The case of the Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha[555] is similar. He appears to have been known but not prominent in India in the fourth century A.D.: by the seventh century if not earlier his cult was flourishing in China and subsequently he became in the Far East a popular deity second only to Kuan-yin. This popularity was connected with his gradual transformation into a god of the dead. It is also certain that he was known in Central Asia[556] but whether he first became important there or in China is hard to decide. The devotion of the Chinese to their dead suggests that it was among them that he acquired his great position, but his rôle as a guide to the next world has a parallel in the similar benevolent activity of the Zoroastrian angel Srosh. One of Central Asia's clearest titles to importance in the history of the East is that it was the earliest and on the whole the principal source of Chinese Buddhism, to which I now turn. Somewhat later, teachers also came to China by sea and still later, under the Yüan dynasty, Lamaism was introduced direct from Tibet. But from at least the beginning of our era onwards, monks went eastwards from Central Asia to preach and translate the scriptures and it was across Central Asia that Chinese pilgrims went to India in search of the truth. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 459: See Lüders, _Bruchstücke Buddhistischer Dramen_, 1911, and _id., Das Sâriputra-prakarana_, 1911.] [Footnote 460: See Senart, "Le ms Kharoshṭhî du Dhammapada," in _J.A._, 1898, II. p. 193.] [Footnote 461: Lüders, "Die Śakas und die Nordarische Sprache," _Sitzungsber. der Kōn. Preuss. Akad_. 1913. Konow, _Gōtting. Gel. Anz_. 1912, pp. 551 ff.] [Footnote 462: See Hoernle in _J.R.A.S._ 1910, pp. 837 ff. and 1283 ff.; 1911, pp. 202 ff., 447 ff.] [Footnote 463: An old Turkish text about Maitreya states that it was translated from an Indian language into Tokhri and from Tokhri into Turkish. See F.K.W. Müller, _Sitzungsber. der Kön. Preuss. Akad_. 1907, p. 958. But it is not clear what is meant by Tokhri.] [Footnote 464: The following are some words in this language: Kant, a hundred; rake, a word; por, fire; soye, son υιοσ; suwan, swese, rain υει hυετοσ; âlyek, another; okso, an ox.] [Footnote 465: The numerous papers on this language are naturally quickly superseded. But Sieg and Siegling Tokharisch, "Die Sprache der Indoskythen" (_Sitzungsber. der Berl. Ak. Wiss_. 1908, p. 815), may be mentioned and Sylvain Lévi, "Tokharien B, Langue de Kouteha," _J.A._ 1913, II. p. 311.] [Footnote 466: See Radloff Tisastvustik (_Bibl. Buddh._ vol. xii.), p. v. This manuscript came from Urumtsi. A translation of a portion of the Saddharma-pundarîka (_Bibl. Buddh._ xiv.) was found at Turfan.] [Footnote 467: Laufer in _T'oung Pao_, 1907, p. 392; Radloff, _Kuan-si-im Pursar_, p. vii.] [Footnote 468: See especially Stein's _Ancient Khotan_, app. B, and Francke in _J.R.A.S._ 1914, p. 37.]