Japan and Indian Asia- Their Cultural Relations in the Past and Present (An Old and Rare Book)

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I Have read with great interest Professor Hajime Nakamura's study on Japan's relations with India and other Asian countries influenced by Indian culture. These relations go back to centuries and offer one of the finest examples of intellectual and cultural co-operation between different countries and peoples. It is remarkable that throughout this long period the relations have teen peaceful and friendly and there is hardly any reference to armed clashes among the peoples about whom he writes.

Professor Nakamura's book makes it clear that the study of Indian thought in general, and of Buddhism in particular, has been a pervasive force in Japan for almost 1400 years. It speaks highly of the intellectual energy and catholicity of the Japanese people that they welcomed these ideas which were initially ailen to their own traditions. With the industry and thoroughness which has characterised the growth of modern Japan, the ancient Japanese took to the study of Indian thought in all its various forms and ramifications, Japanese scholars were not content to study Indian thought in Chinese translations alone, but went to the originals which were sometimes transcribed in the Japanese script. Japan thus possesses some of the earliest Indian texts both in the ancient Brahmi script and also in the Japanese script, in addition to a number of translations into Chinese and Japanese of many of the important books. As early as the first decade of the seventh century of the Christian era, Japanese scholars prepared commentaries on Buddhist texts which have been preserved intact to this day. There are still earlier Indian manuscripts in Sanskrit which have been preserved in Japanese temples and date back to the first half of the sixth century.

This interest in Indian thought and reilgion has continued throughout the centuries. The modern age has seen further progress in Indological studies. We find that an independent Chair of Indian Philosophy was established at the University of Tokyo in 1904 and marked the beginning of an objective and critical study of Indian philosophical ideas on lines comparable with those obtaining in some of the greatest Universities of the West. This is a remarkable development when we remember that the first Chair of Indian Philosophy in India was established only about 1917.