Year of manufacture: 1923
Author: Fa Xian
Genre: History of India and Central Asia. Buddhology
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
English language
Format:DJVU
Number of pages: x + 100 pages.
Fa Xian visited India during the reign of the Gupts, or rather Chandragupta II Vikramadityi, whose name the Indian historical tradition linked many of the highest achievements of Indian culture of the early Middle Ages. He made his pilgrimage in 399-414 years. Fa Xian went on a journey from Chang'an in 399, to the reign of the Later Qin dynasty, under the rule of which was one of the small states of Northern China, formed after the seedling of the Early Qin Empire. According to tradition, he went on a journey at the age of 65 years. His biography, contained in the canonical text "Biography of the famous monks", scantily illuminates the previous period of his life. It is only known that he was given a three-year-old child to a monastery; other details of his biography are legendary and typical for Buddhist hagiography. Fa Xian, therefore, spent his whole life in monasteries, which is strongly felt in his narrative.
His path lay through the Buddhist centers of East Turkistan - Dunhuang, Kuchu, Khotan; Then, through the mountainous regions of Karakorum, he penetrated Northwest India, then crossed the Indus and followed through Mathura, Kanauj; then, moving down the valley of the Ganges, went around many sacred places for the Buddhist - he visited Shravasti, Kapilavastu, Kushinagar, Vaisali, Pataliputra, Rajagrikha, Gaye, Varanasi. From Varanasi he returned to Pataliputra and "spent three years here studying Sanskrit texts and Sanskrit language." Then he walked down the Ganges to Tamralipty, reached Ceylon by sea and, on his way back to China, made a difficult voyage on merchant ships with a call to Java. Fa Xian spent 15 years traveling.
Like all the notes of Chinese pilgrims, Fa Xian's work has such properties that are not characteristic of Indian literature: accuracy in indicating the distances and locations of various regions, cities, borders of possessions and states. Fa Xian gives valuable information about the population of various parts of India, about cities, sometimes concerns the state structure and economic life. However, the notes of Fa Xian are small in volume and not as diverse in content as the composition of Xuan Zang, compiled according to a similar scheme, and is a more complete and detailed source.
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