Chau Ju-Kua - University of Oregon Libraries

112 INDIA. 1,21
Notes.
1) The words in brackets are substantially a quotation from Chou K'fl-fei's notes on Ta-
ts'in. See supra p. 105. The rest of the paragraph seems original -with our author. As in the account
of Ta-ts'in, Chau Ju-kua has mixed up a good deal of information derived from earlier Chinese
sources and applying to India (T'ien-chu) generally, with the India of the Ta-ts'in people, or 5
Christians, regarding whose dependency on the oking of Ta-ts'in» (i. e., the patriarch of Antioch
or Baghdad) see supra p. 105. The term T'i§n-chu, as here used, is not to be taken in all cases
in the broad acceptation in which other Chinese writers use it, for our author has described the
principal divisions of India in other chapters. It appears that Chau's T'i6n-chu was the coast
of Madras, at least so far as the first three paragraphs of this chapter are concerned; in the 10
rest of the chapter, derived nearly entirely from the T'ung-tifin and other Chinese authorities,
T'ien-chu must, I think, be understood in its broader meaning of India generally.
The manner in which the king, i. e., the head priest of the Christians, appointed by the
king of Ta-ts'in, dressed his hair might be looked upon as a strange anomaly, considering his
being deputed by the Syrian, or the Chaldaean, patriarch. But it appears that in India the 15
Christian clergy followed the native custom in this respect. Assemani (III B, 337) quotes Josephus
Indus (15 century?, Assemani, ib,, 439), who says «de Christianis Malabariae: Hi habent
sacerdotes, levitas et hypodiaconos. Sacerdotes vero non ferunt tonsuram, sed nonnihil capillorum
in summa parte capitis habent: quod et faciunt Saraceni, Persae, Indi, Tartari et Sinenses.)}
It might also appear strange that the metropolitan of the Christian church was allowed to 20
have a wife at all; but the history of Nestorian patriarchs shows that opinions on the question of
celibacy have changed a good deal. Certainly bishops could be married (Barhebraeus, op. cit.,
II, 64, 70, 80), and exceptions are even on record in the case of patriarchs, as in that of Babaeus
(498—503 A. D.), who was married and had sons and who «sanxit, ut ecclesiae ministJri universi
nuberent, nemine aut presbyterorum aut diaconorum sine uxore manente: haberentque singuli 25
propriam uxorem palam et publics secundum legis praescriptum: nee quisquam in posterum
caelibatum ia saeculari conversation! coleret, ut vitatur nempe peccandi periculum» (Mar Amr,
op. cit., II, 21; cf. Assemani, II, 408). One of the early bishops of India, known as Thomas
Cana, some time about the year 800 A. 1)., is even credited with having had two wives, one of
whom was held to be merely a concubine. Assemani (III B, 441 et seqq ) fills several pages of 30
his erudition with the account of this legend. Of the modern Christians of the church of
St. Thomas, Captain Ch. Swanston says (J. E. A. S., II, '241): «The celibacy of the priests
is with them rather a custom than a dogma: they admit, not only that it is not required by
Scripture, but also .its evil tendency and consequences; and in later years, some of them were
induced to marry by the influence and persuasion of the British authorities in Travanc6r, and a 35
marriage gift of four hundred rupees, presented by the sovereign of the country, to induce them
to return to the ancient usage of their forefathers, and to enter the nuptial state. The feeling of
the church is, however, against it.»
The Sung-shi, 490,s'' says that sometime between A. D. 984 and 988, there came to the
capital of China an Indian priest (^ ^ f^ ^'^) called Yung-sM (^ i^) in company 40
with aPersian heretic called A-li-yen(|S^ M ^)- Yung-shi said that his native land was called
Li-t6 (^Ij ^^: Lata of Masudi, was situated on the gulf of Cambay and was a part of the
kingdom of the Balhara). The sovereign of his country bore the family name of Ya-lo-wu-to
(^ M. 3S. f^), his personal name was A-no-ni (^^ P^ j^). His clothes were yellow,
his cap was of gold and covered with all kinds of jewels. When he went fofth h&rode on an 45
elephant or in a small sedan-chair, preceded by a great throng of people and to the sound of
conch shells and cymbals. When he visited the temples he made largess to the poor. His consort
whose name was Mahani
( J^ g^ ^), only appeared in public once a year, when she bestowed
great bounty on the people.
The name of this Indian priest means «Time ever-lasting, eternitya, and could never have 50
been borne by a Brahman or a Buddhist; it appears to me highly probably that Yung-shi was a