Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s6: VII. Nadia

Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s6

Language
English

VII. Nadia

c32.s6.1

Nadia is the popular name of Navadvīpa on the Bhāgīrathī at its confluence with Jalāṅgī. Once it was a centre of trade borne by the Bhāgīrathī between Saptagrāma (on the river Sarasvatī near Hoogly) and the United Provinces, and in the other direction by the Jalāṅgī between Saptagrāma and Eastern Bengal.

c32.s6.2

A relic of its old history is traced in some old buildings and fragments of pillars of stone found in a village called Suvarṇa-vihāra close to the modern town of Krishnagar, which are supposed to indicate that it received the attention of the Pāla kings.

c32.s6.3

Its rise to renown dates from c. A.D. 1063 or A.D. 1106, when King Lakshmaṇa Sena of Gauḍa made it his capital.

c32.s6.4

The Court of Lakshmaṇa Sena (A.D. 1106–1138) became a great centre of learning. His Prime Minister was the famous Halāyudha, well known for his works, “Brāhmaṇa Sarvasva,” “Smṛiti-sarvasva,” “Mīmāṁsā-sarvasva,” and “Nāya-, sarvasva.” Halāyudha's elder brother was also a learned man who wrote his “Paśupati-paddhati” on Hindu rituals.

c32.s6.5

There were several other renowned men of letters in different subjects, who built up the reputation of Nadia as a seat of learning. There was the poet, Jayadeva, the author of immortal "*Gītagovinda*", a masterpiece of literature of any age or clime. There was the poet, Dhoyī, the author of "*Pavanadūta*". There was a third distinguished poet Umāpati, of whom it is stated that he made "language to sprout into luxuriant foliage". The severe subject of Law found its exponent in Śūlapāṇi, author of the important work "*Smṛiti-viveka*".

c32.s6.6

The dynasty of Lakshmaṇa Sena came to an end by the conquest of Bakhtiar Khilji and his flight to Vikramapura in Eastern Bengal about A.D. 1197.

c32.s6.7

It is, however, to the credit of the Moslem rulers of Bengal that Nadia rose to be a great centre of Hindu learning known throughout India during the period of their rule (A.D. 1198–1757). The destruction of the Buddhist Vihāras, Nālandā and Vikramaśīlā, gave Brahmanical learning some opportunity to renew its work on new foundations at Nadia under Moslem rule which did not interfere with the religion and culture of the people, and the indigenous social institutions. The need of a new centre of learning in Bengal was also created by the proud practice of Mithilā not to allow any of its students to take away from its schools any of its books or even notes of the lessons or lectures delivered there. Graduates were allowed only to leave with their diplomas but not with any MSS. This peculiar rule confined the learning of Mithilā within its own limits and prevented its extension beyond them. This challenge of Mithilā was answered by Raghunātha Śiromaṇi who first began by instituting a Chair of Logic in Nadia and broke the monopoly of Mithilā in the teaching of that subject.

c32.s6.8

The story of the foundation of the Nadia School of Nyāya is connected with the great scholar Vāsudeva Sārvabhauma (*c.* A.D. 1450–1525) who was born in Nadia and, after being educated by his father in Grammar, Literature, and Jurisprudence, went to Mithilā at 25 to specialize in Logic. There he was admitted by the *Śalākā-parīkshā* and explained one by one 100 pages as they were probed by the needle and was awarded by his guru the high title of *Sārvabhauma* in recognition of his supreme merit. Finding that the teachers of Mithilā rigidly guarded the treasures of its knowledge by not permitting copy of the texts taught, Vāsudeva committed to memory the whole of *Tattva-chintāmaṇi* and the metrical part of *Kusumāñjali*.

c32.s6.9

and, fearing risk to his life on his way back to Nadia, changed his course and came to Benares where he studied Vedānta for some time. Then at Nadia he reduced to writing from memory the two works he had learnt at Mithilā, and founded his Academy of New Logic there.

c32.s6.10

Nadia soon outrivalled Mithilā by its first student, Raghunātha, defeating in argument his teacher of Mithilā where he was deputed by Vāsudeva to exact from Mithilā a charter for Nadia to confer degrees.

