Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India c7.34

c7.34

India was first known to the Chinese in the time of the Emperor Wuti, of the later Han dynasty, in the second century before Christ.* It was then called *Yuan-tu* or *Yin-tu*, that is Hindu, and *Shin-tu*, or *Sindhu*. At a later date it was named *Thian-tu*;† and this is the form which the historian Mat-wanlin has adopted. In the official records of the Thang dynasty in the seventh century, India is described as consisting of "Five Divisions," called the East, West, North, South, and Central, which are usually styled the "Five Indies." I have not been able to discover when this system of the "Five Divisions" was first adopted; but the earliest notice of it that I can find is in the year 477 A.D.,‡ when the king of Western India sent an ambassador to China, and again only a few years later, in A.D. 503 and 504, when the kings of Northern and Southern India are mentioned as having followed his example.§ No divisions are alluded to in any of the earlier Chinese notices of India; but the different provinces are described by name, and not by position. Thus we have mention of Yue-gai, king of Kapila, in A.D. 428, and of the king of Gândhâra in A.D. 455.* It would appear also that previous to this time India was sometimes called Magadha, after the name of its best known and richest province; and sometimes the "kingdom of Brahmans," after the name of its principal inhabitants.† The first of these names I would refer to the second and third centuries after Christ, when the powerful Guptas of Magadha ruled over the greater part of India.