Note 5 — Chapter II · ON TO SHEN-SHEN AND THENCE TO KHOTEN

(5) The name for India is here the same as in the former chapter and throughout the book,—T’een-chuh ({.} {.}), 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” ({.} {.}), and the court of China itself is called “the Celestial” ({.} {.}).