Asian Relations Conference March-April 1947. Implications of the Cultural Position of India

The language at the time of Asoka re-entered Afghanistan propagating the spirit of5 Buddhism which coming in contact with the Zoroastrian religion centred on Balkh broadened itself and we may recall that Mahayana took in the time of the Kushans the place of the more formalist Hinayana. [...] One can well say that the time of the Aryan migrations are long past and the time of the Persians and the Greeks and the great age of Buddhist.... [...] And it is possible to identify in the Kmer scultures of Angkor and on the bas-reliefs of the temple of Borobudur the influence of the marble carved panels of Amravati while the building form owes some of its character to the rock-cut monoliths of Mamallpuram (Mahabalipuram). [...] Madras impartially and centrally situated in the south and east and the seat of one of the best universities of India could represent the common culture of those lands. [...] But we have seen that Madras would also reprsent an uninfluenced Indian culture; with the same purpose the University of Benares could impress the foreign student with the intense mental activity of the people of the valley of the Ganges and develop the study of such subjects as oriental languages comparative religions and philosophies ancient Buddhist and Hindu art.