Kingdom of Khotan - Early Names

Early Names

The name of the kingdom in the region now called Khotan has received many forms. The local people about the third century A.D. wrote Khotana in Kharoşţhī script; and Hvatäna- in Brāhmī in the somewhat later texts, whence as the language developed came Hvamna and Hvam, so that in the latest texts they have Hvam kşīra ‘the land of Khotan’. The name became known to the west while the –t- was still unchanged, and as is frequent in early New Persian. But under different influences the local people wrote also Gaustana, when they felt the prestige of Buddhist Sanskrit, and Yūttina, when the prestige of the Chinese kingdom in Śacu was at its height, in the ninth century. To the Tibetans in the seventh and eight centuries the land was Li and the capital city Hu-ten, Hu-den, Hu-then and Yvu-then.