet) existed as a distinct kingdom in Yuan Chwang's time has been dealt with in that article as a side issue, and so has not been touched on here.
page 4 note 2 A Pandit once said that he had come across Śrīkshetra written in a Tantra in place of Śrīhaṭṭa: if this be a fact all confusion is cleared up. [Śrīhaṭṭa means “Market of Śrī or Lakshmī”, the deity presiding over the Pīṭha of Sylhet being Mahālakshmī; and Śrīkshetra means “field or place of Śrī (Lakshmi)”; so both these words are almost of the same signification.]
page 4 note 3 Vide DrGrierson, 's Linguistic Survey of India, vol. v, pt. i, p. 224.Google Scholar
page 5 note 1 Extracts from The Lives of Lindsays. Appendix to Hunter, 's Statistical Accounts of Assam, vol. ii, p. 346.Google Scholar
page 5 note 2 Vide line 38 of the Copper-plate Inscriptions No. 1, as published with the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 08, 1880.Google Scholar
page 5 note 3 Vide lines 13 and 21 of the copper-plate Inscriptions No. 2 in the same Proceedings. That these copper-plate grants related to Sylhet (Śrīhaṭṭa) is evident from the fact that the donors were described as belonging to a dynasty which ruled the kingdom of Śrīhaṭṭa and that one of these grants related to Śrihaṭṭanātha Siva.
page 5 note 4 That the whole of the plain portion of the district formed part of the ocean at a remote period will be apparent from the fact that the lofty mountains to the north and east rise abruptly; the conformation of some of the sandy hillocks on and about the town of Sylhet, and the presence of marine shells at the foot of the hills along the northern boundary, also prove this (vide Hunter, 's Statistical Accounts of Assam, vol. ii, p. 263Google Scholar, and Hamilton, 's East India Gazetteer, vol. ii, p. 352).Google Scholar
page 6 note 1 Vide p. 6Google Scholar of a vernacular work, Chaṭṭagrāmer Vivaraṇī, issued in instalments from Chittagong.
page 6 note 2 Itsing, who came to visit India about thirty years after Yuan Chwang, said, apparently referring to this place: “Going east from the Nalanda Monastery, 500 yojanas, all the country is called the Eastern Frontier. At the (eastern) extremity there is the so-called ‘Great Black Mountain’, which is, I think, on the southern boundary of Tu-fan (Tibet). This mountain is said to be on the south-west of Shu-chuan (Su-chuan) from which one can reach this mountain after a journey of a month or so. Southward from this, and close to the sea coast, there is a country called ‘Srīkshatra (Prome)’” (p. 9Google Scholar, DrTakakusu, 's ItsingGoogle Scholar; words within parenthesis are those of Dr. Takakusu). Whatever the learned editor (Dr. Takakusu) might say (and such views have already been criticized) this ‘Srikshatra’ was ‘Śrīhaṭṭa’ or ‘Sylhet’; the ‘Great Black mountains’ must have been the Bhotan range that skirts Tibet; and this Chinese pilgrim making his way through the Brahmaputra Valley and the Khasi hills reached Śrīhaṭṭa, that, as already stated in detail, had then a vast sheet of water near by that passed for a “sea”. Itsing, who had, of course, studied Yuan Chwang's Itinerary, was probably eager to see Śrīhaṭṭa, which his predecessor could not visit, and benefiting by the latter's experience, he did not go via Samataṭa for fear of the “sea” which would intervene on that way, but took a rather circuitous route and so reached the place as stated above.
page 7 note 1 Phayre, 's History of Burma, p. 19.Google Scholar
page 7 note 2 Ibid., pp. 29–30.
page 8 note 1 In what season Yuan Chwang came to Samataṭa and turned back from that place is not known. We can presume, however, that he must have been here during the rainy season, when casting his eye towards the north-east he could see nothing but a vast sheet of water that discouraged him proceeding further that way. This is quite possible, as the Buddhist monks observed the rainy season as a period of retreat (vide Waiters, ' Yuan Chwang, vol. i, pp. 144–5).Google Scholar Yuan Chwang might have passed such a period in Samataṭa.
page 8 note 2 p. 6, col. i of the Publication of the Dacca Sāhitya Parishat. The meaning of the lines is: “I shall go to the town of Gaura ( = tiauḍa) after leaving my father's estate and to the town of Kāmalāk (leaving) the brother's estate.” It should be noted here that both Watters and Beal have rendered Kamolangka as Kāmalankā, and the word Kāmalāk here seems to support this; but Kamalānka is the form that gives a better meaning, and in fact the one adopted by the Indian writers inclusive of those who would identify it with Pegu.
