Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s1.53

c32.s1.53

We have already seen how the Far Eastern countries paid homage to India as their holy land and sent out pilgrims to gather the harvest of her learning and return home to sow its seeds in a new soil. The outstanding characters in this fruitful cultural intercourse were Fa-Hien, Hiuen Tsang, and I-tsing, but there were hosts of other pilgrims to India whose names and achievements are not known to us. We have already referred to several such pilgrims who had followed Hiuen Tsang and preceded I-tsing during the short interval of only forty years. They were Thonmi, Hiuen Chiu, Taouhi, Hwui Lu, Tang, Taou-sing, Āryavarman, Buddhadharma, all of whom sought Indian Wisdom as students of Nālandā as its chief centre and repository. In the same (seventh) century, we have also to record the visits of the Chinese monks, Ou-Kong and Ki-ye, to Nālandā.