Buddhist records of the Western world (Xuanzang)
by Samuel Beal | 1884 | 224,928 words | ISBN-10: 8120811070
This is the English translation of the travel records of Xuanzang (or, Hiuen Tsiang): a Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled to India during the seventh century. This book recounts his documents his visit to India and neighboring countries, and reflects the condition of those countries during his time, including temples, culture, traditions and fest...
Chapter 7 - Country of Su-tu-li-sse-na (Sutrishna)
The country of Su-tu-li-sse-na[1] is some 1400 or 1500 li in circuit. On the east it borders on the Yeh river (Jaxartes). This river has its source in the northern plateau of the Tsung-ling range, and flows to the north-west; sometimes it rolls its muddy waters along in quiet, at other times with turbulence. The products and customs of the people are like those of Che-shi. Since it has had a king, it has been under the rule of the Turks.
North-west[2] from this we enter on a great sandy desert, where there is neither water nor grass. The road is lost in the waste, which appears boundless, and only by looking in the direction of some great mountain, and following the guidance of the bones which lie scattered about, can we know the way in which we ought to go.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Sutrishna/Sutṛṣṇa (śatrughna), also called Ustrūsh, Ustrūṣṭa, Setrūṣṭa, and Isterūshān) or Usrūshṇa is a country "well known to Arabian geographers, situated between Ferghānah and Samarkand."—V. St. Martin, p. 278. It is described in the text as bordering on the Jaxartes on the east; we may suppose, therefore, that this river was its eastern boundary. It is said to be 1500 li in circuit; we may place the western boundary, therefore, some 500 li to the west of Khojend. This limit would meet the requirements of the text, where the country is described as reaching 1000 li west from Tāshkand. Of cource west means to the west of south-west. The town of Sutrishna is now represented by Ura-Tape, Uratippa or Ura-tiube, which is some 40 miles south-west from Khojend and 100 miles south-south-west from Tāshkand (lat. 39.57 N., long. 69.57 E.). The Syr-daria, Sihun or Jaxartes, however, is to the north of Uratiube. Ouseley, Orient. Geog., p. 261; Ariana Antiq., p. 162; Edrisi (Joubert's transl.), tom. ii. pp. 203, 206; Baber's Memoirs, pp. xli, 9.
[2]:
Here again there is no intimation that Hiuen Tsiang traversed this desert. It is merely stated that there is such a desert on the north-west of the kingdom of Sutrishṇa. It is the desert of Kizil-kūm. There is no occasion, therefore, to change the direction given in the text. (See Julien's note in loco). Conf. Jour. R. Geog. Soc., vol. xxxviii. pp. 435, 438, 445.