antiquity, and had only been populated by mankind when the dragon and the waters had retired. The state consisted of or included five other divisions or sub-states—to wit, in all, Taxila, Sim̃hapura, Uraça, Kas'm̃ir, Parṇotsa, and Râdjapura.[1] Missions to China were sent in 713 and 720, on the latter occasion with presents of foreign medicines. It first became mixed up with Chinese politics in this way: in 723 the Chinese princess married to the king of Tibet, during the Tibeto-Chinese war, applied for asylum to Tchandrâpida, the king of Cashmere; and he, doubtful of his power to resist the vengeful Tibetan arms, passed on the request to the king of Zabulistan.[2] In 733 the king's brother and successor Muktâpida was invested with a Chinese title, and announced his intention, with Hindoo co-operation, to assist with supplies any Chinese army, however large, that should come to Baltistan in order to turn the Tibetan flank: he said there were five roads by which the Tibetans might come in separate columns, and added that the guardians of the Mahâpadmanâga (Dragon) Pool would feel honoured by the establishment of a Chinese complimentary shrine there. The Cashmerian envoy is here described as a 'Nestorian bonze,' and in 731 it is said that the king of Central India had also sent a Nestorian bonze to China. Now, although the Chinese often seem to confuse Manicheans, Mazdéans, and Nestorians[3] with 'heretic' Buddhists, still, in view of the fierce religious contests under the Sassanides of Persia, this singular coincidence must not be overlooked, especially when we remember the Chinese contemporary[4] mention of Têh-sih (? Tersa, or Christians) in Samarcand, and of Nestorians in China, not to speak of the Tsâukûta religious changes already noticed. A few new things are said of Cashmere. The capital, Póh-lo-wuh-lo Pu-lo (Pravarapura), was on the east bank of the great river Mi-no-sih-to (Mr. Stein's Vitastâ); the people wore woollen frieze; there was more snow than wind; and a sort of burning glass or crystal[5] was exported. Thus Ki-pin and Cashmere existed separately in the eighth century, the latter under Hindoo, the former under Turkish and Persian influences. The word Kapiça appears in no Chinese history, at any date, under any form, except, as already stated,[6] in the year 507. In the seventh century several Chinese pilgrims travelled from Balkh and Tokhara to Kap19a.
- ↑ Mr. Stein and M. Chavannes have done much to elucidate the ungainly Chinese equivalents, which are all etymologically correct. Mr. Stein says Lake Volur is the old Dragon Pool.
- ↑ I.e. Ghazni, originally called Tsâukûta, later Arokhadj, and finally by an unidentified Chinese name, Sie-yih, or Seyit.
- ↑ 'The Nestorian Tablet,' Dublin Review, Oct. 1902; China and Religion, 1905.
- ↑ 'The Early Christian Road to China,' Asiat. Quart. Rev. October 1903.
- ↑ This is also mentioned as one of the products of India, Borneo, and Cochin China.
- ↑ See above, p. 629.
