Indian Literature Abroad

Summary

How did Indian literature reach China? The article retells the story preserved in Chinese annals that Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han dreamt of a golden man flying over his palace. In 62 CE he sent envoys to the West to inquire about the Buddha. Two Indian monks, Kāśyapa Mātanga and Dharmarakṣa, returned with Sanskrit scriptures loaded on a white horse and founded the White Horse Monastery at Luòyáng. They translated the ‘Sūtra of Forty‑two Sections’, which became the first Buddhist text in Chinese. But the author argues that Chinese contacts with Indian literature predate this legend. Traders and diplomats between Central Asia and the Han empire brought knowledge of Buddhism and Brahmanical lore as early as the first century BCE. The travelogue of the diplomat Chén Shēn records tales of Śrāvasti and the Jetavana monastery. Later, scholars like Kumārajīva and Xuánzàng translated hundreds of Mahāyāna sūtras and kārikās, profoundly influencing Chinese philosophy. The article emphasises the importance of the Silk Road in transmitting texts, the role of Central Asian kingdoms like Khotan as intermediaries, and the dedication of Chinese emperors who sponsored translation bureaus. It also notes that beyond Buddhism, Indian astronomical and medicinal works were rendered into Chinese, illustrating a broad cultural exchange.