Sanskrit in China and Japan

Sanskrit in China

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This book covers the great academic exchange that took place between

Indian monks and Chinese intellectuals during the first millennium of

the Christian era. Information on Sanskrit linguistics transmitted by

Indian monks helped Chinese intellectuals to evolve a phonetic system

to read their pictographic script. It solved one of their greatest

headaches. Introduction of the theories of Sanskrit prosody led to the

innovation of a totally new genre of poems that became a part of the

Chinese civil service examination. This genre is popular even today.

The Chinese theory of arts was influenced considerably by its Indian

counterpart.

The Chinese were, perhaps, the first to write on the Indian decimal

system, and record the symbol for zero. Indian astronomers heading the

imperial bureau of astronomy translated Indian astronomical treatise,

and used methods given therein in astronomical calculations. Stories

from Ramayana, Mahabharata and Panchatantra were popular among the

masses. Thanks to Indian monks, the Chinese developed a great faith in

mantras. Finally, a number of Sanskrit-Chinese dictionaries were

compiled in China. These also carry information on ancient Indian

political and social situation and legends. Many of these ideas

migrated to Japan with

far reaching consequences.

Saroj Kumar Chaudhuri taught Japanese language in the School of Foreign

Languages, Ministry of Defense, Government of India, Department of

Chinese and Japanese Studies

(currently Department of East Asian Studies), and College of Business

Administration, Aichi Gakusen University, Toyoto City, Aichi

Prefecture, Japan.

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