c32.s6.11

The Nadia University method of making an appointment to a Chair or Professorship was somewhat singular. What was required in the applicant was not merely original work to his credit, but the ability to teach, specially the possession of dialectical skill. A candidate who could hold his own against his opponents in open debate at an Assembly of Scholars acting as judges was considered competent for a Chair at this University.

c32.s6.12

Raghunātha Śiromaṇi was the founder of a School of Logicians adorned by many famous names up to recent times. Among these may be mentioned Mathurānatha (*c.* a.d. 1570) who wrote many valuable works on Logic which are known by the general name of *Māthurī*; Rāmabhadra (*c.* a.d. 1680), himself the founder of a school which produced scholars of the stamp of Jayarāma Nyāya-pañchānana and Jagadīśa Tarkālaṅkāra, author of the famous work “Śabda-śakti-prakāśikā”; and Gadādhara Bhaṭṭāchārya (*c.* a.d. 1650) of Lakshmipasa in Bogra district of Eastern Bengal, who joined the school of Harirāma Tarkavāgīśa at Nadia and became its head after his death. Gadādhara is described as “the prince of Indian Logicians”, who carried to its highest stage of development the subject of New Logic by his numerous works forming a special literature called *Gādādharī*. Some of the later scholars who shed lustre on Nadia and continued its traditions are mentioned below:—
(1) Harirāma Tarka-siddhānta (about a.d. 1730).
(2) Ramanārāyaṇa Tarka-pañchānana (about a.d. 1760).
(3) “Buno” Rāmanātha (probably 1770) [so called because he had his school in a wood (*vana*)].
(4) Krishṇakānta Vidyāvāgīśa (probably a.d. 1780).
(5) Śaṅkara Tarkavāgīśa (about a.d. 1800).
(6) Śivanātha Vidyāvāchaspati (a.d. 1810).
(7) Kāśīnātha Chūḍāmaṇi (about a.d. 1820).
(8) Daṇḍī (about a.d. 1830).
(9) Śrīrāma-Śiromaṇi (author of “Padārtha-tattva”).

c32.s6.13

It may be noted that No. 6, Śivanātha, exhibited his dialectical ability in a debate with the famous Jagannātha Tarka-pañchānana of Bansberia.

c32.s6.14

Along with the Chair of Logic, there was also at Nadia a Chair of Smṛiti which was inaugurated by Raghunandana, the most distinguished Jurist of his time in the sixteenth century a.d. He was followed by a succession of famous Smārtas, among whom may be mentioned Śrīkrishna Sārvabhauma, Srīkṛishṇa Tarkālaṅkāra, Gopāla Nāyālaṅkāra, Rāmānanda Vāchaspati, Vīreśvara Nāya-pañchānana. Krishṇakānta Vidyāvāgīśa, and Mathurānatha Padaratna.

c32.s6.15

There was also a strong School of Tantrika studies inaugurated by Krishnānanda Āgamavāgīśa.

c32.s6.16

Nadia also boasted of a Chair of Astronomy inaugurated by Rāmarudra Vidyānidhi in a.d. 1718. He was the author of "Jyotisha-sāra-saṁgraha". The duty of the School was to prepare Almanacs for the Nawab's court at Murshidabad and the East India Company's judicial and administrative authorities.

c32.s6.17

There are some interesting facts recorded about the University of Nadia in the January issue of the *Calcutta Monthly* for 1791. It states that the University possessed three chief centres of learning at Navadvīpa, Śāntipura, and Gopālpārā, patronized by the Mahārājā of Nadia. Navadvīpa alone counted 1,100 students and 150 teachers. In the time of Rājā Rudr aof a.d. 1680, the number of students was 4,000 and teachers 600. It appears that all these schools were for advanced post-graduate studies and that students seeking them spent even twenty years at these schools. They generally got by heart the texts they studied. These schools were conducted like seminars or colloquiums. Their method of work was for two teachers to start a debate on an abstruse topic, which the students had to follow and could supplement by their own questions. The advancement of knowledge by means of learned open debates has been India's indigenous traditional educational method through the ages.

