Yetgeul › Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) › Book 10

The Country of Sanmodazha三摩呾咤國

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) 大唐西域記 · Xuanzang · compiled by Bianji · 646 (Tang, 20th year of the Zhenguan era) · 4 passages · 292 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 min

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) Book 10 The record Xuanzang laid before Emperor Taizong of the Tang after seventeen years of walking through the Western Regions and India, a hundred and thirty-eight countries in all. It is the stuff from which Journey to the West was made, but what stands here is not monsters — it is the compass and the climate and the speech and the faith of one country after another. The road runs two hundred years after Faxian and eighty years before Hyecho.

三摩呾咤國周三千餘里,濱近大海,在遂卑濕。國大都城周二十餘里。稼穡滋植,花果繁茂。氣序和,風俗順。人性剛烈,形卑色黑,好學勤勵,邪正兼信。伽藍三十餘所,僧徒二千餘人,並皆遵習上座部學。天祠百所,異道雜居,露形尼乾,其徒甚盛。

The country of Sanmodazha is more than three thousand li around. It lies close on the great sea, and so it is low and damp. The great capital city of the country is more than twenty li around. Planting and reaping grow well there, and flowers and fruits are thick and lush. The climate is even and the customs are gentle. The people are hard and fierce by nature. Their bodies are small and their color is dark. They love learning and are diligent and strive hard, and they believe in the false and the true together. There are more than thirty monasteries and more than two thousand monks, and all of them follow and study the learning of the Sthavira school. There are a hundred temples of the gods, and followers of other ways live mixed among them, and the Nijian who go naked are very many in their band.

2The Buddha image of blue jade

去城不遠有窣堵波,無憂王之所建也,昔者如來為諸天人於此七日說深妙法。傍有四佛坐及經行遺跡之所。去此不遠伽藍中有青玉佛像,其高八尺,相好圓備,靈應時效。

Not far from the city there is a stupa raised by King Wuyou. Long ago the Tathagata spoke the deep and wondrous Law here for seven days for the gods and for men. Beside it is the place where the four Buddhas sat and walked, and their traces are left there. Not far from here, within a monastery, there is an image of the Buddha made of blue jade, eight feet high. Its marks and its beauty are full and round, and its holy answering shows itself from time to time.

3The six countries across the sea

從此東北大海濱山谷中,有室利差呾羅國。次東南大海隅有迦摩浪迦國。次東有墮羅缽底國。次東有伊賞那補羅國。次東有摩訶瞻波國,即此雲林邑是也。次西南有閻摩那洲國。凡此六國,山川道阻,不入其境,然風俗壤界,聲聞可知。

From here, in the mountains and valleys on the shore of the great sea to the northeast, there is the country of Shilichadaluo. Next, in a corner of the great sea to the southeast, there is the country of Jiamolangjia. Next, to the east, there is the country of Duoluobodi. Next, to the east, there is the country of Yishangnabuluo. Next, to the east, there is the country of Mohezhanpo, which is what is called Linyi here. Next, to the southwest, there is the country of Yanmonazhou. In all these six countries the mountains and the rivers bar the road, and their borders were not entered, but their customs and the bounds of their land can be known by report.

自三摩呾咤國西行九百餘里,至耽摩栗底國。

From the country of Sanmodazha one goes west more than nine hundred li and comes to the country of Danmolidi.

Interlinear notes 1

東印度境。

It is the border of East India.