Faxian's account

In the early 5th century CE, a Chinese traveller, Faxian (say 'Fa-shi-an'), came to India. His long, hard pilgrimage had three aims: visit Buddhist holy places, learn from Indian scholars, and collect Buddhist texts to take home to China.

He travelled widely and wrote down what he saw of India's culture, government and society, for people back home, and for us: his travel record still survives! Think of it as a 1,600-year-old travel vlog.

What did he write?

• the people are many and happy; they don't have to register their households or deal with officials
• those who farm royal land pay part of their grain
• the king's guards and attendants get salaries
• the cities of the Ganga plains are the greatest, and people are rich and kind
• heads of Vaishya (merchant) families set up houses for charity and medicines; the poor, orphans and sick are cared for; doctors treat them; the needy get food and medicine
• the lanes are kept neat

A glowing picture! But the book adds a warning: an account like this shows only one writer's view, at one time, about part of society.

Indeed, elsewhere in the same record, Faxian describes the harsh treatment of the chaṇḍālas. They were treated as outcastes (people pushed out of a social group, seen as too 'low' for the varṇa system) and had to live outside the city. So the same writer records both the charity houses and the people shut out.

You and your friends might read the same passage differently. Historians do too! So they check more sources to confirm what they think. Before deciding anything, look at many sources, views and interpretations.