c32.s6.18

**Spread of Indian Learning to Foreign Countries.** We have already seen how the products of these Universities, the scholars trained by them, distinguished themselves by their work in foreign countries like Tibet, China, and the islands of the Indian Archipelago, in a singular spirit of adventure in voyages of discovery to unknown lands, and of dedication to the cause of Learning for its own sake, as exiles from their own native place. The work of these self-sacrificing scholars in the extension of Indian Learning and Culture to foreign countries so as to build up a Greater India beyond the boundaries of India proper is one of the greatest achievements in India's long history, and the best testimony to the value and vitality of Indian thought fostered in these Indian Schools and Universities. The Buddhist Civilization of China was the work of a succession of Indian scholars continued for several centuries. Some of these were, as we have seen, students of Nālandā, but many others hailed from other centres of learning in Northern India and made China their adopted home to carry on their missionary enterprise.

c32.s6.19

**Indian Scholars working as Missionaries in China.** According to Maspero, the Chinese emperor Ming-ti (a.d. 58–75) interested himself in Buddhism and sent to India an embassy of eighteen persons to study its doctrines. They returned with Buddhist holy books, statues, and two Hindu monks named Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna. Kāśyapa was a Śramaṇa of Central India and a Brāhmaṇa by caste, but was in Gandhāra when he was invited by the Chinese envoy to come to China. He faced all the difficulties of the journey from Gandhāra to China through Chinese Turkistan over steep hills and across the desert of Gobi. He had also to face the difficulties of language. Sanskrit was then spoken up to Khotan. The Indian Paṇḍit and his associate picked up only the local frontier dialect of China on their journey, and later regular Chinese, into which they translated a Buddhist sūtra and five other Sanskrit works.

c32.s6.20

These two Indian scholars were pioneers who opened up a vast field of work in China, attracting any number of scholars from India. The following were the most prominent Indian scholars who worked in China in the first three centuries a.d., viz. (1) Saṁghavarman, (2) Dharmasatya, (3) Dharmakala, (4) Mahābala, (5) Vighna, (6) Dharmaphala, (7) Kālaśivi (a.d. 255), (8) Kālaruchi (a.d. 281), (9) Lokaraksha, and others. These contended against heavy odds in building up the Chinese Buddhist Church on the basis of Indian texts translated into Chinese. Dharmaphala took with him a Sanskrit text from Kapilavastu and translated it in a.d. 207 with the help of another monk of Tibet who was from "Central India". Even in a.d. 222, Dharmakāla, who also came from "Central India", found the Chinese monks quite ignorant of the rules of Vinaya. He, therefore, at once undertook the translation of *Prātimoksha* of the Mahāsaṁghikas, which was finished in a.d. 250. Among these Indian monks working in China were some who were Tibetans but had settled in India, whence they came to China. One of these was Khansan-Hwui, the son of the Prime Minister of Khan-Ku (= Kambu = Kamboja = ulterior Tibet), who became a favourite of the Chinese emperor, had a monastery built, and translated into Chinese fourteen works including several Jātakas and a Mahāyāna Sūtra about A.D. 251.

c32.s6.21

The next generation of Indian Scholars imparted by their learning a great impetus to Chinese Buddhism and was represented by the following famous names, viz. (1) Dharma-Raksha, (2) Gautama Saṁgha-Deva, (3) Buddha Bhadra, (4) Saṁghabhūti, (5) Dharmapriya, (6) Kumārajīva, (7) Vimalāksha, (8) Puṇyatrata, and others. Dharma-Raksha (*c.* A.D. 381), mastering Chinese in a short time, and 36 languages, translated 111 works into Chinese (such as Śrāmaṇyaphala-Sūtra). Gautama was a Śramaṇa from Kipin or Kashmir who came to China about A.D. 383 and translated seven works, including Madhyamāgama Abhidharma-hṛidaya-Sāstra, and other works.

