Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/83

Rh Balûchistan, Makrân, Sind, Kachh (Cutch), the Swât valley, with the adjoining regions, Kashmîr, Nepâl, and the whole of India proper, except the extreme south, Tamilakam or Tamil Land. His dominions were far more extensive than British India of to-day, excluding Burma. The kingdom of Kâmaûpa, or Assam, in the north-east, seems to have been independent, and certainly remained outside the sphere of Asoka's religious propaganda. Hiuen Tsang, who visited the country in the seventh century, expressly aﬂirms that Buddhism had failed to obtain a footing, and that not a single monastery had ever been built within its limits.

The legends of Tibet, recorded in more forms than one, assert that the city and kingdom of Khotan, to the north of the Himalayan range, were founded during the reign of Asoka by the co-operation of Indians and Chinese who divided the country between them; and one form of the story distinctly states that 'all the lands above the river Shal-chhu Gong—ma were given to Yaksha, which thenceforth belonged to Âryâivarta [scil. India].' It is also alleged that 'Asoka, the King of Âryâvarta,' visited Khotan in the year 250 after the death of Buddha, and that he was the contemporary of Shi-hwang-ti, the famous Chinese emperor who built the Great Wall. The chronology certainly is approximately. correct, because Shi-hwang-ti reigned from 246 to 210, becoming 'universal emperor' in 221, and Asoka's reign, as we have seen, extended from 273 to 232. The date of the alleged