XUANZANG'S WORK HAS A CERTAIN BIAS THAT CALLS FOR CAREFUL INTERPRETATION

Prof Max Deeg specialises in the history of Buddhism, especially the spread of the religion from India to Central and East Asia.

- PRATUL SHARMA

He was part of the Xuanzang Trail project, started in 2020 as an international collaboration between Cardiff University and the Bihar Heritage Development Society. Deeg is currently working on a new English translation of Xuanzang's Record of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty, which the Chinese monk presented to the Tang emperor Taizong after his journey to India in the seventh century. The “Record” is now considered the most detailed written account of India from that era.

Nevertheless, according to Deeg, Xuanzang's account requires careful interpretation and con-textualisation before conclusions can be drawn about India's social, religious and political situation in the early medieval period. “An honest interpretation of the text,” he says, “has to take into account how it is situated in the Chinese context.”

Edited excerpts from an interview:

Q/How significant are Xuanzang’s accounts for our understanding of medieval India? What aspects of India’s history, society or culture might have remained obscure without his writings?

A/ Xuanzang’s account has played a major role in the reconstruction of Indian Buddhism and its history since the second half of the 19th century, starting with Stanislas Julien’s translation of the Record into French. It has been crucial in the discovery of major Buddhist sites in India, particularly in the northwest and the Gangetic plain. Without Xuanzang’s account, early archaeologists like Alexander Cunningham would not have been able to find major Buddhist sites like Bodh Gaya and Sarnath.... Without Xuanzang’s account, particularly his general description of India—where he talks about education, law, military and society in general—we would not be able to compare and, sometimes, match the information with the data we can extract for much earlier periods from the Dharmashastras, the Arthashastra, and so on.