Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/64

62 out of hard gneiss spacious cave-dwellings for the Âjîvika naked ascctics, not even grudging the expense of polishing the interiors like a mirror; and there can be no doubt that liberal benefactions were bestowed likewise on the Jains and Brahmans. Indeed, Kashmîr tradition has preserved the names of Brahmanical temples built or restored by Asoka. Similar toleration, evidenced in practice by concurrent endowment of various creeds, was practised by later princes. Khâravela of Orissa, for instance, used language almost identical with that of Asoka, and avowed that he did reverence to all creeds. In much more recent times the cases of Harsha and many other Râjâs who acted on the same principle are familiar to students of Indian History.

The sentiment which dictated the tolerant conduct of the old kings is still accepted, and has been expressed by a lady who has penetrated deeply below the surface of Indian character:

'It is natural enough to the Hindu intellect,' she observes, 'that around each such forth-shining of the divine should grow up a new religious system. But each of them is only a special way of expressing the one fundamental doctrine of Mâyâ [scil. illusion], a new mode of endearing God to man. At the same time it is thought that every one, while recognizing