The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s12.20

c12.s12.20

The first authentic Indian missionary in China appears to have been Kāśyapa Mātanga of Central India. It was as a guest of the Han Emperor Mingti that Kāśyapa Mātanga arrived at the Imperial capital, Loyang, the site of the present-day Honan-fu in 67 A.C. We ignore, for the present, the legendary traditions to the effect that the Celestials had knowledge of Śākya's teachings already in Chou times (c. B.C. 1122-249). Such legends are at any rate not unplausible in view of the fact that the Indian Asoka (B.C. 273-232) was an ardent embodiment of Śākyan (Buddhist) *appamāda* (energism) on the one hand and of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VII 15) cult of *charaiveti* (march on) on the other, in other words, an active internationalist bent on proselytizing and making converts among all and sundry. It is also a fact of Chinese culture-history that the Han Emperor Wuti (c. B.C. 140) was a great explorer of Central and Western Asia. The chances of the earlier Hans to come into contact with the Hindu arts and sciences are therefore quite conceivable. Historically, however, i.e., from the standpoint of datable events it is convenient to mark the official entry of Hindu culture into China with the advent of the Indian missionary Kāśyapa Mātanga, furnished, as he was, with Buddhist images and scriptures.