CHAPTER V. The whole festival, however, is invested with a political as well as a religious significance. The sovereign was evidently under the domination of monks and priests. He may have occasionally weakened their power by engaging them in religious controversies; but he deemed it politic to tolerate all and conciliate all. On these occasions he was supposed to distribute all the surplus accumulations of the imperial treasury. By so doing he recommended his rule to all the religious bodies, he silenced a clamorous democracy, and he removed all temptation to rebellion on the part of those robber adventurers, who, as in the case of Sandrokottos, sometimes overturned a dynasty and obtained possession of an empire. At the same time a strong religious feeling undoubtedly operated upon the mind of the sovereign. He gave away the whole of his riches. Nothing remained to him but his horses, elephants, and munitions of war, which were indispensable for the protection of his empire, and for the suppression of disaffection. He then divested himself of his robes, collar, earrings, bracelets, the garland of jewels in his diadem, the pearls which ornamented his neck, and the carbuncle which glittered upon his breast. He arrayed himself in old and tattered garments, and putting his hands together in a religious ecstasy, he cried out: -"All my anxiety for the safety of my riches has now passed away: I have expended them in the field of happiness, and have thus preserved them for ever: I trust that in all future existences I may continue to amass riches, and bestow them in alms, until I have acquired every divine faculty that a creature can desire."

Hiouen-Thsang from Nalanda

Bengal.

When Hiouen-Thsang left Nálanda he prepared CHAPTER V. to explore eastern Hindustan, and then to embark Route of for the island of Ceylon, as Fah-Hian had done to the Bay of more than two centuries before. In the first instance, he proceeded through forests and mountains to the kingdom of Hiranya-parvata, which is supposed to be the same as Monghír. Next he passed through Champá, the modern Bhagulpore, where Buddhism was declining and Brahmanism flourishing; and Pundra-vardhana, probably Burdwan, where there were twenty Buddhist monasteries and a hundred Brahmanical temples. Next he proceeded to Kúma-rúpa, the modern Assam. Here Brahmanism alone flourished. The temples were numbered by hundreds and the worshippers by thousands. The king was a Bráhman, who bore the title of Kumára. He was not a Buddhist, but he was a feudatory of Síláditya, and in that capacity had attended his suzerain at the disputation at Kanouj, and the festival of alms-giving at Prayága. He was a great admirer of HiouenThsang, and received him with every mark of respect. From Assam the Chinese pilgrim proceeded apparently to the Sunderbunds, and thence to Támralipti, or Tamluk, where Fah-Hian had embarked for Ceylon. At Tamluk he found ten monasteries and fifty temples, and was astonished at the vast trade carried on at this place by land and sea.

the Dekhan and

Conjeveram.

At Tamluk Hiouen-Thsang was induced to Route through avoid the dangers of a voyage to Ceylon, and to Peninsula to proceed through the Dekhan and the Peninsula towards the southern coast, where he could easily reach the island by crossing the narrow strait of

CHAPTER V. Manaar. From this stage his description becomes more and more meagre, and it will suffice to mention the kingdoms which are best known to modern geography. Orissa contained a hundred monasteries and fifty temples; the inhabitants were tall, dark, and rude. Kalinga on the coast had ten monasteries and two hundred temples. Andhra had twenty monasteries and thirty temples; its capital was at Warangol. Chola, a name which still lives in the term Coromandel, was a desert of marsh and jungle; the monasteries were nearly all in ruins, but there were many temples, and numerous heretics, who went naked. Further south he passed through forests and desert plains, until he reached Dravida, and its capital of Kánchipura, the modern Conjeveram, not far from the modern city of Madras. This kingdom contained a hundred monasteries with ten thousand monks, and eighty temples with numerous naked heretics. At Conjeveram he heard that Ceylon was disturbed by internal wars. Accordingly he abandoned his idea of visiting the island.

Route along the western coast to the, Indus.

Hiouen-Thsang had proceeded to Conjeveram along the eastern or Coromandel coast. In his return route he crossed the Peninsula to the western coast, known as the Malabar side; and then turned towards the north through Travancore and Malabar. Here he found the people illiterate, and devoted to nothing but gain. Most of the monasteries were in ruins; but there were hundreds of flourishing temples, and the usual swarms of naked heretics. He proceeded northward through a thick jungle into the kingdom of Konkana, where he found a hundred monasteries, and hundreds of temples. He then passed through

another belt of desert and jungle, which was infested CHAPTER V. with robbers and wild beasts, and entered Maharashtra, which has already been described as occupied by a Rajpoot population. Here the heretical sects were very numerous. He crossed the Nerbudda river into Baróche, and found the people engaged in a large maritime trade, but illiterate and deceitful. Entering Málwa, he found the country as wealthy as Magadha; Brahmanism and Buddhism were both flourishing. Next he visited the great kingdom of Vallabhi, which was seated in Guzerat, but prevailed over a great part of the western Dekhan. It was under the dominion of Dhruva-patu, the son-in-law of Síláditya. This king was a zealous Buddhist, and celebrated the festival of expiation and alms-giving every year. Hiouen-Thsang entered Guzerat. He visited Ujain and Chittore, and found that Buddhism in both places was being superseded by Brahmanism. He then turned away westward, and passed through the gloomy desert of Marwar towards Scinde, where the king was a Súdra. Here Buddhism was in the ascendant. Proceeding, however, to Multán, he found that Buddhism had been superseded by the worship of the sun. It will be unnecessary to pursue his route further. He passed through unknown kingdoms, where Buddhism and Brahmanism seem to have been nearly balanced, and at last made his way over the Hindú Kúsh into his own country.

93

93 For pious legends of Síláditya, and public disputations between Buddhists and Jains, see the Mahátma, or chronicle of the Satruniya mountain. Vallabhi was overthrown, apparently by Scythians, A. D. 770.-Forbes's Ras Malu, vol. i. chap. i. Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i. page 218.

CHAPTER VI.

Secular charac

Theatre.

CHAPTER VI.

THE HINDÚ DRAMA.

THE theatre of the Hindús opens up a new inter of the sight into the civilization of ancient India. It forms a valuable supplement to the information furnished by Greek writers and Chinese pilgrims. Moreover the dramas are more reliable than the sacred books of either Buddhists or Bráhmans. They do not appear to have been compiled by pious sages, or to have been interpolated and garbled to any appreciable extent by an interested priesthood. Indeed they were composed for the amusement of the Kshatriyas; and consequently although they originated in a Brahmanical age, they are generally free from the Brahmanical exaggerations which mar the Mahá Bhárata and Rámáyana. The most valuable of them all in a historical point of view, is said to have been written by a Raja; and although the authorship may be doubted, yet there can be no question as to the secular character of the play.1 But whether the dramatists were Bráhmans or Kshatriyas, they appear to have generally enjoyed the patronage of powerful Rajas of the dominant race; and their productions are thus generally devoid of

1 The drama is known as the "Toy-cart," and is said to have been composed by Raja Súdraka. It will be brought fully under review hereafter. Another secular play, known as the "Necklace," is ascribed to a Raja of Cashmere.