Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/51

49 efforts to propagate Buddhism in the far South were not in vain, and that monastic institutions existed in the Tamil countries which were in a position to influence the faith of the island. Hiuen Tsang mentions one stûpa in the Chola country, and another in the Drâvida or Pallava kingdom as being ascribed to Asoka. Still more significant is his description of the state of religion in 640 in the Malakotta Pândya country to the south of the Kâviri (Cauvery), where he found that—

This interesting passage, which shows how vivid the traditions of Asoka and his brother continued