Many Indian and Central Asian Monks undertook the perilous journey to China to spread the message of the Buddha to the Chinese in the early centuries of the first millennium of the Christian era. They crossed harsh deserts of Central Asia and perilous seas of South and East Asia. This biography contains accounts of twenty-eight monks, of which twenty-four relate to these monks. Their accounts were written by the Chinese in the first quarter of the sixth century. The four remaining accounts were translated from Indian sources, three in early fifth century, and one in the latter half of the sixth century.

Contemporary China was passing through political turmoil, and the suffering masses were desperately seeking succor somewhere. The native philosophical schools were totally inadequate to respond to this need. Buddhism stepped into this vacuum with its religious doctrine. This brought great solace to the masses. The Buddhist promise of reward for the pious and punishment for the evil in the other world got general acceptance. China at that time was a highly literate society where scholars enjoyed great prestige. Many such scholars were attracted to the new creed, and became its champions. The Buddhist establishment also fostered talented novices to face their rivals in intellectual debates.

China indeed proved to be a fertile soil with many challenges for monks from the west. There were hostile rulers with scant respect for these holy men. As against this, many rulers believed that the presence of holy men in their midst would strengthen their cause against their rivals. One ruler even went to the extent of sending an expedition across the Central Asian deserts to secure the custody of a famous monk. A weak ruler killed a monk instead of handing him over to a powerful rival. This biography is also a record of many contemporary historical and social events. Finally, it gives some idea of ethnic migration from Central Asia into China.

Lives of Early Buddhist Monk, Saroj Kumar Chaudhuri, Abha Prakashan, Hardcover, 2008, 192 Pages, $60.00

Prof. Saroj Kumar Chaudhuri taught Japanese in the School of Foreign Languages, New Delhi, University of Delhi, and Aichi Gakusen University of Toyota City, Japan. He has written two books so far, "Siddham in China and Japan" dealing with the contributions of Sanskrit phonetics to Chinese and Japanese, and "Hindu Gods and Goddesses in Japan". He is teaching Japanese in Delhi University at present as a Guest Professor. He is also associated with the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, as a Consultant.

	Contents: Lives of Early Buddhist Monks
	Foreword	vii
	Preface	xv
	Tables of the contemporary Chinese states	xix
	Map of China with modern cities and major rivers	xx
	Map of China and the Western Regions (c. A.D. 150-500)	xxi
	Introduction	1
1.	Asvaghosa	13
2.	Nagarjuna	18
3.	Aryadeva	25
4.	Vasubandhu	32
5.	An Shih-kao	47
6.	Chih Ch'en	54
7.	An Hsuan	56
8.	K'ang Seng-hui	59
9.	Chu Shih-hsing	66
10.	Chih Ch'ien	69
11.	Chu Fa-hu	73
12.	Chu Shu-lan	78
13.	Srimitra	82
14.	Sanghabhuti	86
15.	Dharmanandin	89
16.	Sanghadeva	92
17.	Kumarajiva	96
18.	Buddhayasas	110
19.	Dharmaksema	116
20.	Buddhabhadra	123
21.	Gunavarman	128
22.	Sanghavarman	132
23.	Dharmamitra	135
24.	Gunabhadra	140
25.	Marquis Chu-ch'u An-yang	148
26.	Gunavrddhi	151
	Appendix I. Kasyapa Matanga and Chu Fa-lan	155
	Appendix II. Sanskrit phonetics and Chinese	158
	Appendix III. Sanskrit prosody and Chinese	163
	Appendix IV. Improving the quality of translation	166
	Chinese characters of the scriptures	169
	Chinese characters of the Chinese and Japanese expressions	177
	Index	183