Fan poluomen

Source: TW

A good note on brAhmaNa-s in Central Asia & the sinosphere. I mostly agree with their presence in the Hunnic world – something I’d independently talked about inspired by Golden’s observation of the said ethnonym. I’m also adding a few assorted comments in no particular order as the author of the above asked me to comment & something came to mind. I’d have to preface it by noting I’m no sinologist& am primarily interested in Indic& Turko-Mongolic matters but gathered a bunch of things at the interface.

1st it seems one of the transcriptions of brahma “fan”. The chIna bauddha author Daoshi of the Tang era writing in 668 CE states that there were 3 inventors of writing. 1st Fan who invented a rightward directed script; 2nd Chulu who invented a leftward directed script; 3rd Cang Jie who invented a downward directed script. The 1& 2 are said to have been invented in India & the 3rd in China during the time of the yellow emperor ~2650 BCE. The 1st is obviously brAhmI & the second kharoShThI.

Notably, the Northern Wei records that the city state of agni (modern Qarashahr) had poluomen writing & worshipped(?) a heavenly god. This indicates that both transcriptions – fan & poluomen, though divergent, were applied to the brahm-. The words fanzi & fanshu occurring in chIna writings, at least in some contexts should be understood as the shruti, i.e.,brahma word or brahma book.

I think the term pó luó hè mó from “brahminical” has been understood as pure/holy/clean. Liangshu names India as Poluomen =v1 i.e., land of the v1s. Xuanzang confirms that & equates it with the land called Yindu. The Weishu also lists that poluomen formed the upper clan of Wuchang & are said to know astral divination.

The chIna-s mention arriving there after crossing the Xintou River (sindhu). So they are specifically taking of the southern reaches of the oDDiyAna kingdom – v.significant for the tAntrika-s both H& bauddha.

Given the web of associations I think it is entirely safe to interpret poluomen when used for a person as v1 in the Mongol-/sino-sphere.