Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c13.s3.t2.29

v2.c13.s3.t2.29

Xuanzang visited Kalinga during his visit to India. He found that the country was a prosperous place, “with sowing and reaping, numerous flowers and fruits and thick woods and marshes for hundreds of miles”. However, it was already clear by his time that there had been a decline with people gradually moving to other places and the population becoming smaller. The ‘*Sutra of Vinaya (juan 39)*’ translated by Yijing, another monk of the Tang period, also contained this reference to Kalinga: “Buddha has four tooth relics ... with one in Kalinga”. In the second half of the 4th century, a prince Dantha, referred to as Tuoduo in Chinese records, carried it to Simhala (now Sri Lanka) secretly. It is said that the Buddha tooth relic enshrined in Kandy is the same.