The King of this Island possesses a
ruby which is the finest and biggest in the world; I will tell you what it
is like. It is about a palm in length, and as thick as a man's arm; to
look at, it is the most resplendent object upon earth; it is quite free
from flaw and as red as fire. Its value is so great that a price for it in
money could hardly be named at all."
Chau Ju-kwa, p. 73, has: "The King holds in his hand a jewel five inches
in diameter, which cannot be burnt by fire, and which shines in (the
darkness of) night like a torch. The King rubs his face with it daily, and
though he were passed ninety he would retain his youthful looks.
"The people of the country are very dark-skinned, they wrap a sarong round
their bodies, go bare-headed and bare-footed."
XIV., p. 314 n.
THE ISLAND OF CEYLON.
The native kings of this period were Pandita Prakama Bahu II., who reigned
from 1267 to 1301 at Dambadenia, about 40 miles north-north-east of
Columbo (Marco Polo's time); Vijaya Bahu IV. (1301-1303); Bhuwaneka Bahu
I. (1303-1314); Prakama Bahu III. (1314-1319); Bhuwaneka Bahu II. (1319).
SAGAMONI BORCAN.
= Sakya Muni Burkhan.
XV., p. 319. Seilan-History of Sagamoni Borcan. "And they maintain ...
that the teeth, and the hair, and the dish that are there were those of
the same king's son, whose name was Sagamoni Borcan, or Sagamoni the
Saint."
See J.F. FLEET, The Tradition about the corporeal Relics of Buddha.
(Jour. R. As. Soc., 1906, and April, 1907, pp. 341-363.)
XV., p. 320.
In a paper on Burkhan printed in the Journal of the American Oriental
Society, XXXVI., 1917, pp. 390-395, Dr. Berthold Laufer has come to the
following conclusion: "Burkhan in Mongol by no means conveys exclusively
the limited notion of Buddha, but, first of all, signifies 'deity, god,
gods,' and secondly 'representation or image of a god.' This general
significance neither inheres in the term Buddha nor in Chinese Fo; neither
do the latter signify 'image of Buddha'; only Mongol burkhan has this
force, because originally it conveyed the meaning of a shamanistic image.
From what has been observed on the use of the word burkhan in the
shamanistic or pre-Buddhistic religions of the Tungusians, Mongols and
Turks, it is manifest that the word well existed there before the arrival
of Buddhism, fixed in its form and meaning, and was but subsequently
transferred to the name of Buddha."
XV., pp. 323 seq.
BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT.
The German traveller von Le Coq has found at Turfan fragments of this
legend in Turki which he published in 1912 in his Tuerkische Manichaica,
which agree with the legend given by the Persian Ibn Babawaih of Qum, who
died in 991. (S. d'OLDENBOURG, Bul. Ac. I. des Sc., Pet., 1912, pp.
779-781; W. RADLOFF, Alttuerk. Stud., VI., zu Barlaam und Joasaph).
M.P. Alfaric (La Vie chretienne du Bouddha, J. Asiatique, Sept.-Oct.,
1917, pp. 269 seq.; Rev. de l'Hist. des Religions, Nov.-Dec., 1918,
pp. 233 seq.) has studied this legend from a Manichaean point of view.
XV., p. 327.
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. Of course the distance
mentioned is absurd, but all figures connected with Chu-lien in Chinese
accounts are inexplicably exaggerated."
XVI., pp. 336-337.
CHINESE PAGODA AT NEGAPATAM.
Sir Walter ELLIOT, K.C.S.I., to whom Yule refers for the information given
about this pagoda, has since published in the Indian Antiquary,
VII., 1878, pp. 224-227, an interesting article with the title: The
Edifice formerly known as the Chinese or Jaina Pagoda at Negapatam,
from which we gather the following particulars regarding its
destruction: -
"It went by various names, as the Puduveli-gopuram, the old pagoda,
Chinese pagoda, black pagoda, and in the map of the Trigonometrical Survey
(Sheet 79) it stands as the Jeyna (Jaina) pagoda. But save in name it has
nothing in common with Hindu or Muhammadan architecture, either in form or
ornament."
"In 1859, the Jesuit Fathers presented a petition to the Madras Government
representing the tower to be in a dangerous condition, and requesting
permission to pull it down and appropriate the materials to their own
use...." In 1867 "the Fathers renewed their application for leave to
remove it, on the following grounds: