25. Elucidation of certain passages in I-tsing, 
By Kasar P. Jayaswat, B.A., Davis Chinese 
Scholar (Oxon.), Barrister-at-Law. 
By bringing to light the work of I-tsing, Japanese aa 
have rendered great help towards the stupendous task 
restoring Hindu History. I-tsing’s Records afford glim 
into the social condition of our country towards the end of the 
seventh century (671—695 A.C.). This great monk, no less 
famous in the Buddhist world of Chine than Hiuen Thsan 
with whom we are more familiar, was pre-eminently a scholar 
and the best Sanskritist amongst the Chi 
writings have yet reached us. His stay at the centres of 
learning in the Hindu colonies of Sumatra, and ten years’ study 
at the university of Nalanda under the greatest professors of 
the time, gave him an intimate knowledge of the methods of 
the teaching of Sanskrit and the complete curriculum in vogue 
in those days, and enabled him to describe them in faithful 
detail. The unique treatment of the subject — the 35th 
chapter of The Records of Buddhist Practices in 
The chapter is so full of important materials es the stu- 
dent of the Hindu social history, that it is eminently desirable 
to have every word in it made perfectly clear. To get at the 
correct meaning of Chinese texts is sometimes inconceivably 
difficult. Dr. Takakusu, the learned translator of I-tsing’s 
Records, had to encounter this difficulty in the course of his 
English rendering. Like a true ‘scholar, he has scrupulously 
indicated the obscure baa ed by foot-notes attached to the 
my attention on account of the importance of the subject- 
matter. 
On page 178 there occurs the passage :— 
‘«They (the Scholastics who had defeated their oppo- 
nents) ! receive grants of land, and are advanced to a 
high rank [their famous names are, as a reward, written 
in white on their lofty gates].’’ 
aq “The preceding passage runs as follow 
‘‘When they are refuting heretic “doctrines all their opponents 
become tongue-tied and rege ledge themselves undone. Then the 
sound of their fame makes the five iaaclatns (of India) vibrate, and 
their renown flows, as it were; over the four borders’’ (bor e 
fem: ? ). 
