On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s1.24

v1.c8.s1.24

Whatever the name *T'ien-chu* may have signified originally, however, it came to be given by the Chinese in their literature to the great extent of territory between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, and reaching from the Kapis country in the north to Ceylon in the south. Thus used it supplanted the old Shên-tu, and all other names for India among the Chinese; and it continued to be the general literary designation for that country down to the T'ang period when the new name *Yin-tu* was brought into fashion. We even find the term *T'ien-chu* used with a wider application, and it is employed as a synonym for "Buddhist countries", for example, in a title given to the "Fo-kuo-chi" of Fa-hsien. Nor has the term been quite put out of use by Yuan-chuang's correct name *Yintu*, and Yuan-chuang himself continues to use it occasionally. We find also each of its component parts sometimes made to do duty for the whole. This *Chung-T'ien* and *Hsi-T'ien* are respectively Middle and West India, while *Chu* in the Han and Ch'in periods and later was commonly used for India or Indian, a way in which *Hsi-T'ien* is also used.