Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/269

 KAJSTISHKA'S CONQUESTS 231 limits of India. He engaged in successful war with the Parthians, when attacked by the king of that na- tion, who is described by the tradition as " very stupid and with a violent temper." The prince referred to may be either Chosroes (Khusru) or one of the rival kings who disputed the possession of the Parthian throne between 108 and 130 A. D. The most striking military exploit of Kanishka was his conquest of Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan, ex- tensive provinces lying to the north of Tibet and the east of the Pamirs, and at that time, as now, depend- encies of China. Kadphises II, when he attempted the same arduous adventure in 90 A. D., had failed igno- miniously, and had been compelled to pay tribute to China. Kanishka, secure in the peaceful possession of India and Kashmir, was better prepared to surmount the appalling difficulties of conveying an effective army across the passes of the Taghdumbash Pamir, which no modern ruler of India would dare to face, and he had no longer General Pan-chao to oppose him. Where his predecessor had failed, Kanishka succeeded, and he not only freed himself from the obligation of paying tribute to China, but compelled the defeated kings to surrender hostages, including a son of the Han Emperor of China, who built a Buddhist shrine at the place of his detention in the province of Kapisa. These hostages were treated, as beseemed their rank, with the utmost consideration, and were assigned suit- able residences at different Buddhist monasteries for each of the three seasons, the hot, the cold, and the