Public Administration in Ancient India c22.12

c22.12

This missionary work in connection with Buddhism was continued after the death of Asoka. Religious teachers, proceeding from various centres of religious influence, carried a knowledge of the doctrines and discipline to different foreign countries. The conversion of Kanishka to the Buddhist faith led to the still wider diffusion of Buddhism in Central Asia and Tibet. From these countries a knowledge of Buddhist doctrine spread to China, and, in the first century A.D., at the request of the Emperor of China, a band of Buddhist missionaries headed by Kāsyapa Mātanga was sent to that country. During the following centuries a constant communication was kept up between India and China, and Buddhism made rapid progress in the latter country. From China the religion travelled to Japan, which soon became strongly attached to Buddhism. The religion of the Buddha continued to spread, till it became the faith of a greater number of human beings than had ever before—or have since—adopted the creed of any single religion.