Page:A Record of the Buddhist Religion as practised in India and the Malay Archipelago.djvu/15




 * January, 1896.
 * January, 1896.

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Ever since I made the acquaintance of Stanislas Julien at Paris, in 1846, being constantly with him while he translated Hiuen Thsang's Travels in India, I felt convinced that the most important help for settling the chronology of mediaeval Sanskrit literature would be found in Chinese writers. I was particularly anxious for a translation of I-tsing's work; and as far back as 1880 I expressed a hope that the Record of that great Chinese traveller's stay in India would soon be rendered accessible to us in an English translation. Some of the contents of his book became known to me through one of my Japanese Buddhist pupils, Kasawara; but he unfortunately died before he could finish his translation of the whole Record. From the fragments of his translation, however, I gathered some important facts, which were published first in the Academy, October 2, 1880, then in the Indian Antiquary, and in the