Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c31.3

c31.3

**His reverence for Hiuen Tsang.** But apart from this, Hiuen Tsang exercised a considerable personal influence upon I-tsing. According to his biographer, he was an eye-witness of the noble enthusiasm of Hiuen Tsang and the ceremony of his funeral which was celebrated with special pomp under the Emperor’s orders. Hiuen Tsang died during the time of I-tsing’s stay in the capital. His references to Hiuen Tsang are always full of reverence. He calls him “the Tripiṭaka Teacher of China” (p. 74) and “the Bhadanta Hiuen Tsang who followed out his professional career in his own country” (p. 184), and places him on a footing of equality with renowned Buddhist scholars from India like Paramārtha and Kumārajīva. According to his biographer, I-tsing was a great admirer of both Hiuen Tsang and Fa-Hien, in whose footsteps he followed in seeking to slake his thirst for knowledge at its very fountains in India.