c32.s6.22

Kumārajīva was born in a family of hereditary ministers of an Indian State. His father turned a monk and went to Koutcha where he became the priest of the king whose daughter he married. Young Kumārajīva at the age of 7 was taken to a convent by his mother and at 9 came to Kashmir for education under Āchārya Bandhudatta from whom he learnt the Nikāyas. He then came to Kashgar where he studied the Abhidharma with six Pādas, and then to Koutcha where, in the royal convent, he studied Vinaya under the monk Vimalāksha. There was a regular battle for his services between the King of Koutcha and the Chinese emperor whose general took him away as a prisoner. Later in 401, he saw the emperor who invited him to propagate Buddhism in China. By working for twelve years he translated into Chinese more than one hundred Sanskrit works. His translations read like original Chinese works and count as masterpieces of Chinese literature. His works are exclusively on Meditation or Samādhi and do not include any Tāntrika works. They include biographies of Aśvaghosa and Nāgārjuna. Kumārajīva was associated in his work with his colleagues Vimalāksha (his guru), Buddha Bhadra, and Puṇyatrata. He is also known as the teacher of the famous Chinese pilgrim to India, Fa-Hien. Both Vimalāksha and Puṇyatrata hailed from Kashmir (Kipin).

c32.s6.23

Kashmir, in fact, in those days was the stronghold of Buddhist Learning and Religion and supplied China with many erudite Indian scholars to work for the cause of Chinese Buddhism. Among these may be mentioned the following, viz. (1) Buddhayasas, (2) Dharmayasas, (3) Dharmakshema, (4) Buddhajīva, (5) Dharmamitra. Of these, the most renowned was Dharmakshema, who was a native of "Central India", and translated into Chinese many important works between A.D. 414–421, including the *Buddhacharita* of Aśvaghosa, the *Bodhisattva Prātimoksha*, *Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra*, and the like. His life was unfortunately cut short by an assassin as the result of two Chinese local kings contending for his services!

c32.s6.24

But the most distinguished of Kashmir scholars to work abroad was Guṇavarman who was of the royal family. At an early age he became known as the master of Tripiṭaka and became a monk at 20. At 30, on failure of royal issue, he was elected to kingship by the Ministers, but he declined the honour, left Kashmir, and proceeded to Ceylon and thence to Sho-po = Java, where Fa-Hien a little earlier had found Hinduism flourishing. It was left to Guṇavarman to spread Buddhism in Java. Reports of his work reached the Chinese emperor through Chinese monks from Java, who in A.D. 424 sent for him through a mission of monks. Before they arrived, Guṇavarman had sailed in the ship of an 'Indian' named *Nandi* (*Nan-Ti*) and, pushed by a favourable wind, was landed at Canton. The Chinese emperor at once ordered the local authorities to supply the Indian Pandit with provisions and send him to the capital. He arrived at Nanking in A.D. 431 and was received personally by the emperor who lodged him in a temple called Jetavana Vihāra and became his disciple. His work was less literary and lay more in the sphere of organization. He is known as the founder of the Saṁgha for Buddhist nuns. He died in China at 67.

c32.s6.25

Guṇabhadra was another great Indian scholar who came to China about the end of the fifth century to dedicate himself to the cause of Buddhism. He was a Brāhmaṇa of "Central India" and was nicknamed Mahāyāna for his mastery of its literature. In eight years (A.D. 435–443), he translated into Chinese as many as seventy-eight works. He died at 75 in A.D. 468.

c32.s6.26

The next century, A.D. 500–600, saw a continued influx into China of Indian scholars, among whom the more well-known are the following, viz. (1) Dharmaruchi, (2) Ratnamati, (3) Bodhiruchi, (4) Buddhaśānta, (5) Gautama Prajñāruchi, (6) Upaśūnya, (7) Vimokshasena, and others. Dharmaruchi was from Southern India and translated three works into Chinese. Ratnamati was from Central India. He rendered into Chinese "Mahāyāna-Tantra-Śāstra", showing that Tāntrika Mahāyāna had already spread to China. He also translated "Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka". Bodhiruchi became an accomplished Chinese scholar and translated more than thirty works in twenty-seven years (a.d. 508–535), such as "Laṅkāvatāra-Sūtra". Buddhaśānta, another master of Chinese, translated ten works in fifteen years (a.d. 524–539).

