The historical perspective

One of the major policy challenges for India in the 21st Century will be to respond to China as a growing economic and military super power. Exclusive extracts from a book by SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY that looks at the way the two ancient civilisations have interacted in the past and the possibilities of the future.

IT is generally accepted that contacts between India and China began as early as 400 B.C. although there is as yet no definite record to establish this. However, K. M. Panikkar has written extensively on the subject, and we have drawn heavily on his materials in this chapter. Trade and commerce as also cultural contacts flourished between the two countries via the Silk Road. The most significant aspect of the ancient contacts was the establishment of Buddhism in China. The Chinese had responded with great enthusiasm to the arrival of Buddhist missionaries and thereafter initiated a wave to bring Indian Buddhist, monks and scholars to help teach, explain and to establish Buddhism firmly in China. During the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., a second wave of Buddhist Indian monks as missionaries to China, created a counter wave of Chinese Buddhists to India for advanced training. Kumarajiva and Bodhidharma, who went from India to China, and Fa Hsien and Yuan Chuang, who came from China to India, are four familiar names who greatly enriched the knowledge and understanding of their countries of origin to their hosts.

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At the centre of the Gobi Desert, an oasis known as Yumen, (i.e., "Jade Gate") which is on the border of former Chinese Empire, houses a valley sheltered by hills on all sides, known now the world over as Dunghuan. There, on the sides of the hills, are excavated hundreds of caves, beautified by mural paintings and sculptures of "very high quality, depicting scenes from the life of Buddha and from the Jataka stories. The Dunghuan caves, represented a great international monastery.

Dunghuan was the last stage of the journey from India and the Indianised kingdoms of Central Asia to the great empire of China. It was the lasting resting place, before entering China proper, of the scholars, missionaries and other travellers who were continuously arriving from India, and other areas of the Buddhist civilisation, as also the first stage for those undertaking the strenuous journey across the snows of the Pamirs, or the desert lands of Central Asia, to visit the holy places of Buddhism in India. At Dunghuan, the three northern routes from India met. It was the great clearing-house for all travellers to China from the north-west, and the monastery with its temples, caves for meditation and large collection of books provided an ideal resting place.

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When did India first come into contact with its great neighbour (China)? European scholars were of the view that the first contact was not before the establishment of the Chin Dynasty by Shih Huang Ti (the first emperor) in 221 B.C. But by Fa Hsien's account, we now know that this is not well founded. Though, at present no specific date can be given for the discovery of China by India, it is probably true that India was in contact with the south-western regions of China from the earliest period of history. After the establishment of the Chin Empire and the unification of China, the intercourse became much deeper and closer, when between the north-west of China and the Gandhara region, the Kushans and a number of "Indianised" kingdoms developed relations fully that held for over a thousand years.

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Because of the sea route, the trade with South India developed separately. Diplomatic relations were also established between the South Indian courts and the Chinese Empire. According to Panikkar, a Chinese writer, Pan Kou, who lived at the end of the 1st Century, mentioned that in the time of Han emperor, the Chola kings sent emissaries to China. The route given by Pan Kou as well as the name of state indicates that the kingdom ought to be of Cholas in Kanchi. It is also stated that Wang Ming, the ruler in 1st Century A.D., sent presents to the Kanchi king. Pan Kou adds that the exports from South India were "shining pearls, rare gems, and strange products" which the Chinese received in exchange for silk and gold. Pan Kou also makes it clear that these were brought to China on Indian ships.

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The earliest known Indian scholar to reach China was Kashyapa Matanga, who was in China in A.D. 65. Kashyapa Matanga with Dharma Ratna who had reached Loyang, had come from today's Madhya Pradesh.

One of the best remembered and most notable Indian scholar was Kumarajiva (end of 4th Century). Between the time of Kashyapa Matanga and Kumarajiva, Indian culture had penetrated into China both from the North and from the south of India.

Kumarajiva, was the son of an Indian scholar from Kashmir. Kumarayana who had established himself in Kochi as a great scholar, was born around A.D. 343. His mother, formerly a Buddhist nun, encouraged him in his career as a Buddhist priest. At age 9, she entrusted his schooling to Bandhu Datta, who was a celebrated sarvastivadin and from him Kumarajiva had his first training in Buddhist doctrines. Three years later, when he was only 12, he met Buddha Yasas at Kashgar and was converted to the Mahayana doctrine. Kumarajiva was a student of the Vedas as well [see: Libenthal, W.,: The Book of Chao (p.67)]. He had therefore mastered both Hindu and Buddhist learning.

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Kumarajiva was from childhood at home in Sanskrit. In Kochi, where he was born, he had already become familiar with Chinese and he had now an opportunity of correcting the imperfections of the provincial dialect during his 16 years stay in Gansu as the guest of the general. When he arrived at the Imperial Court, he had become equally at home in classical Sanskrit and in Chinese, and therefore an ideal interpreter of Indian culture to China. The Emperor You Chang accorded him unusual honours and made the Raj Guru (or Guo Shih). For the next 12 years, till his death in 413, Kumarajiva was engaged in translating Buddhist texts and correcting earlier translations. A Bureau of Translators was set up under Kumarajiva's supervision, with over 800 scholars on the staff. Over 106 works, including most of the Mahayana texts, were translated. Of these, 56 are still available, and waiting for scholars to delve into.

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A revolutionary teacher who is still revered in China is Bodhi Dharma, who belonged to a royal family of Kanchipuram in South India. Bodhi Dharma preached the doctrine that the only reality is the Buddha nature in the heart of man, and the realisation of that Buddha-nature can only come from direct experience and not by learning or asceticism. This represented the first introduction of Hindu mysticism in Buddhist garb into China. Bodhi Dharma lived in the Shao Lin Monastery, and meditated in silence for nine years. There he invented "Wu Shih", the martial arts of self-defence that Japan later imported. Modern India even today does not know that ancient India gave Karate to the world.

Vajrabodhi a priest from Kerala, introduced the Mantra Sastra into China. He had attained sufficient eminence in sciences to become the guru of the King of Kanchi. Late in life he converted to Tantric Buddhism. After some years at Nalanda, he, with his chief disciple, Amogha Vajra, left for China for sea, reaching there in 719 in his 58th year.

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Thus, it was not only Buddhism that had penetrated into China. Sankhya, tantra sastras, and other Hindu beliefs were also introduced into the thought of that country. How much of the Hinduism was included in this vast export of ideas may be seen from the fact that in the vast collection which Dr. Raghuvira brought back from China, there is a third century summary of the Ramayana story.

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Intimate religious, cultural and social relations existed between the two major civilizations of Asia for a period of nearly 1500 years. For nearly a 1000 years, from the first century B.C. to the 10th Century A.D., it was one of the major facts of the world's cultural history. Its importance in shaping the mind of East Asia, including Japan, Korea and Mongolia, is something which cannot be overlooked. The Asian mind as a community of ideas, beliefs and traditions is the contribution of this close association of the Indian and Chinese peoples over so long a period.

That two giant ancient civilisation with so much past interaction and cultural borrowing should have quarrelled in the 20th Century A.D. - as something that happened never before in history - is a pathetic commentary on the myopic vision and quality of leadership on both sides of the Himalayas, however asymmetric or uneven may be the burden of responsibility placed for that folly.

India's China Perspective, SubramanianSwamy, Konark, Rs. 350.

(to be continued)

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