Page:Chinese Religion through Hindu Eyes.djvu/200

164 remembered that a great part of the extra-Indian territory of the Kushans had been included within the Maurya Bmpire and hence had been the seat of Hindu culture since at least B.C. 320.

Kanishka's predecessors and compatriots had learnt sculpture from the Hellenistic schools of Bactria, and from there imported teachers into their territory called Gândhâra. On the Indian soil they devoted themselves whole-heartedly to Sanskrit language and literature as well as to the prevailing metaphysics and mythology, the first lessons of which they must have received in Bactria, Parthia, and Khotan. One would like to know how these Hellenistic art-traditions and Hindu culture-traditions were being transformed in the process of assimilation with the race-characteristics of these Yuechis (specifically, the Kushans). For the present it is clear that the Græco-Buddhist (also called Gândhâra) art and Hinduism of Buddha-cult were born in an environment of Indianised Scythian or Tartar Settlements. The place of Central Asia in the history of Buddhism is thus very large.

The Kushans were progressive monarchs. They maintained relations of international commerce and diplomacy with the Han Emperors on the East and the Roman Emperors on the West. They also succeeded in extending the Indian sphere of influence through their kith and kin who were rulers of the neighbouring Central Asian regions. External conditions for the propagation of Buddhism were thus thoroughly satisfactory, and we have seen that so far as the Chinese were concerned, their whole mental history had led them up to it.

The relations between the Chinese and those "middle-men" of Central Asia are being given in the words of Mr.