c32.s6.27

Even the sacred city of Benares contributed one monk for purposes of India's work in China. He was Gautama Prajñā Ruchi who translated eighteen works in three years (a.d. 538–541):

c32.s6.28

Upaśūnya was a prince, the son of a king of Ujjayinī, who renounced his position and became a monk. He came to China where he translated three works in a.d. 538–540 and two other works in a.d. 545 and 565, securing a Sanskrit Text from a Khotanese monk in a.d. 558.

c32.s6.29

Udyāna supplied China with another Indian Missionary, Vimokshasena, who translated about six works.

c32.s6.30

Another famous monk and scholar of Udyāna was Narendrayasas who, after touring the whole of India and Ceylon, started for China with five companions, crossing the Hindu Kush. Their progress was stopped for a time by local fighting between the Turks and the Chinese. He arrived in China in a.d. 556 at 40 and translated seven texts while residing in a temple. In a.d. 577 an anti-Buddhist dynasty came into power and sent into exile these Indian monks. It was supplanted in a.d. 581 by a pro-Buddhist Dynasty. By that time, a Chinese Mission, who had visited India during a.d. 575–581, and were stopped on their way back in the territory of the Turks, were free to return to their native land, bringing with them a large number of Sanskrit Texts. A Board of thirty translators was appointed by the new emperor and Narendrayasas was recalled from his exile in a.d. 582 and placed in charge of the Board. Within three years, he brought out eight works in Chinese. He died in a.d. 589.

c32.s6.31

Paramārtha was a famous scholar, a native of Ujjayinī, who arrived at Nanking in a.d. 548. He translated about fifty works and died in a.d. 569 at 71. His *Life of Vasubandhu* is a well-known work, as well as his *Tarka-Śāstra*.

c32.s6.32

In a.d. 557, China was visited by a learned mission of four Indian monks, including the two Āchāryas, Jñānabhadra and Jinayaśas, with their two disciples, Yasogupta and Jinagupta. Jinagupta became the most famous of these, as the author of thirty-six Chinese works including a rendering of *Buddha-Charita* and *Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka*. He was a native of Gandhāra, a citizen of Purushapura (Peshawar), and a Kshatriya. At 7 he became a monk and joined the Mahāvana Vihāra. Jinayasas was his Upādhyāya and Jñānabhadra his Ācharya. At 27 he joined his teachers to form a company of ten travellers to China, of whom only four named above survived the hardships of the journey and reached China in A.D. 557. The emperor had a new temple constructed for the residence of the Indian monks who translated there several Sanskrit works. After A.D. 577 there came to power a dynasty hostile to Buddhism, as already related, so that the Indian monks had to leave China. Jinagupta came to live among the Turks, and met in their country the Chinese Mission returning from India and held up there, as already narrated. Chinese politics took a favourable turn with the return to power of a pro-Buddhist dynasty in A.D. 581, as already stated, when the Chinese Mission from India found a safe passage to China, with their precious baggage of Sanskrit works for the translation of which the emperor appointed a Board of scholars under Narendrayasas and, later, under Jinagupta recalled from Turkish territory. He was assisted in his work by an Indian monk and two Chinese monks, while ten other Chinese monks were appointed to revise the translations and see that they preserved the original sense. Lastly, two more Chinese scholars were added to the Board for making the translations as perfect as possible. This combination of Sanskrit and Chinese scholars on the Board of Translators made its work very efficient. Jinagupta thus translated thirty-seven works, including a few astronomical texts. He died in A.D. 600 at 78.

c32.s6.33

Gautama Dharmajñāna, son of Gautama Prajñāruchi of Benares, won the distinction of being appointed as Governor of a District in A.D. 577. Later, he was called to the capital where he translated a work in A.D. 582.

c32.s6.34

Vinītaruchi, a native of Udyāna, reached China in A.D. 582 and translated two works.

c32.s6.35

Dharmagupta, following the same difficult route to China as Jinagupta, arrived in China in A.D. 590 and worked hard up to A.D. 619 in translating ten works such as Nidāna-sūtra and Śāstra. He died in China in A.D. 619.

