Note 6 — Chapter II · ON TO SHEN-SHEN AND THENCE TO KHOTEN.

The name for India is here the same as in the former chapter and throughout the book,—Tʽeen-chuh (天竺), the chuh being pronounced, probably, in Fâ-hien’s time as tuk. How the earliest name for India, Shin-tuk or duk=Scinde, came to be changed into Thien-tuk, it would take too much space to explain. I believe it was done by the Buddhists, wishing to give a good auspicious name to the fatherland of their Law, and calling it ‘the Heavenly Tuk,’ just as the Mohammedans call Arabia ‘the Heavenly region’ (天方), and the court of China itself is called ‘the Celestial’ (天꜀⁠朝).