Discuss the contributions/role of Chinese travellers in ancient India
Some Chinese visitors journeyed to India in pursuit of Buddhist writings and scriptures, as well as pilgrimage. Some of them had a significant impact on China and the east. This trend began with the establishment of the Silk Road, which connected China to the West via northern India. These visitors did not only come to visit Fa-Hien arrived during the Gupta period, whereas Song Yun, Huien Tsang, and I-tsing arrived afterward. Fa-writings Hien’s focused mostly on the socioeconomic circumstances of the ‘Middle Kingdom,’ i.e. the Gupta Empire. Huien Tsang, a Chinese explorer who visited India during his reign, praised Harsha and his rule, as well as the socio-cultural and political situations in India at the time. I-tsing, on the other hand, was the source of the most of the material we have about the ‘Indianized States’ of south-eastern Asia up to that point.
Roles
- Fa-Hien, decided to come to the land of the Buddha in 399/400 CE. Authorised by the Han dynasty, Fa-Hien, he took the difficult journey while recording the experiences of a flourishing Buddhism from Central Asia to South Asia.
- Fa-Hien reported with great detail all the Buddhist sites and symbols that he encountered.
- Fourteen hundred years later, Alexander Cunningham, the father of India’s archaeology, followed Fa-Hien’s trails to uncover the sites.
- Fa-Hien reported with details how the Buddhist kingdoms venerated the Buddha.
- Fa-Hien also wrote about the important moments in Buddhist history.
- The information Fa-Hien documents is crisp, yet has detailed precision. Fa-Hien learned new languages and transcribed alien cultures filled with Buddhist lores.
- The purpose of Fa-Hien’s travels to the Buddha’s lands was to take with him the Vinaya-Pitika — the code for good governance. That is why his travelogue became known as “A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms”, translated from old Chinese to modern English by Scotsman James Legge in 1886.
Hiuen Tsang
- He was a Chinese traveller.
- He visited India during the supremacy of Harsha Vardhana.
- Si-yu-ki or ‘The Records of the Western World’ was written by him.
- In Afghanistan, he met the monk Dharma Simha and found over 3,000 non-Mahayana monks, including Prajnakara, with whom Hiuen Tsang studied early Buddhist texts. He also obtained the crucial Mahavibhasa manuscript, which he eventually translated into Chinese.
- He spent five years studying at Nalanda, the major Indian university in Bihar at the time. Hiuen Tsang studied logic, grammar, Sanskrit, and the Yogacara school of Buddhism at Nalanda. At Nalanda, Xuanzang met the venerable Silabhadra (expert of yogchara teaching and personal teacher of Hiuen Tsang). While studying Buddhism at Naland University in India, Xuanzang came across eleven commentaries on Vasubandhu.
How to structure:
- Give an intro on ancient Indo-Chinese relations
- Discuss the contributions of Chinese travellers in India
- Conclude
Reference:
- https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/fa-hien-in-land-of-buddha-7668321/
Tag:History