c32.s6.36

The seventh century saw only six Indian monks coming to China, but three Chinese monks, Hiuen Tsang, Wang Hiuen-tse, and I-tsing, coming to India and returning to China laden with the treasures of its learning.

c32.s6.37

Prabhākaramitra, a native of Central India, arrived in China in A.D. 627 and died in A.D. 633 at 69 after translating three works such as “Prajñā-pradīpa-śāstraṭīkā”, and “Sūtrālaṁkāra-ṭīkā”

c32.s6.38

Atigupta (*O-ti-khu-to*) of Central India came to China in A.D. 652 and wrote one work, “Dhāraṇī-Saṁgraha-Sūtra.”

c32.s6.39

The next monk to come from India was Nandi. Travelling all over India and Ceylon and collecting 1,500 Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna Texts, he came to China in A.D. 655 and was sent by the emperor next year to a distant island to secure there some medicine for him. He returned after seven years and translated three works into Chinese.

c32.s6.40

Divākara was a monk of Central India who translated nineteen works (attributed to him in Nanjio’s *Catalogue*) during twelve years (A.D. 676–688).

c32.s6.41

Ratnachinta was a monk from Kashmira and translated seven works during A.D. 693–706.

c32.s6.42

Dharmaruchi was a Kāśyapa Brāhmaṇa of South India, whose name was changed to Bodhiruchi by the Chinese emperor. For twenty years (A.D. 693–713), he worked in China, rendering into Chinese as many as fifty-three works.

c32.s6.43

Pramiti, a monk from Central India, came to China and translated in A.D. 705 one work with the assistance of another Indian monk, Meghaśikha, of Udyāna, and a Chinese monk.

c32.s6.44

He was followed by Vajrabodhi, a South India Brāhmaṇa of Malaya country, who arrived in China in A.D. 719 and translated four works by A.D. 730. He died in A.D. 732.

c32.s6.45

Śubhākara Siṁha was a monk from Nālandā who came to China in A.D. 716 and translated four works by A.D. 730. He died in A.D. 735 at the age of 99.

c32.s6.46

The greatest Indian scholar of the century to work in China was Amoghavajra. A Brāhmaṇa monk of Northern India, he accompanied to China his guru, Vajrabodhi, in A.D. 719. After his death in A.D. 732, Amoghavajra came to India in A.D 741, travelled all over India and Ceylon, and returned to China in 746 with many MSS. Seeing his learning, the emperor conferred upon him the high title of “Prajñā-moksha”, and, later, the higher title of “Tripiṭaka Bhadanta”. He wanted to return to India in A.D. 749 and reached the sea-shore on his journey, when the emperor thought he could ill spare him and at once recalled him. He thus narrated himself his career to the emperor in presenting him with his translations from Tripiṭaka: "From my boyhood I served my teacher (Vajrabodhi) for fourteen years (719-732) and received instructions in the doctrine of Yoga. Then I went to the five parts of India and collected several Sūtras and Śāstras, more than 500 different Texts, which had hitherto not been brought to China. In A.D. 746 I came back to the capital. From the same year till the present time (A.D. 771) I translated seventy-seven works." Amoghavajra translated many works on *Dhāraṇīs* (such as "*Sarva-roga-praśamana-dhāraṇī*", treating of mysterious formulae for curing diseases) and *Tantras*, and is known in China as the promulgator of Tāntrika Buddhism. He died in A.D. 774 at the age of 70.

c32.s6.47

The movement of Indian scholars to China declined after Amoghavajra and the ninth century is almost a blank in this respect. The tenth century saw only three Indian monks in China, as recorded in Nanjio's *Catalogue*. From the year A.D. 973 the movement partially revived with the arrival of four Indian monks in China, followed by the arrival in 973 of the Master of Tripiṭaka named Dharmadeva of Nālandā University, under whom a Board was formed by the emperor for the translation of Indian Buddhist Texts. He was associated in the Board with another Indian scholar, Dānapāla, and other Chinese monks versed in Sanskrit to ensure the precision and literary standard of the translations in Chinese. In eight years (A.D. 973-981), he translated as many as forty-six works, mostly on Tantra and Dhāraṇī, on which the texts he had secured as a student of Nālandā. He died in A.D. 1001.

