Kumarajiva is a noticeable figure and his career illustrates several points of importance.  First, his father came from India and he himself went as a youth to study in Kipin (Kashmir) and then returned to Kucha.  Living in this remote corner of Central Asia he was recognized as an encyclopaedia of Indian learning including a knowledge of the Vedas and “heretical sastras.”  Secondly after his return to Kucha he was converted to Mahayanism.  Thirdly he went from Kucha to China where he had a distinguished career as a translator.  Thus we see how China was brought into intellectual touch with India and how the Mahayana was gaining in Central Asia territory previously occupied by the Hinayana.  The monk Dharmagupta who passed through Kucha about 584 says that the king favoured Mahayanism.[502] That Kucha should have been the home of distinguished translators is not strange for a statement[503] has been preserved to the effect that Sanskrit texts were used in the cities lying to the west of it, but that in Kucha itself Indian languages were not understood and translations were made, although such Sanskrit words as were easily intelligible were retained.

In the time of the Wei, Kucha again got into trouble with China and was brought to order by another punitive expedition in 448.  After this lesson a long series of tribute-bearing missions is recorded, sent first to the court of Wei, and afterwards to the Liang, Chou and Sui.  The notices respecting the country are to a large extent repetitions.  They praise its climate, fertility and mineral wealth:  the magnificence of the royal palace, the number and splendour of the religious establishments.  Peacocks were as common as fowls and the Chinese annalists evidently had a general impression of a brilliant, pleasure-loving and not very moral city.  It was specially famous for its music:  the songs and dances of Kucha, performed by native artists, were long in favour at the Imperial Court, and a list of twenty airs has been preserved.[504]

When the T’ang dynasty came to the throne Kucha sent an embassy to do homage but again supported Karashahr in rebellion and again brought on herself a punitive expedition (648).  But the town was peaceful and prosperous when visited by Hsuan Chuang about 630.

His description agrees in substance with other notices, but he praises the honesty of the people.  He mentions that the king was a native and that a much modified Indian alphabet was in use.  As a churchman, he naturally dwells with pleasure on the many monasteries and great images, the quinquennial assemblies and religious processions.  There were more than 100 monasteries with upwards of 5000 brethren who all followed the Sarvastivada and the “gradual teaching,” which probably means the Hinayana as opposed to the sudden illumination caused by Mahayanist revelation.  The pilgrim differed from his hosts on the matter of diet and would not join them in eating meat.  But he admits that the monks were strict according to their lights and that the monasteries were centres of learning.