Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t17.10

v2.c10.s2.t17.10

in a few words which so delighted the heart of his reader that he never wearied of perusing the poem.” For this reason, it was translated into Chinese in the early 5ᵗʰ century by Dharmaksema, who was an Indian monk versed in Chinese and translated many Buddhist texts for Juqu Mengxun, the Duke of Zhangye in the Northern Liang Dynasty. His translation of ancient Indian poems into classical Chinese is a much-told story in the history of India-China cultural exchange. A different translation was made by Baoyun (Liu Song Period in the Southern dynasties, 420-479) which includes seven books and 31 chapters, is longer than ‘*Buddhacarita*’ and with different details and intermingles five-character with four-character or seven-character. There was also Tibetan translation in Tang Dynasty which is the same as the one in Chinese. Only the first half of the original Sanskrit text is left while Chinese and Tibetan translations are complete, and to some extent, compensate for the lack of the original texts.