c32.s6.48

Two Indian scholars visited China in A.D. 980. Their Chinese names are (1) *Tien-si-tsai* and (2) *Che-hou* (= Dānapāla?). The former is stated to have been a Kashmiri or a native of Jalandharā (*Jo-lan-to-lo*). In twenty years, he translated eighteen works, such as *Dharmapada* or *Daśanāma-sūtra*. He served with Dānapāla on the Board of Translators. Dānapāla hailed from Udyāna and is said to have translated as many as 111 works, mostly on *Dhāraṇīs*.

c32.s6.49

Chinese texts mention a few Indian monks visiting China after Dānapāla. They are named *A-jon-i-to* (with his wife named Mohinī); Kālaśānti from Central India, who presented the emperor with some Buddhist Texts and relics in A.D. 995;

c32.s6.50

Rāhula from Western India who also brought some texts for the emperor, and two other monks from Nālandā and Central India.

c32.s6.51

The visit of a few more Indian scholars to China in the eleventh century brings to a close a glorious chapter of Indian History recording how the cultural contact between India and China had continued for wellnigh 1,000 years and established Buddhism in China.

c32.s6.52

In 1004, Dharmaraksha (*Fa-hu*) of Magadha came to China with Buddhist Texts and Relics and translated twelve works, such as Ratna-megha-tantra, Vajra-tantra, and Prajñāptipāda-śāstra.

c32.s6.53

Sūrya-yasas was another Indian monk who came to China about the same time and translated two works into Chinese.

c32.s6.54

The Indian monk, Maitreya-Bhadra, was appointed the Rājaguru in China about A.D. 1110. He translated five works including one on "ceremonial rules for homa sacrifice".

c32.s6.55

The Chinese texts next speak of a band of Indian scholars visiting China, and numbering thirteen. They hailed from different parts of India such as "Northern India", Kashmir, "Western India", "Central India", Udyāna, and Varendra (*Fo-lin-nai*). The Indian names are known of only three of them, viz. Śīlabhadra, Śraddhāpāla, and Jñānaśrī. The last came to China in A.D. 1053 and translated two works such as "Tathāgatajñāna-mudrā-sūtra"

c32.s6.56

The political disturbances following the Moslem inroads into India interfered with these peaceful movements of scholars between China and India along the land-routes. When Kubla Khan looked for Indian monks for translating the Tripiṭaka into Mongolian, he could not find any!

c32.s6.57

It will be seen from the above account that, contrary to the prevailing opinion, Indian scholars played a far more active and prominent part than Chinese scholars (of the eminence of Fa-Hien, Hiuen Tsang, or I-tsing) in introducing Indian thought to China, and maintaining a fruitful cultural intercourse with that country, on the basis of the creation of a new Buddhist Literature in Chinese through so many centuries. This is a story of self-sacrifice in the cause of Learning and Religion which has hardly a parallel. The self-sacrifice involved not merely facing physical risks of life attending the pilgrim's progress from the Indian frontiers to China, along difficult and dangerous land-routes crossing steep hills, and inhospitable deserts, and through politically unsettled and hostile regions. It also meant a life of long or permanent exile where only a burning zeal for learning could keep up the drooping spirit. It again meant unusual linguistic capacity in mastering a difficult and strange language like Chinese into which abstruse Sanskrit works had to be translated in forms intelligible to the Chinese. It was the same self-sacrifice of Indian scholars that found for itself another vast field of work in Tibet whose religion and civilization it had built up by the continued work of centuries. It was a credit to the many centres of Indian Learning where such efficient linguistic schools of Tibetan and Chinese had been built up, and where scholars were so efficiently trained not merely in intellect and academic studies, but also in character, in enthusiasm for the truths taught, in capacity for the utmost self-sacrifice in the sacred cause of Learning, and carrying it to distant and unknown foreign countries. The gradual growth of a Greater India was the work of these Indian Schools. It is a romance of Indian History, and a unique achievement in the annals of mankind.

Linked texts (18)