page 9 note 1 Pp. 49–52 of the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The other was published in the same journal in 1890–1.
page 9 note 2 A Forgotten Kingdom of Eastern Bengal, by MrBhaṭtasālī, N. K., in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. x, No. 3, 03, 1914Google Scholar, vide pp. 85–91.Google Scholar
page 9 note 3 A part of it became annexed to the other neighbouring kingdom of Samataṭa when the latter was under the Pāla dynasty, as will be inferred from an inscription containing the name of Mahipalal upon the pedestal of a statue of Vishnu, found at Bāghāüra in Tipperah, (vide pl. x, facing p. 18, vol. xi, No. 1, 1915Google Scholar, of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal).
page 10 note 1 Vide Walters, ' Yuan Chwang, vol. ii, pp. 189.Google Scholar
page 10 note 2 Vide Browning, 's Siam, vol. i, p. 43Google Scholar (quoted in Phayre, 's History of Burma, p. 66, n.).Google Scholar
page 10 note 3 Ancient name of Siam was Champa, , vide p. 8Google Scholar, of Colonel Shakespear, L. W.'s History of Upper Assam, Upper Burma, and N.E. Frontier.Google Scholar Mr. Taw Sein Ko, of the Archæological Department, also considers Siam as Champa (vide Northern Burma Gazetteer, vol. i, pt. i, p. 205).Google Scholar
page 10 note 4 Watters, ' Yuan Chwang, vol. ii, p. 189.Google Scholar
page 10 note 5 Ibid.
page 11 note 1 The state of Tipperah had other names also: for instance, the Burmese called it Thuratun in their chronicle called Maharajaweng. We may here hazard a conjecture that it might have once had the name or surname of Sthalavatī (whereof Tolopati was the form in Yuan Cliwang's writing) to distinguish it from Śrīhaṭṭa and Kamalānka near by, which were aqueous regions, Sthalavatī meaning ‘consisting only of Sthala (terra firma)’.
page 11 note 2 
“Śivalinganatā dhyānāt sā babhūva Sugarbhiṇī” (Skt. Rājamalā).
page 11 note 3 Vide also SirLethbridge, Roper's The Golden Book of India, p. 541.Google Scholar
page 12 note 1 In the Allahabad pillar inscriptions of Samudra Gupta (Fleet, 's Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. iii, pp. 1–17)Google Scholar there occurs a word 
“Samataṭa Ḍavāka Kāmarūpa Nepālakattripurādi”. In this document of fourth century a.d. an eminent Bengali writer on the history of Tipperah finds mention of the name of the state, as instead of Nepāla Karttripurādi (as is the reading generally accepted) he would read Nepalaka Tripuradi (
). This is mentioned here for what it is worth.
page 12 note 2 Vide footnote 4 to Notes on the Topographical Names (pp. li–lii of DrTakakusu, 's Itsing (Clarendon Press, 1896).Google Scholar
page 12 note 3 General Sir A. P. Phayre says about Ishanguapulo as follows:— “Beyond, that (Tolopati) state east Tshangnapulo (T = I?) is not recognizable; but still further east Mohachampa mentioned by the pilgrim represents beyond doubt the ancient kingdom of Cambodia (see paper by James Fergusson in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. vi, n.s., 1873)” (History of Burma, p. 32).Google Scholar So that Cambodia not only did not come to be considered by him as I-shang-na-pu-lo, but it was regarded as Mahāchampā beyond doubt!
page 13 note 1 Vide Aśwamedheparvan, chap. 89 et seq.
page 13 note 2 Careless people might connect this spot with the state of Hill Tipperah; but stone statues found in East Cachar show almost exact similarity in workmanship with those found in the Manipur Valley, and this goes a great way to support an assumption that Eastern Cachar and Manipur formed one state of old. Yet it should be stated that it is not quite improbable that this region might have been overrun by the Tipperah kings and even occupied by them for some time, as in the case of Kamalānka already noted.
page 14 note 1 If M. Chavannes' reason (as already stated) for the name Ishanapur being applied to Cambodia on account of the name of a ruler (Ishana) be accepted as valid, then this very name (Ishanapur) can more appropriately be predicated for this region also. Ishana (= Iśāna) means Mahādeva and also north-east. This locality, containing the statues of Mahādeva (as that at Bhuban Peak and others in the valley of Manipur), and lying north-east of a famous kingdom (of Samataṭa), might claim that nomenclature also; and by a phonetic process, the reverse of what has been stated above, Ishanpur might have been changed into Vishnupur in modern times.
