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V. Yuan Chwang's Mo-la-p'o
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
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Yuan chwang describes a country which he calls Mo-la-p'o, immediately after his account of the kingdom of Broach in the modern Bombay Presidency. Up to lately, this name has (with some hesitation) been considered as equivalent to Mālava, the modern Mālwā. Mr. Vincent Smith, on pp. 279, 280 of his Early History of India, and at greater length in vol. lviii of the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, has attacked this interpretation, and, with a confidence somewhat strongly contrasted with the diffident opinions of his predecessors, maintains that “ the learned authors who identify Mo-la-p'o with Mālava, meaning by the latter term the kingdom of Ujjayinī, are demonstrably mistaken.” He insists that Yuan Chwang's Mo-la-p'o “ clearly corresponds with the modern Bombay districts of Kaira and Ahmadabad, together with parts of Baroda and some adjoining territory.” In other words, it roughly corresponds with a portion of what is now called North Gujarāt.
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page 99 note 1 The area, of course, depends on the shape of the country. An exact square would give something over 75,000 square miles. A tract twice as long as it is broad would give about 67,000 square miles, and the smaller the area, the longer two of its sides would be. As a reductio ad absurdum, a tract 548 miles long and one mile wide would reach half across India, and would have an area of only 548 square miles. Under no conceivable circumstances can a country with boundaries totalling 1,100 miles be got to fit into North Gujarāt.
page 100 note 1 Since writing the above, I see that Lévi, Monsieur Sylvain (Journal des Savants, 10, 1905, p. 546)Google Scholar interprets the passage as meaning that the capital lay to the south-east of the Mahī. Dhārā complies with this condition, but is a long way from the river. That ‘ Mahī-Kāṇṭhā’ means ‘ bank of the Mahī’ is probably only a coincidence with Yuan Chwang's expression.
page 101 note 1 Since this was written, I see that Monsieur Sylvain Lévi, in his article in the Journal des Savants already referred to, p. 546, shows that the phonetic equivalent of K'ie-ch'a is Khēṭa.
page 101 note 2 See note above.
page 101 note 3 Beal, ii, 260, note 57. The Northern Lo-lo country was, according to a similar authority, Valabhī (ib. 266–71). But this would imply that Valabhī lay south of the Mahī, which does not seem to have been likely in Yuan Chwang's time.
page 103 note 1 See, however, M. Lévi's remarks on pp. 546–8 of his article.