Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/357

 REGAL GENEROSITY AND POMP 313 been his practice for thirty years past, in accordance with the custom of his ancestors, to hold a great quin- quennial assembly on the sands where the rivers meet, and there to distribute his accumulated treasures to the poor and needy, as well as to the religious of all denominations. The present occasion was the sixth of the series (644 A. D.), which evidently had not been begun until Harsha had consolidated his power in the north. The assembly was attended by all the vassal kings and a vast concourse of humbler folk estimated to num- ber half a million, including poor, orphans, and destitute persons, besides specially invited Brahmans and ascet- ics of every sect from all parts of Northern India. The proceedings lasted for seventy-five days, terminating apparently about the end of April, and were opened by an imposing procession of all the rajas with their ret- inues. The religious services were of the curiously eclectic kind characteristic of the times. On the first day an image of Buddha was set up in one of the temporary thatched buildings upon the sands, and vast quantities of costly clothing and other articles of value were distributed. On the second and third days, respectively, the images of the Sun and Siva were similarly honoured, but the accompanying distri- bution in each case was only half the amount of that consecrated to Buddha. The fourth day was devoted to the bestowal of gifts on ten thousand selected relig- ious persons of the Buddhist order, who each received one hundred gold coins, a pearl, and a cotton garment,