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The people were yellowish-black, fierce and impulsive, but fond of learn- ing, The old monasteries were mostly deserted and in ruins, only about 90 were inhabited, while a hundred Deva temples had numerous followers. Houen Tsang speaks of two great mountain monas- teries, to the east and to the west of the city, called Parvasila and Aparasila, built by a former king in honor of Buddha. “He hollowed the valley, madea road, opened the mountain crags, constructed pavilions and long galleries; and wide chambers supported the heights and connected the caverns. * * But for the ‘last hundred years there have been no priests.” Dr. Fergusson identifies the western convent with the great Amaravati tope which has been discovered and exca- vated since 1796 A.D. Dr. Burgess concludes from an inscription on the stones that the Amardvati Stipa was either already built or was being built in the second century A. D., if not earlier. - South-West from Great Andhra was the kingdom of CHOLA, 500 miles in circuit, but deserted and wild. The population was sparse, troups of brigands ravaged the open country, and the people were dissolute and cruel. Further to the south was the kingdom of DRAvIDA 3,200 miles in circuit, with its capital the famed town of En CHAP. VII.] HOUEN TSANG’S ACCOUNT. — “oyar Kanchi or Kanchtpura, which has been identified with modern Conjiveram. The soil was fertile and regularly cultivated, and the people were brave, truthful, honest, and fond of learning, and used the language of Middle India. There were somehundred Sangharamasand 10,000 priests. Further south from Dravida was the kingdom of MaLakoTa which Dr. Burnell identifies with the delta of the Kaveri river. The men were dark in complexion, firm and impetuous, not fond of learning but wholly given to commercial pursuits. South of this country were the famed Malaya mountains, the southern por- tions of the Malabar Ghats, which produced sandal wood and camphor. To the east of this range was Mount Potalaka, where the Buddhist spirit or saint Avalokitesvara, worshipped by Northern Buddhists in Thibet, China and Japan, was supposed sometimes to take his abode. Houen Tsang did not visit CEYLON, but nevertheless gives an account of that island with its rich vegetation, its extensive cultivation and its teeming population. He narrates legends about Sinha or lion, about Raksha- sas, and about Mahendra the brother of Asoka who in- troduced Buddhism into the island ; and there were 100 convents and 20,000 priests in Houen Tsang’s time. He speaks of the coast as being rich in gems and pre. cious stones, and of Mount Lankd to the south-east of the island. 112 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. Travelling northwards from Dravida, Houen Tsang came to KONKAN, 10,000 miles in circuit, fertile and regularly cultivated. The people were black, fierce and ardent in disposition, but esteemed learning. North-West fr§m Konkan, and across a great forest infested by wild beasts and robbers, was the great country MAHARASHTRA, 1,000 miles in circuit. The soil was rich and regularly cultivated, and the people were honest, but stern and vindictive. “To their bene- factors they are grateful, to their enemies relentless. If they are insulted, they will risk their lives to avenge themselves. If they are asked to help one in distress, -they will forget themselves in their haste to render assistance. If they are going to seek revenge, they first give their enemy warning, then each being armed, they attack each other with spears. Ifa gen- ‘eral loses a battle, they do not inflict punishment, but present him with woman’s clothes, and so he is driven to seek death for himself, * * The king is of the Kshatriya caste, and his name is Pulakesi. His plans iand undertakings are widespread, and his beneficent actions are felt over a great distance. His subjects ‘obey him with perfect submission. At the present time Siladitya Maharaja (of Kanouj) has conquered the na- itions from é¢ast to west, and carried his arms to remote ‘districts, but the people of this country alone have not submitted to him. He has gathered troops from the five Indies, and summoned the best leaders from all CHAP, VII.] HOUEN TSANG’S ACCOUNT. 