Chinese in India

[Matthew Kapstein]

One thing is sure -- the term Ciina cannot predate the
Qin dynasty, during the late 3rd c. BCE. And clear evidence
of Buddhist contact -- which cannot have been the earliest
contact -- dates to the 1st - 2nd c. CE. Victor Mair for one
would like to push contact much further back, however, in
the context of more general Indo-European - Chinese contacts
beginning in the 2nd or even 3rd millenium BCE. There's a lot
of relevant lit. on all this, but I'm travelling and away
from my references just now.
Matthew Kapstein