page 14 note 2 Vide DrGrierson, 's Linguistic Survey of India, vol. v, pt. i, p. 419.Google Scholar
page 14 note 3 The present writer visited the place in October, 1916, and was told by the people there that the old Vishnupur was situated a little up the hill, and wag buried underground by a huge landslip caused by earthquake.
page 15 note 1 A very old and popular story of Khāmbā-Thaibi, wherein the hero and the heroine are described as incarnations of Mahādeva and his consort (Durgā), shows that the worship of Śiva and Śakti was current in the valley—a fact indicative of its antiquity. The scene of the plot is laid at Mairang, a place close to the south of Vishnupur.
page 15 note 2 Watters, ' Yuan Chwang, vol. ii, p. 189.Google Scholar
page 15 note 3 Vide ibid., p. 181 et seq.
page 15 note 4 Vide extracts of Mr. Ney Elias, 's “Introductory Sketch of the History of Shans”, p. 56Google Scholar, pt. ii, vol. i of the Gazetteer of Northern Burma and Shan States.
page 16 note 1 Ibid., p. 57.
page 16 note 2 Vide Bhamo Gazetteer, p. 13.Google Scholar
page 16 note 3 Ibid., p. 28. The very word ‘Shan’ may be a monosyllable contraction of Sanpo or Champa. Mr. Ney Elias in his “Introductory Sketch of the History of Shans” mentions a term “Mau Shans” which he says “is a political rather than a racial name” (p. 190Google Scholar, pt. i, vol. i of N.B. Gazetteer). May not this Mau Shans be a reminiscence of Maha Champa ? Mr. Scott, editor of the N.B. Gazetteer, sees the trace of Kauśāmbī in Ko-shan-pye or the nine Shan States (vide pp. 189–90Google Scholar, N.B. Gazetteer, pt. i, vol. i).Google Scholar Ko means Nine, and Shampye might represent Champa as well.
page 16 note 4 p. 4 (vide quotation later on).
page 16 note 5 It is interesting in this connexion to note that a prince of the Shan State of Pong chose this route (viz. Tipperah and Manipur) when returning home from a tour of conquest in 777; vide p. 58Google Scholar of Browne, 's Statistical Accounts of Manipur, and p. 12Google Scholar of Phayre, 's History of Burma.Google Scholar
page 17 note 1 Yuan Chwang, vol. ii, p. 189.Google Scholar Dr. Takakusu's conjecture is Yavanadwipa, meaning Sumatra (vide the geographical notes to his Itsing, pp. li–lii).Google Scholar This is not borne out by a reference to the map.
page 17 note 2 The word Jambu could be represented by Yenfou in Chinese. So it appears from Walters, ' Yuan Chwang, vol. i, p. 33.Google Scholar In that case Yen-mo-na might also very nearly represent the same word Jambu in its corrupted form in Burmese.
page 17 note 3 Northern Burma Gazetteer, vol. i, pt. i, ch. iii, p. 103.Google Scholar
page 17 note 4 Ibid. [Thuna (= Suna) Paranta represented all the countries north of Ava.]
page 17 note 5 Vide. Watters, ' Yuan Chwang, vol. i, p. 132.Google Scholar
page 18 note 1 Vide Appendix (p. 202), A Chronology of Surma, by Max and Bertha Ferrars. This chronology will also show the antiquity of Burma. Mr. Taw Sein Ko says in a letter to the present writer that the Burmese era was, according to the native chronicles, inaugurated by Thinga Raza, a king of Pagan, after wiping out 1,182 years of the Era of Religion (Anno Buddhæ) reckoned by the Burmese from b.c. 544. About this Pagan the same authority writes: “The native writers aver that Tampadipa (which is a more correct form of Tambudeepa mentioned above) is the name applied to Pagan, which is situated on the left bank of the River Irawady, and that Suna Paranta is applied to a place opposite to Pagan on the right bank of the same river, and they are inclined to ascribe their foundation to the time of the Buddha,” Mr. Taw Sein Ko, it seems, has not much faith in his “native chroniclers”; but that is a matter of opinion The fact remains (and this is what is required for our purposes) that this part of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula was noteworthy in Yuan Chwang's time, and a prominent part of it bore the name of Tambudeepa (which we have assumed to be a corruption of Jambudwipa), which Yuan Chwang noted as Yen-mona-chou.
page 18 note 2 General Phayre, in his History of Burma, p. 4Google Scholar, says: “The route by which the Kshatriya princes arrived is indicated in the traditions as being through Manipur, which lies within the Basin of the Irawaddy. The northern part of the Kubo Valley, which is the direct route of Manipur towards Burma, is still called Maurya or Maurira, said to be the name of the tribe to which king Asoka belonged.” This is another reason why the Chinese traveller's eye naturally turned that way, as indicated above.