Lankavatara sutra

[Venkatraman Iyer]

>Is there Nan2 tian1zhu2, Nan2 yin4du4 or something
>else for South India?
[...]
>Actually, the word "Nan2" in Nan2 tian1zhu2 and
>Nan2 Yin2du4 was Chinese word for "south".

 Nan2 in the above terms  refers to the Dravida
 Country in South India, acc. to Xuan Zang biographer.
 Ref. given below.    V. Iyer

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 I think we are getting close to the place of origin of
 Lankavatara Sutra. The life history (Nanking woodprint,
 chapter 4 folio 6b line 9) of Hsuan Tsang has Dravida
 with the gloss 'nan-yin' (South India).

 Lokesh Chandra, oDDiyANa: A new interpretation,
 L. Sternbach felicitaion volume, part I, Lucknow, 1979
 p. 491-514

 p. 510
 "PrAjna of Kapiza went to the country of Chen-li where he stayed
for 18 years. He learnt the speech of South India where they pursue
the guhya-piTaka or vidyAdhara-piTaka and practice strange rites.
Thereafter he proceeded to the South where he studied the yoga
tantra, maNDala and mudrA of the 'five families' in more than
3000 gAthAs. Here South India should refer to Kanchi, for in the
life of Hsuan-tsang DraaviDa has the gloss nan-yin 'South India'
in miniscule letters, and the capital of DraaviDa was Kancipura."

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