Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.54

v1.c6.54

*gong kai wu* (*Creations of Heaven and Human Labor*) defines this kind of bleaching technology during the process of refining white sugar as the method of “showering yellow mud”. It can be said that the method of showering and bleaching yellow mud was the great invention in the history of sugar-making technology in China. After the Chinese technology for making sugar was improved, China obviously again began to export white sugar of higher quality to India. Ma Huan’s *Ying-yai sheng-lan* (*Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores*) records that the Bengal region (present-day Bangladesh) had sweet food items such as cane, white sugar, granulated sugar, icing sugar, candy and so on. Gong Zhen’s *Xi yang fan guo zhi* (*Annals of the Foreign Counties in the Western Ocean*) records that Bengal made products such as granulated sugar, white sugar and icing sugar. Volume CCCXXVI of *Ming shi* (*History of the Ming Dynasty*) and Volume CXVIII of *Ming hui dian* (*Collected Ming Statutes*), constituting the Library of Four Treasures record that tributes offered by Bengal included icing sugar. Professor Ji Xianlin believes that Chinese technology for making white sugar was introduced in India in the second half of the 13ᵗʰ century and it reached Bengal via the overseas/maritime Silk Road. The Indian 16ᵗʰ century classic *Bhavaprakasa* refers to *puspa-sita* as the most superior sugar in ancient India which was also known as*padma-cini* (*lotus sugar*), *phul-cini* (*flower sugar*) and *bhura* (*powder sugar*) in Bengal region. The latter names of the superior white sugar in Bengal obviously indicate Chinese connections which can be found from the two words, ie *padma-cini* and *phul-cini*. Therefore, China learned the technology for making sugar from India early, then improved it and developed the white sugar technology after great efforts and finally exported it to the region of Bengal and India. This evinces long and deep mutual cultural exchanges between ancient China and India.