Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/270

 232 THE KUSHAN OR INDO - SCYTHIAN DYNASTY rainy. During the time of the summer heats, when the burning plains are not pleasant to live in, they enjoyed the cool breezes at a monastery in the hills of Kapisa beyond Kabul, which was erected specially for their accommodation. The Chinese prince deposited a store of jewels as an endowment for this establishment before his return home, and was gratefully remembered for centuries. When Hiuen Tsang visited the place in the seventh century, he found the walls adorned with paint- ings of the prince and his companions attired in the garb of China, while the resident monks still honoured the memory of their benefactor with prayers and offer- ings. The residence of the hostages during the cold season was at an unidentified place in the Eastern Panjab, to which the name of Chinapati was given in consequence. The situation of their abode during the rains is not mentioned. An incidental result of the stay of the hostages in Kanishka's dominions was the intro- duction of the pear and peach, both of which had been previously unknown in India. The biographer of Hiuen Tsang tells a curious story about the treasure deposited by the Chinese prince as an endowment for the Chinapati shrine, which was known to be buried under the feet of the image of Vaisravana, the Great Spirit King, at the south side of the eastern gate of the hall of Buddha. An impious raja who tried to appropriate the hoard was frightened away by portents which seemed to indicate the dis- pleasure of its guardian spirit, and when the monks endeavoured to make use of it for the purpose of repair-