FROM time immemorial the people of India had free and intimate intercourse with the outside world. Even in the dim pre-historic age, the Neolithic people, as we have seen above, had relations with the Far East, and there are good reasons to believe that they emigrated in large numbers, both by land and sea, and settled in Indo-China and the Indian Archipelago. In the succeeding age, while a high degree of civilisation flourished in the Indus valley, there was undoubtedly a familiar intercourse with the countries of Western and Central Asia. Of the two important races that moulded Indian civilisation, the Aryans apparently, and the Dravidians possibly, came to India from outside, and necessarily relations were established and maintained, at least for some time, with the countries where they had lived before the occupation of India. It would, therefore, be reasonable to assume that India as a whole had never led an isolated life completely cut off from the rest of the world.
The intercourse between India and the countries by which she was surrounded on the north, east and west was maintained during the historical period. In the west, there were trade relations with Babylonia, and also with Syria and Egypt. So far as the most ancient periods are concerned, we have to rely upon indirect evidence, such as the discovery of Indian articles in those lands or the use of Indian names for these articles. From the Maurya period we possess more definite evidence. But the most detailed account that we possess of this trade belongs to the first century AD. Towards the latter half of this century a Greek sailor, living in Egypt, undertook a voyage to India along the of the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, and recorded a minute account of his experiences in a book called The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. We learn from this book that there was active trade between India and the western countries. There were important harbours on the coast such as Barbarike, Barygaza, Muziris, Nelcynda, Bakarai, Korkai, and Puhar, and ships built and fitted up by Indians sailed from these ports with their merchandise which consisted, among other things, of pearls, precious stones, spices, unguents, and fine cotton cloths called muslins, all of which were in great demand in western countries.
These goods were carried to the harbours on the sea-coast from inland cities by a network of roads. We learn from the same book that Indians settled in some islands of the Arabian Sea for purposes of trade, and the island of Socotra had a colony of Indian merchants.
The account of the Periplus is supplemented by later writers. Pliny, for example, complains that for the purchase of luxurious articles Rome pays every year a million sesterces to India. The statement of Pliny is corroborated by the actual discovery of a large number of Roman coins in India which must have been paid for the Indian goods and carried here by way of trade.
It is further proved by the Indian missions sent to Roman emperors. The king of Pandya sent a mission to Augustus in or about 26 BC. In later periods we hear of seven missions to Roman emperors. The trade with Rome and other western countries was carried through the important port of Alexandria where goods, carried by sea up to the Red Sea coast, were transported either by land, or by small boats through canals of the Nile. There was also a land-route from India to the Mediterranean coast which ran through Persia and along the shores of the Caspian, to Syria and Asia Minor. This route had become familiar after the invasion of Alexander the Great. During the early centuries of the Christian era, Palmyra (in Syria) was one of the principal centres of this trade.
Both the sea and land routes came under the control of the Arabs when they rose to power in the seventh century AD. Hence forth the Arabs carried on an active trade with India and we have interesting records of it in the chronicles of the Arab merchants.
It is a well-known fact that culture and civilisation follow in the wake of trade and commerce. We find accordingly that the Indian religion spread to the western countries. Asoka sent Buddhist missionaries to western Asia, northern Africa and south-eastern Europe, and claimed that the tenets of that religionSculpture of monks with Buddha were welcomed in these regions. We have no means of ascertaining the truth of this from independent evidence, but there is no doubt that even long after Asoka people in Alexandria showed interest in Buddhism, and that both Buddhist and Brahmanical religion were widely prevalent in several countries of western Asia before the advent of Islam. The knowledge of Indian philosophy and literature in the West is also an undoubted fact. There is, however, equally little doubt that Western culture also flowed to India. The knowledge of Greek and Roman astronomy and Greek influence on the art and coinage of India are undisputed facts. The Arabs imbibed a great deal of Indian culture, and carried it, along with Indian merchandise, to the western countries. Indian medicine and the wonderful invention of the decimal notation in Arithmetic, among others, became through the Arabs the universal property of the world.
In Central Asia the cultural conquest almost completely over-shadows the trade relations of India. Here, partly by missionary propaganda, and partly by the political influence of the Kushans, Buddhism became almost the universal religion of the nomadic peoples that settled in the vast region between the shores of the Caspian and the Wall of China. Indians also settled in large numbers in the region round modern Khotan. The physical aspects of this region have changed so completely that it is now difficult to imagine that flourishing Indian colonies once dotted the area which now lies buried under the sands of the Taklamakan desert. Yet the archaeological explorations of Sir Aurel Stein and many others in this inhospitable tract have laid bare the ruins of numerous Buddhist stupas and monasteries, the images of Buddhist and Brahmanical gods, and many manuscripts and shorter records written in Indian languages and Indian alphabets. Sir Aurel Stein has remarked that whilst he moved in these excavated areas under the ground he could have believed himself to be in the familiar surroundings of an ancient Indian city in the Punjab, so complete was the Indianisation of these out-of-the-way colonies. Even as late as the seventh century AD, when Hiuen Tsang passed through Central Asia on his way to and back from India, he noted the dominance of Buddhism and Indian culture over this wide area. It is believed that Chingiz Khan, the great Mongol leader of the thirteenth century, professed some form of Buddhism.
From Central Asia Buddhism spread to China and there it remains a living faith, even to-day, among her untold millions. It is difficult to exaggerate the influence which Buddhism and Indian culture exerted upon the ancient civilisation of China. She showed the proverbial zeal of the new convert. Bands of Chinese monks undertook the perilous journey to India, both by land and sea, in order to study at first hand the religious beliefs and practices of Indian Buddhists and to collect Buddhist books and images. Hundreds and thousands of Buddhist books were carried from India to China and then translated into Chinese. For this purpose not only did the Chinese themselves learn Sanskrit and Pali, but they also invited Indian Pandits to go to China and collaborate with them in the arduous task of translating the sacred scriptures of Buddhism. Hundreds of Indian scholars settled in China and dedicated their lives to the pious task. It is singular to note that there are Chinese translations of Buddhist texts whose originals can no longer be traced in India. In addition to this intimate contact established by religion, we have to take note of the political and commercial relations between India and China, and the existence of a fairly regular traffic by way of the sea.
From China, Buddhism spread to Korea, and from Korea to Japan. Buddhism is still a living faith in both these countries, and has moulded their civilisation during the last fifteen hundred years.
