India-China Relations in Ancient Period- Till 8th Century

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About the Book The present work is a modest attempt to throw light on the relations between India and China in ancient period (till 8th century). The study is made with an emphasis on the integration of all aspects of relations between India and China. The book amply highlights the political, economical, cultural relations and also exchanges in the field of Art, Science & Technology. The contents of the book are based on archaeological and literary sources.

About the Author Dr. Sanjay Singh did his undergraduate & postgraduate studies at Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi. He completed his post graduation in Ancient History, though in graduation he came from science background. Subsequently he worked as a research scholar in Banaras Hindu University for three years. The present book has grown out of his doctoral thesis which was evaluated at Cambridge University (England). The present work has been thoroughly revised and recast by the author himself.

Dr. Sanjay Singh has been in the field of teaching in special courses, Faculty of Arts, B.H.U., since 2006. Dr. Singh is highly versatile with a wide spectrum of areas of interest, ranging from computer applications, software technology, stenography and office management. He has been very active in Tesearch with a wide range of publications in dozens of national and international journals.

Foreword At the outset, I can say that, there was hitherto no full, sys tematic integrated account of the various aspects of relations between India and China, though many scholars have shed light on particular issues of their relations. But, such work is quite new in this sense and I am glad that it is one of my students who has striven to remove this long-felt went by attempting an integration of various aspects of rela tions between India and China. The book is divided into six chapters i.c. (i) Introduction (ii) Sources of India-China Relations (iii) Political Relations (iv) Economical Relations (v) Cultural Relations (vi) Exchanges in Art, Science & Technology and Conclusion.

Relation between India and China can be detected from 24 century B.C. when we get some evidences of small colonies founded in the southern part of the region from Khotan to Labnor, though we do not know the definite date. Merchants were the first medium who introduced some strange manuscripts to Chinese from countries re garded by Chinese as 'barbarian'. According to the Wei-lueh, the envoy of the Yuch-chih king orally transmitted a Buddhist scripture to an official of Han court in the 2nd century B.C. Later on Buddhism became more popular among Chinese due to continuous visit of In dian missionaries to China. A large number of translations had been done by these Indian missionaries, who were promoted by various Chinese emperors. At one time Buddhism became so popular that according to Brinkley "it became, before the middle of the fourth cen tury, the chief religion of the nation." It was none other than Indian missionaries who make Buddhism so popular that Chinese pilgrims were compelled to come to the 'holy land of lord Buddha' in order to quench their anxiety.

Preface India and China are the two ancient civilizations of the world. Both of them have their own rich traditions & culture and both of them affected each other. But it is not hyperbolic to say that India influ enced China very much in comparison to the Chinese influence on India. India was that holy land where the great religion 'Buddhism' was born. It was Buddhism which influenced not only China, but the whole world. Buddhism provoked China to come to India in order to know about the 'Holy Land of Lord Buddha'. But it was not the only factor which established relations between India and China. There are several other factors which are also responsible for establishment of India-China relations.

India and China, being one of the most ancient civilizations, create anxiety to know about their ancient relations. No doubt, their relations are a matter of long discussion among historians since a long time.

Here I have made an attempt to emphasize the relations be tween India and China in Ancient Period (till 8th Century). In this context I have integrated all aspects of India-China relations. I have included all recent investigations related to Sino-Indian relations; ci ther it is archaeological surveys or any publication.

Introduction A. Geographical Introduction of India-China Geographical condition of any country plays vital role in de ciding its political and economic situation. So before throwing light on historical relations between India and China, we must have geographi cal idea of both countries. Keeping this need in my mind here I have given a general introduction of India-China geographical conditions.

CHINA is located in the eastern and central part of the Pa cific Ocean; the People's Republic of China is the third largest coun try in the world. Best of the formerly Soviet Union before its collapse recently and Canada. It occupies a tract of country, region or domi nation covering 9.6 million square kilometers. Equivalent to fifteenth of the land area of the world of one-forth of Asia.

The Chinese region commences from North to South cover ing, extra area than 5,500 kilometers. It commences from the middle line of the Heilong River in the vicinity O Mohe in the north, the area of the Peoples Republic of China extend to the Zengmu line of rocks over surface of sea-water on the southern border of the Nansha is lands. Due to geographical inconsistencies, the solar incident angle in Guangzhou in the South, for example possesses thirty degrees differ ences from that in Mohe in the north. In the south, the briefest day's duration comes to 11 hours and 2 minutes on the other hand in places near Mohe the duration of days are 7 hours respectively.

**Contents and Sample Pages**