Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/350

 306 THE REIGN OF HAKSHA In his closing years the latter received the chief share of the royal favour, and numerous monasteries were erected, as well as several thousand stupas, each about a hundred feet high, built along the banks of the sacred Ganges. These latter structures doubtless were of a flimsy character, built chiefly of timber and bamboo, and so have left no trace; but the mere mul- tiplication of stupas, however perishable the materials might be, was always a work of merit. Although Bud- dhism was visibly waning in the days of Harsha and Hiuen Tsang, the monks of the order were still numer- ous, and the occupants of the monasteries enumerated by the pilgrims numbered nearly two hundred thousand. A monastic population of such magnitude offered abun- dant opportunities for the exercise of princely liberality. The picture of the state of religious belief and practice in India during the seventh century, as drawn by the contemporary authors, is filled with curious and interesting details. The members of the royal family to which Harsha belonged freely acted on their indi- vidual preferences in the matter of religion. His re- mote ancestor, Pushyabhuti, is recorded to have enter- tained from boyhood an ardent devotion toward Siva, and to have turned away from all other gods. Harsha 's father was equally devoted to the worship of the Sun, and daily offered to that luminary " a bunch of red lotuses set in a pure vessel of ruby, and tinged, like his own heart, with the same hue." The elder brother and sister of Harsha were faithful Buddhists, while Harsha himself distributed his devotions among the