Page:Footfalls of Indian History.djvu/70

RAJGIR: AN ANCIENT BABYLON 51 partake somewhat of the nature of the modern journal, inasmuch as they were the means adopted to pubhsh the royal will, and hence a position could never be selected for them at a distance from in- habited cities. The inscribed pillar at Sarnath was placed at the door or in the courtyard of a monastery. And similarly the inscribed pillars, whose fragments have been found at Pataliputra, were erected in the interior or on the site of the old jail as an act of imperial penance.

We may take it, then, that Old Rajgir was really deserted at about the time of Bimbisara's successor, and, if it was afterwards used as a royal residence, was so used at intervals, as Amber is now. Such then was the city, already ancient, through which Buddha himself has passed time and again and where He was held by all as an honourable guest. Across these fields and up and down these streets, now ruined, or within the massive cathedral-cave of Sonar Bhandar, there echo to this hour the immortal reverberations of Buddha's voice.

Why did He come this way at all ? Was it for the sake of the learned men who forgather in the neighbourhood of capitals ? Was the famous uni- versity of Nalanda of after-ages already perhaps a university, where one might come in the sure hope of finding all the wisdom of the age ? It would seem as if, any way. He passed this spot with treasure already in the heart, needing only long years of brooding thought to fuse his whole Self in its realisation. Unless he was sure of the