The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c7.s1.26

c7.s1.26

The stream of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who continued for several centuries to visit India, which they regarded as their Holy Land, begins with Fa-hien (Fa-hsien); who started on his travels in A. D. 399, and returned to China fifteen years later. The book in which he recorded his journeys has been preserved complete, and translated once into French, and four times into English. It includes a very interesting and valuable description of the government and social condition of the Gangetic provinces during the reign of Chandra-gupta II, Vikramāditya.² He visited Ceylon in A. D. 412 during the reign of Buddhadāsa.³ Several other pilgrims left behind them works which contribute something to the elucidation of Indian history, and their testimony will be cited in due course.