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72
PRELIMINARY ESSAY

centuries before Ceylon is again heard of in the Chinese Annals'^. 47. Towards 758-760, China, it is said, having lost the country of Holong, the Kings of India ceased to send homage^. I do not know what country is indicated, whether Khuluni in the valley of the Oxus or some region on the Yun nan frontier. The former is probable, as the narratives of the Buddhist pilgrims show that the long route by Kashgar and Badakhshan was that generally followed between India and China. The Tibetans at this time were becoming powerful and troublesome neighbours, insomuch that about 787 the Emperor Te Tsung, by the advice of one of his ministers, applied to the Uighurs, the Princes of India, and the Khalif to join in a league against them^. After this, for a long time no political intercourse is heard of ; but a few more missions from Indian kingdoms are recorded under the later years of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh as visiting the Court of the Northern Sung. With the exception of one in 10 1 5 from the country of Chulien, which is supposed by Deguignes to be the Chola Kingdom of Southern India, I suspect these embassies to belong rather to the Archi- pelago than to India Proper*. 48. Throughout this period, however, there are frequent notices either of the visits of Indian Buddhist devotees to' the Court of China or of leave obtained from ^ Tennent, ib., p . 597. [The embassies of 742 and 746 and probably also those of 750 and 762 were sent by Aggabodhi VI Silamegha (741-781). S . Levi, I.e., p. 428.1 [On the relations between Ceylon and China see the translations from the Pien-yi-tien, by Sylvain Levi, Journ. Asiat., Mai-Juin, 1900, pp. 411-418.] 2 JuHen, p. III. ^ Ch. Anc, p. 321. 4 Deguignes, i, pp. 66 seqq. Tanmoeilieu, one of the kingdoms named, is perhaps Tana-Malayu, the Malay country.