Abstract

Underscoring the unique and multifaceted interactions between ancient India and ancient China, ‘India and China: Interactions through Buddhism and Diplomacy’ collates the classic works of the preeminent Indian scholar of Chinese history and Buddhism, Professor Prabodh Chandra Bagchi (1898–1956). The volume’s essays provide a wide-ranging and thorough investigation of both Sino-Indian Buddhism and cultural relations between the two ancient nations, and are accompanied by a variety of Bagchi’s short articles, English translations of a number of his Bengali essays, and contemporary articles analyzing his contribution to the wider field of Sino-Indian study.

Bangwei Wang is a professor at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Research Centre of Eastern Literature and the Centre for India Studies, Peking University.

Tansen Sen is an associate professor of Asian history and religions at Baruch College, City University of New York, and is currently also a visiting senior research fellow at the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.

‘Prabodh Chandra Bagchi was an outstanding Indian scholar of Sino-Indian cultural relations, and his approach to the history of contact and exchange between these two great civilizations covered a broad range of fields and disciplines: philology, philosophy, history of religions, Buddhist studies, lexicography, diplomacy and trade, numismatics, and so forth. We are fortunate that Bangwei Wang and Tansen Sen have gathered together nearly two dozen of Bagchi’s best and most representative pieces, and should be particularly grateful that they have taken such care to reproduce Bagchi’s papers so accurately, down to the last demanding diacritical.’ — Professor Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania

Underscoring the unique and multifaceted interactions between ancient India and ancient China, ‘India and China: Interactions through Buddhism and Diplomacy’ collates the classic works of the preeminent Indian scholar of Chinese history and Buddhism Professor Prabodh Chandra Bagchi (1898–1956). The collected essays of this volume range from those that examine the ancient names for India in Chinese sources, to those that investigate Indian influences on Chinese thought, analyze the beginnings of Buddhism in China, and explore the letters exchanged between the Chinese monk Xuanzang (Hiuan-Tsang) and his Indian friends. Also included are a variety of Bagchi’s short articles, as well as English translations of a number of his Bengali essays.

Further insight into Bagchi’s work is provided by the renowned scholars Suniti Kumar Chatterji and Akira Yuyama, who discuss respectively Bagchi’s contribution to Chinese studies in India and to the wider understanding of India-China interactions. With its wide-ranging and thorough investigation of both Sino-Indian Buddhism and cultural relations between the two ancient civilizations, ‘India and China: Interactions through Buddhism and Diplomacy’ will be an invaluable text for anyone interested in cross-cultural exchanges between India and China, Buddhism, or Asian history.