Traveler means tourist or voyagers. The story of foreign tourists or scholar or religious mendicant or ascetic has always been considered an important element of history. They played an important role in reconstructing the history of Bengal. Today I will discuss about the history of some such Chinese travelers.
Faxian:
Faxian was a Chinese pilgrim, Chinese Buddhist monk and translator. He came to India during the reign of Chandragupta II. He was the first Chinese traveler who come to India. Faxian started his journey from China in 399 AD and returned to China after 14 years. He wrote 6 books on basis his experience of traveling in India. Of these, Foguoji (A record of Buddhistic Kingdoms) is particularly noteworthy.
Xuanzang:
Xuanzang was a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, scholar and traveler who visited India in 630 AD. He stayed in India for about 14 years.Xuanzang studied Buddhist theology with Shilbhadra, the principal of Nalanda Mahavihara University. He then wrote a book called 'Siddhi'.Xuanzang traveled to Raktamrittika near karnasuvarna, Pundranagara, Samatat, Tamralipti and Kamrup in Bengal.
Ma Huan:
Ma-Huan came to Bengal in 1406 AD as an interpreter of a Chinese delegation during the reign of Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah. He was a Chinese voyager and translator.Ma Huan saw Sonargaon as a huge commercial city. He recorded his important description about Bengal in his book called 'Ying Yai Sheng Lan'.
In my next article, I would like to discuss a few more travelers or religious mendicant of Bengal.
I hope you will stay with me those have some interest to know about the history of Indian subcontinent.
I’m a monk too 😁