Cultural Interflow Between India and Japan

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This book chroniclese thare, literature, art, and the formation of the state, literature, art, and beginnings of technology in Japan from the sixth century down to our times. From the name of the country as Nippon arising out of the golden light of the rising sun in the Suvarnabhäsottama-sürra down to the Indic sequence of the kana syllabary, or the kanji of the sutras becoming the terminology of the yosal in the 19th century, from the haiku of Basho to the very name of the astounding poet Saigyő "Going to the West (Le. India); and the overwhelming sharing of culture alongside its internalisation as Japanese are recorded herein. Transience of the cherry blossoms, the resonance of temple bells vanishing into sünyata, or the Vice-Admiral of the Japanese navy committing harakiri at the end of the Second World War, scenes from the Maha- bharata in the kabuki theatre, Sanskrit mantras, the sprawling homa fires of the yamabushi on the mountains, gigantic Sanskrit bijäkşaras on rocks, the rathayatra of Srävasti of Lord Buddha's life time featuring as the major vibrant Gion festival with millions of Japanese participating. and innumerable historical and living events are deep bonds of India and Japan.

The book is a moving story of how Prof. Raghuvira renewed these bonds by inviting Japanese students, commencing classes of Japanese language for the first time in India, inviting Prof. Kenzo Takayanagi who had defended the WWII Prime Minister of Japan at the War Crimes Tribunal and so on. A rare letter of General Douglas Mac- Arthur, not to convert the Emperor of Japan to Christianity, is cited in full.

The third chapter details the study and critical editions of Sanskrit texts, culminating in a facsimile edition of the Gilgit mss of the Lotus Sutra in the perfection of Japanese technology: it looks as a veritable original.

The fourth chapter recounts the history of Buddhist sculptures, scrolls, pantheons, mandalas from fourteen centuries, contemporary calligraphy of the Post-Gupta Siddham script, mudrās used in ritual, letters written in Sanskrit by Prof. Wogihara and Nagara, and the immense diversity of the art heritage of Buddhism.

The fifth chapter details the unique concept of "Linguistic Sovereignty" which became the creativity of neologisms, the miracle of economic development, and was the inspiration of Prof. Raghuvira to create the modern technical terminology in Indian languages.

The sixth chapter is the author's first visit to Japan to study the cultural treasures of monasteries and museums, to feel the living ambience of Buddhism in Japanese life, and to discuss the extensive researches of Japanese professors.

The seventh chapter recounts the first global conference on Japanese literature, visits to the astounding holdings of monasteries, the standing. structures of sixth century Hörüji or the eighth century Daigoji, and the latest modes intensified in their primal roots.

The eighth chapter delineates fourteen years of visits to and publications on Japan.

The ninth chapter is a study of Siddham calligraphy, Buddhist scriptures, a discussion on Hinduism and the world organised by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, etc.

The final chapter is a recount of eminent modern thinkers to strengthen the heart of Japan "so that the venerable tree of tradition does not wither at our hands". From the Black Ships of Commodore Perry to anti-globalism, to "saying no to America", and the right of nations to national history to avoid "cultural detachment" are the mytheme and living dynamism of a successful people.

A book that provokes and is the havoc of fire in the subtle shimmering of history as a powerful catalyst to modernisation. It is the ever-advancing technosphere in the creative plenitude of culture.

Prof. Lokesh Chandra is currently the Director of the International Academy of Indian Culture which is a premier research institution for Asian cultures. He has been a Vice-President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research. He is a wellknown historian and a renowned scholar of Tibetan, Mongolian and Sino- Japanese Buddhism. He has also served as a member of the Indian Parliament. In 2006 he was recognized with India's Padma Bhushan award. He is the son of the world-renowned scholar of Oriental Studies and Linguistics Prof. Raghuvira. He was born in 1927, obtained his Master's degree in 1947 from the Punjab University at Lahore, and followed it with a Doctorate in Literature and Philosophy from the State University of Utrecht (Netherlands) in 1950. Starting with an understanding of the most ancient of India's spiritual expression enshrined in the Vedic tradition, he has moved on to the interlocution between India, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan, South East Asia, and the Indo-European languages. He has studied over twenty languages of the world. He has to his credit 600 works and text editions.

This book chronicles the landscape of a historic time in the intersection of the mindscape of a personal finite. Sitting under a clock with kanji numbers my father Prof. Raghuvira sketched the complex labyrinth of the mind of Japan. In it he realised the two creative human faculties of seeing and understanding. His dazzlement at the silent archery of the wakon "Japanese spirit' in the trite figures of the clock became the quest of two generations to comprehend the vines and tendrils twining around the cultural torso of the centuries of Japan. To see is to think. The profound inner depths of the Land of the Rising Sun had their conveyance in the wisdom and compassion of the Land of the Moon that is India. This filters through the sieve of the poetry of Saigyo and other great masters in their admirable reticence of the haiku or waka. Saigyö celebrates his vision with the moon and mountains as his tomo or companions.