113 countries, and himself gone at the head of his army tol punish and subdue these people, but he has not yet: conquered their troops.” Nor was Sildditya destined to conquer Pulakesi who defeated him in “battle, and, maintained the independence of the preud Maharattas | even as a successor of Pulakesi, a thousand years later,’ defied Aurungzebe, Emperor of Northern India, and res- tored to the Maharattas their lost independence and greatness. And when Mogul and Rajput had alike de- clined in power, it was the countrymen of Pulakesi who struggled with the English for the mastery of India. On the eastern frontier of the Maharashtra country was a great mountain with towering crags and a continuous stretch of piled up and scarped preci- pice. “In this there is a Sangharama constructed in a dark valley. Its lofty halls and deep side-aisles stretch through the face of the rocks. Storey above storey they are backed by the crag and face the valley.” This is the famous Ajunta system of caves, cut in the lofty and almost perpendicular rocks that hem in a wild se- cluded glen. Modern readers have been made familiar with this most wonderful work of architecture through the plates and descriptions of Fergusson and Burgess. Wouen Tsang says further on that the great Vihara was about roo ft. high, and in the middle was a stone figure of Buddha 7o ft. high. Above was a stone canopy of seven stages towering upwards apparently . without support. R. C.D. A. L—IHL - 8 114 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BooK IV. To the west or north-west from Maharashtra was the country of Bharukachha or Broach, 500 miles in circuit. The soil was impregnated with salt, trees were scattered and scarce, and the people boiled sea water to manufac- ture salt, and had all their gain from the sea. Thence Houen Tsang went to the classic land of MALAvA. “Two countries,” he says, “are remarkable for the great learning of the people—MAalava on the south-west and Magadha on the north-east.” Further on Houen Tsang says, “The records of the country state: sixty-years before this flourished Siladitya, a ‘man of eminent wisdom and great learning ; his skill in literature was profound.” This was Siladitya I who ‘reigned probably from 550 A.D. to 600 A. D., and was probably the immediate successor of Vikramaditya the Great. The prince whom Houen Tsang saw in Kanouj, ‘and who was trying to humiliate and subjugate Pulakesi and the Maharattas, was Siladitya II who reigned from ‘about 610 to 650 A. D. In Malava both the religions. prevailed in Houen Tsang’s time, and there were about a hundred Sanghar- Amas and a hundred Deva temples. Houen Tsang then visited ATALI and Kachha or CuTCH, and then came to VALABHI, the seat of the great Valabhi dynasty. “The character of the soil, the cli- mate and the manners of the people are like those of the kingdom of Malava. The population is dense ; the establishments rich. There are some hundred families CHAP, VII] HOUEN TSANG’S ACCOUNT. TES or so who possess a hundred lakhs, The rare and valu- able products of distant regions are here stored in great quantities.” Buddhism and Hinduism flourished alike. | The kingdom of ANANDAPURA was subject to Mal- ava, and that of SAURASHTRA with its dense popula- tion was subject to the powerful V4labhis. GURJARA, or Gujrat, was 1000 miles in circuit, and the country of Ujjavini,—which is described separately from Malava spoken of above,—was 1200 miles round. Passing through Chikito and Mahesvarapura, our traveller came to SINDH, 1400 miles in circuit. It abounded in gold, silver and native copper. The coun- try was suitable for breeding oxen, sheep, camels, mules, and other cattle, and the people were hard of disposition | but honest, and lived under a low-caste king. Along the Indus river there lived numerous families, cruel and hasty in temper, and given to fighting and bloodshed. They lived entirely by tending cattle, owned no masters, and had neither rich nor poor among them. They form- ed in fact a sort of rude primitive clan, living by pasture. After visiting the thickly populated country of Mu- lasthanapura (MULTAN) and some other places, our traveller left India. The historian of India cannot but feel grateful to this enthusiastic and pious Chinese traveller for the bird’s-eye-view he has given us of the various tribes and nations of India in the seventh century,—their arts, learning and civilization. . CHAPTER VIII. BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE. THE Hindus first came in contact with a nation as | civilized as themselves in the fourth and third centuries B.C., and a great deal has been written as to the indebtedness of the Hindus to the Bactrian Greeks in the cultivation of their arts and sciences. As usual, the first writers on the subject have rushed to hasty conclusions, and it has been asserted that in archi- tecture and sculpture, and even in the art of writing and in their alphabet, the Hindus received their first ‘lessons from the Greeks. A cultured nation cannot come in contact with a great and civilized nation without deriving immense advant- ages in arts and civilization. The gifted Greeks were certainly the most civilized nation in the earth in the fourth and third centuries before Christ, and what is. more, they had spread their wonderful civilization over all the regions conquered by Alexander, until the whole of Western Asia from Antioch to Bactria pre- sented the Greek type of civilization, arts and manners. That the Hindus were greatly indebted to the Greeks not only in the development of. many arts, but also in CHAP.