Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/267

 KANISHKA'S CAPITAL 229 that he extended his power to the mouths of the Indus and swept away the petty Parthian princes who still ruled that region at the close of the first century A. D., but are no more heard of afterward. He probably completed the subjugation and annexa- tion of the secluded vale of Kashmir, and certainly showed a marked preference for that delightful coun- try, in which he erected numerous monuments, and founded a town, which, although now reduced to a petty village, still bears his honoured name. Tradition affirms that he carried his arms far into the interior, and attacked the king residing at the an- cient imperial city of Pataliputra. It is said that he carried off from that city a Buddhist saint named Asvaghosha. But little dependence can be placed upon ecclesiastical traditions which connect the names of famous saints with those of renowned kings, and all such traditions need confirmation. Kanishka's capital was Purushapura, the modern Peshawar, the city which then guarded, as it now does, the main road from the Afghan hills to the Indian plains. There, in his latter days, when he had become a fervent Buddhist, he erected a great relic tower, which seems to have deserved to rank among the wonders of the world. The superstructure of carved wood rose in thirteen stories to a height of at least four hundred feet, surmounted by a mighty iron pinnacle. When Song-yun, a Chinese pilgrim, visited the spot at the beginning of the sixth century, this structure had been thrice destroyed by fire, and as often rebuilt by pious