印度制糖法文献
虽然中国人很早就种植甘蔗，但在印度制糖法传入之前，却只能熬煮浓缩甘蔗汁制造粗糖。唐太宗贞观二十一年（647）专门派出使者到印度学习制糖技术，唐高宗龙朔元年（661）又从印度将制糖专家请到中国。经过唐初的技术和人才的引进，中国终于生产出口感超过印度的石蜜和砂糖，这时的糖已经跟现在的糖非常接近了。
敦煌文献P.3303V《五印度用甘蔗造砂糖法》是一件记录印度制糖法的文献。它写在一张佛经的背后，短短的几百字涉及了甘蔗的种类、制砂糖法、糖的种类、甘蔗酿酒等一系列问题。这件文献先讲如何选择适合制糖的甘蔗，之后讲具体的制糖方法。文献中也提到了石蜜的制作方法，熬完石蜜的水还可以造甘蔗酒。
季羡林先生曾说，糖本是一件小东西，然而在它身上却驮着长达1000多年的中印两国文化交流的历史。
Literature on Indian Sugar Production Methods
Although the Chinese had been cultivating sugarcane for a long time, they could only boil and concentrate sugarcane juice to produce raw sugar before Indian sugar production methods were introduced. In 647, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty specifically dispatched envoys to India to learn sugar production techniques. In 661, sugar production experts from India were invited to China. With the introduction of these technologies and talent during the early Tang Dynasty, China eventually began to make sugar products such as rock candy and granulated sugar, which surpassed India's offerings in flavor. This technology made sugar very similar to what we have today.
The Dunhuang manuscript P.3303V, titled Methods of Producing Sugar from Sugarcane in the Five Indian Regions, is a document recounting Indian sugar production techniques. Written on the back of a Buddhist scripture, this brief text of a few hundred words addresses various topics including types of sugarcane, methods of producing granulated sugar, types of sugar, and distilling alcohol from sugarcane. The manuscript begins by discussing how to select suitable sugarcane for sugar production, followed by detailed methods. It also mentions a method for making rock candy, noting that leftover water from rock candy making can be used to brew sugarcane wine.
Renowned Chinese scholar Ji Xianlin once commented that despite being such a small item, sugar carries a history of cultural exchanges between China and India that spans over a thousand years.
