Yijing
Also called: I-tsing · Topic: Gupta Empire and the Classical Age · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 4 "Turning Tides: The 11th and 12th Centuries"
Meaning
Yijing (also written I-tsing) was a Chinese Buddhist monk. He travelled to India by sea in the late 7th century CE. He studied for about ten years at Nalanda, the great Buddhist mahavihara (monastery-university) in Bihar. He wrote an account of how Buddhist monks lived and practised in India and in Southeast Asia. His account tells us about Nalanda, monastic rules and the sea routes between China, Southeast Asia and India.
Example
On the way to India, Yijing stopped at Srivijaya (around Palembang, Sumatra) to learn Sanskrit. Then he sailed on to eastern India and went to Nalanda. He carried hundreds of Buddhist texts back to China and translated many of them.
Don't confuse with
- Faxian: came in the early 5th century CE, during Chandragupta II's Gupta rule. He travelled mostly over land.
- Xuanzang: came in the 7th century CE, in Harsha's time, by the land route. Yijing came a little later and by sea.
Related concepts
- Aryabhata
- Aryabhatiya
- Hindu-Arabic numerals
- Bakhshali manuscript
- Surya Siddhanta
- Varahamihira
- Bhaskara I
- Virahanka
- Kalidasa
- Abhijnanashakuntalam