Page:Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet.djvu/49

Rh laboriously deciphered, record bloody victories and ruthless conquests. But the rock and pillar edicts of the Rajah Priyadarsi ^ inculcate goodness, virtue, piety, and kindness to animals ; and they ordain the introduction of a general system of instruc- tion in moral conduct, and the establishment of medical dispen- saries throughout the empire. It was Asoka or Priyadarsi who first sent missionaries beyond his frontiers to spread the glad tidings of DJiarma, or religion, among distant peoples. His son Makinda brought the sacred canon to Ceylon,'^ together with the Pali language of Magadha, in which it was first taught ; and in that island Buddhism has been preserved in its purest and most primitive form.^ At about the same time the new religion was introduced into Ladak, Khotan, Afghanistan, and the countries of the Oxus valley ; and it reached China at about the commencement of the Christian era. But it seems clear that Great Tibet remained in darkness for some centuries later, though almost surrounded by the peace-giving light of Dharma. The routes taken by the Chinese pilgrims to India show that Tibet was at that time still in outside darkness. When, in the beginning of the fifth century,* Fa-Hian, the heroic Buddhist monk, and his four companions, set out from China to visit the sacred sites in India, and to obtain copies of the Scriptures, they took the circuitous road to the north of Tibet, and reached Khotan, tlien a stronghold of Buddhist culture. The farther route of Fa-Hian was over the Pamir and Hindu Kush, and across the Swat valley — that region which has lately been found to be so rich in Buddhist sculptures — to the Punjab. Two centuries later, the route of the other pilgrim, whose narrative has been preserved, Hiuen Thsang, also avoided Great Tibet ^ by a still wider circuit. He travelled over Tsun- ' See my 'Memoir on the lodian Surveys,' p. 177, for some account of the labours of James Prinsep and his fellow-workers, in deciphering the Priyadarsi edicts, and for references to more complete sources of information. 2 B.C. 316. ' See the introduction to Mr. Chil- ders's Pali Dictionary. 4 A.D. 399-414. 5 A.D. 629-645. 1 ;?'. ■'