Chau Ju-Kua - University of Oregon Libraries

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IXTRODUCTION.
one comes to the country of P'o-lu^ (I^ ^). Then after six days' journey
one reaches the island of K'i^-lan'' ("Ijja ^) of the country of P'o^ (^).
Then northward, and after four days' travel one reaches «the country of the
Lion»* (^1^ ^); its northern coast is 100 li from the southern coast of
southern India. Then westward, after four days' journey one passes through 5
the country of Mo-lai* (^ ^),
southern India.
which is the extreme southern frontier of
more than ten
small ci>untries, one comes to the western frontier of P'o-lo-mSn " (^ ^
((Thence (from Mo-lai) northwest and passing by {^)
1) Presumably some place in N. W. Sumatra, Perlak or Pedir. It may be the same on the 10
((kingdom of P'o» referred to in the next phrase, and of which the Nicobar islands were a
dependency.
2) There is little room for doubt that the island of K'i6-Ian is one of the Nicobars. t-tsing
states that it took him ten days' sailing in a northerly direction from Kie-ch'a — which was some
place on the N. W. coast of Sumatra near Kia Tan's P'o or Fo-ln (if not identical with it) to reach 15-
the Lo (f^) country, or «the country of naked peoplen. Chavannes, Religieux eminents, 120.
Httan-tsang was the first Chinese writer to mention the Nicobars by name, he calls them Na-lo-
ki-lo islands (fiK ^S ^S ^S l^'I'l): ^ transcription of Sanskrit nSrikera, (tcocoanutn, which he
and I-tsing and the Arab Relations state was the principal food of the islanders. The name used by
I-tsing may be an abbreviated from of that used by Htian-tsang. K'i6-lan is also an abbreviated 20"
form of the Sanskrit name, or rather a transcription of the two last syllables -leera. In the fifteenth
century the Chinese called these islands Ts'ui-lan (^S ^§)- Gerini, Besearches, 396, suggests-
with a high degree of probability that Ts'ui-lan-shan is but the phonetic transcript of Tilong-
chong, the native name of the north-easternmost of the Nicobars. The Sanskrit name Narikera is
found in Necuveram, the name Polo gives to these islands. Yule, MarcoPolo(2d edit.), II, 289— 25-
292. See also Beal, Records, II. 251, Chavannes, Relig. §min., 100, 120; Geo. Phillips R.
A. S., 1895, 529.
3) Possibly the same as the P'o-lu in the preceding phrase. Gerini, Op. cit., 817, says
ttP'o simply stands for lar, var, and is thus a contraction of Nikobar, if not actually meant for
Bharu, in which case Chia Tan's P'o kingdom would recall the ancient Bharu kingdom)). 30'
According to Buddhist tradition, he says, the Bharu kingdom, as the result of a cataclysm,
became detached from the continent of India, forming a thousand islands which, according to the
scholiast, is identical with the island of Nalikera, mentioned by Htian-tsang. Ibid. 399.
4) Fa-hien first used this name to designate Ceylon, which he was probably the first to
make known to his countrymen. It is a translation of the Sanskrit name Singhala. In the twelfth 35.
century some Chinese writers, who had got their knowledge concerning the island from Arab
traders, wrote the name of the island Si-lan. See infra, Ch. Xllf.
5) The Malabar coast and more particularly the port of Quilon. In the sixth century Cosmas
refers to the city of Mal6, where there was a settlement of Christians — Christian Topography,
119. A century later Httan-tsang calls this country Mo-lo-kO-ts'a (^jt ^ ^g ti-fr), in 40'
Sanskrit Malakuta. The form Mo-la-ye (^ ^J ;^) or Malaya also occurs' at about the same
time. The Arab Relations of the ninth century use the form Kulam-Mal6 (jl