The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c9.115

c9.115

Returning to the East, there are many evidences of the spread of knowledge in and about India itself. In the third century B.C. Buddhism began to be a connecting medium of thought. It had already permeated the Himalaya territory, had reached eastern Turkestan, and had probably gone thence to China. Some centuries later (in 62 A.D.) the Chinese emperor sent an ambassador to India, and in 67 A.D. a Buddhist monk was invited to China.² Then, too, in India itself Aśoka, whose name has already been mentioned in this work, extended the boundaries of his domains even into Afghanistan, so that it was entirely possible for the numerals of the Punjab to have worked their way north even at that early date.³