See La "Vie des Saints Barlaam et Josaphat" et la legende du Bouddha, in
Vol. I., pp. xxxxvii-lvi, of Contes populaires de Lorraine par Emmanuel
COSQUIN, Paris, Vieweg, n.d. [1886].
XVI., p. 335 n.
TANJORE.
Speaking of Chu-lien (Chola Dominion, Coromandel Coast), Chau Ju-kwa, pp.
93-4, says: -
"The kingdom of Chu-lien is the Southern Yin-tu of the west. To the east
(its capital) is five li distant from the sea; to the west one comes to
Western India (after) 1500 li; to the south one comes to Lo-lan (after)
2500 li; to the north one comes to Tun-t'ien (after) 3000 li."
Hirth and Rockhill remark, p. 98: "Ma Tuan-lin and the Sung-shi
reproduce textually this paragraph (the former writer giving erroneously
the distance between the capital and the sea as 5000 li). Yule, Marco
Polo, II, p. 335, places the principal port of the Chola kingdom at
Kaveripattanam, the 'Pattanam' par excellence of the Coromandel Coast, and
at one of the mouths of the Kaveri. He says that there seems to be some
evidence that the Tanjore ports were, before 1300, visited by Chinese
trade. The only Lo-lan known to mediaeval Chinese is mentioned in the
T'ang-shu, 221'8, and is identified with the capital of Bamian, in
Afghanistan. I think our text is corrupt here and that the character lo
should be changed to si, and that we should read Si-lan, our Ceylon.
Both Ma and the Sung-shi say that 2500 li south-east of Chu-lien was
'Si-lan-ch'i-kuo with which it was at war.
