________________
Observations of I-tsing.
THE SANGAM AGE.
was visited by the famous Chinese pilgrim, Fa-hien, and he has left an impression of what he saw there. He found there "various forms of error and Brahminism flourishing." He also observes that much to his regret the "Buddhists in the locality were not worth speaking of." The 'famous Yupa inscriptions of King Mulavarman, ascribed by Dr. Vogel to the middle of the 4th century A.D., and which refer to the settlement of the Brahmins and their performance of Yagas in the true orthodox fashion, also tend to support the observation of the Chinese Doctor in regard to the predominance of Brahminism in those regions. The main point to be observed, however, is that Buddhism was comparatively a negligible factor in the religious life of the communities in Savakam in the time of Fa-hien.
150
A quite different condition of things existed in the last quarter of the 7th century A.D., when another Chinese traveller, I-tsing, visited the island. A great theologian and collector of manuscripts, this I-tsing was as precise and minute in his information as Fa-hien himself. Accord
ing to him Sāvakam wastessentially Buddhistic. "The change from just the beginnings of Buddhistic influence," says Dr. Krishnaswami Ayyangar, "in the age of Fa-hien to the dominance of Buddhism during I-tsing's stay in the island gives us clearly to understand that the intervening centuries, fifth, sixth and seventh centuries of the Christian era, constitute the
