TRANSFORMATION IN SANSKRIT STUDIES 109 



up for several years in a convent of Ladakh, had brought to light an 

 immense Tibetan library, translated, to a great extent, from San- 

 skrit originals, some of which were preserved in Nepal, others lost. 

 China and Japan, thrown open by degrees to Western research, 

 yielded up in their turn similar collections translated from Sanskrit 

 originals. The history and literature of China added their testimony 

 to the power of the movement which, from the beginning of the 

 Christian Era onwards, carried Indian Buddhism in triumphant 

 marches as far as the palace of the Son of Heaven and even to the 

 islands of the sea, fructifying thought, elevating the souls of men, 

 awakening or transforming art. The memoirs of a Fa-hien, a Hiueri- 

 tsang, and I-tsing described the pilgrims fascinated by the " Holy 

 Land," impatient to adore the footprints of the Buddha, braving 

 the sterile sands and treacherous whirlwinds, the brigands, the 

 mountains, and the storms of the ocean in order to study the sacred 

 Sanskrit language and bring back to their own country a reliable 

 translation, with the authentic words of the master or his disciples. 

 So strong a movement of expansion must necessarily leave positive 

 traces; the expansion of Europe at the present day, following the 

 self-same routes, is bringing about by degrees the discovery of 

 the monuments of this long-perished past. No sooner was France 

 mistress of Indo-China than she began her work by an admirable 

 campaign of archaeological discovery; an immense harvest of inscrip- 

 tions collected from Cambodia up to Tonkin has revived a history 

 which was believed to be utterly wiped out. Sanskrit had served 

 for twelve centuries to immortalize the praises of the sovereigns of 

 Cambodia and Champa. The Ecole Franaise d'Extre'me-Orient, 

 founded in 1898, is methodically carrying on the work of the early 

 pioneers; science profits by the fruitful union of Sanskrit and 

 Chinese, brilliantly accomplished by this school. The rivality of 

 England and Russia in Central Asia has not been less fruitful. Since 

 1890 the attention of Indianists has been kept awake by a continuous 

 series of discoveries. Under the sands of the Takla Makan sleep 

 Pompeiis, half Hindu in character. Treasure-hunters, according to 

 the chances of their adventurous expeditions, have .unearthed frag- 

 ments of ancient manuscripts written in Sanskrit, mingled with 

 fragments in an unknown language; arithmetic, medicine, sorcery, 

 astrology, jostle one another in these incongruous leaves. A French 

 mission has brought from Khotan a manuscript of the Dhammapada 

 written in a dialect closely resembling Sanskrit and dating, without 

 doubt, at least fifteen hundred years back. Dr. Stein's mission in 

 1900 was the beginning of a methodical and first-hand exploration 

 of the buried ruins; the religious, administrative and artistic history 

 of Central Asia in the first centuries of the Christian Era shines forth 

 with unexpected clearness. The patience of scholars is still busied 



