The accession of the T'ang dynasty in 618 A.D. marks a new era in the history of China. It may be compared in glory and majesty only with the period of the great Han rulers. It is characterised by progress in all aspects of Chinese life, political, intellectual, religious and artistic. So far as Buddhism is concerned it was a period of assimilation and new creation of the Chinese genius. The Chinese, with the restoration of their distinctive political and social life and the revival of their literary traditions began to see what use they could make of this foreign religion in building up their national life which had been so much disturbed since the fall of the Hans. This led to the creation of a Buddhist civilisation in China which was much more than a mere copy of the Indian Buddhism.

The founder of the T'ang dynasty, Li-yuan who belonged to a nobility of ancient descent, took advantage of the weakness of the Sui rulers and with the help of his able son Li She-min seized the throne in 617 A.D. Ch'ang-ngan, the capital of the Sui, was occupied and Li-yuan was declared Emperor in 618. Li-yuan is better known in history under his posthumous name, Kao-tsu. The dynasty founded by him continued to reign till 907 A.D.

Kao-tsu was succeeded in 627 A.D. by his son Li She-min who is commonly known in history as T'ai-tsong. T'ai-tsong reigned till 649 A.D.

It was well known to the great founder of the Visva-Bharati that the history of India could not be properly studied without reference to the history of other Asiatic countries. India in the past gave her civilization to millions of Asiatics. She also did not close her doors to the foreign people, such as the Greeks, the Persians, the Scythians, the Turks and to many others. This great exchange in the past brought about a community of ideas and ideals and established links between various peoples of this continent in spite of their racial and linguistic differences. Tagore wanted to have the past of India studied against this wide canvas when he started his Visva-Bharati.

The first visiting Professor of this new institution was Professor Sylvain Levi, Professor of College de France and a member of the French Academy. He was just the scholar who could inaugurate studies on lines required for the purpose. He started by teaching the Tibetan and Chinese languages and drawing the attention of the Indian scholars to the remains of Indian civilization in Central Asia, Indo-China and Indonesia. It was expected of the students that they would collect materials from all these sources in order to build up slowly the history of the great past of India.

The loss sustained in the domain of scientific studies and research in the Humanities, not only by India but also by the entire scholarly world, through the untimely passing away of the late Prabodh Chandra BAGCHI will for some time remain irrepairable, and for many years it will not be possible to make it good. He joined the majority at the age of 58 only, and if we consider what he did and what in comparison he did not find time to do, we would be forced to admit that it was certainly a case of untimely death for him. In our country scholars who have dedicated their lives to study and research and who have passed their 80th year and even more while remaining in full possession of their matured mental powers are not rare; and that is why when we think of this untimely death of Prabodh Chandra, we cannot but feel a great mortification, for both learning and research by themselves and also for our own people. His passing away is a national loss indeed; and in addition to this, there is the sense of loss which nothing can mitigate which his relations and the large circle of his friends are feeling.

In Bengal and in India there is no lack of scholars and research workers. But in the case of Prabodh Chandra BAGCHI's scholarship there was something quite remarkable, both in the subject of his researches and in the way in which these researches were given out to the world.

India is at present known in China under the name Yin-tu. This is not a modern adaptation. It goes back at least to the T'ang period. It seems to have been current slightly earlier, but the great Chinese pilgrim Hsüan-chuang was the first to baptise it. In his Hsi-yü Chi, while discussing the various Chinese names for India, he says:

It is clear from the statement that the Indians themselves had no popular general designation for the country as a whole and Yin-tu was a name used by the Chinese for the country. Hsüan-chuang as a great Sanskritist was keen on explaining the etymology of the names and hence explained the name Yin-tu (ien-duo>indu) as “moon”. In fact, as a Sanskrit word it (indu) can mean only “moon”. Hsüan-chuang also justified his explanation in an ingenious way: