Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/392

 346 THE MEDIAEVAL KINGDOMS OF THE NORTH was able to read them. " It was discovered," we are told, " that the whole fort and city was a place of study." This crushing blow, followed up, of course, by sim- ilar acts of violence, destroyed the vitality of Buddhism in its ancient home. No doubt a few devout though disheartened adherents of the system lingered round the desecrated shrines for a few years longer, and even to this day traces of the religion once so proudly domi- nant may be discerned in the practices of obscure sects; but Buddhism as a popular religion in Bihar, its last abode in Upper India south of the Himalaya, was des- troyed once and for all by the sword of a single Mussul- man adventurer. Many monks who escaped death fled to Tibet, Nepal, and Southern India. The overthrow of the " Sena " dynasty was accom- plished with equal or even greater ease. The ruler of Eastern Bengal in those days was an aged king, called Rai Lakhmaniya by the Mohammedan writer, and was reputed to have occupied the throne for eighty years. His family, we are told, was respected by all the Rais, or chiefs, of Hindustan, and he was considered to hold the rank of khalif (caliph), or sovereign. Trust- worthy persons affirmed that no one, great or small, ever suffered injustice at his hands, and his generosity was proverbial. This much-respected sovereign held his court at Nudiah, situated in the upper delta of the Ganges, on the Bhagirathi River, about sixty miles north of the site of Calcutta. The town still gives its name to a