Page:The Harsa-carita of Bana (1897).djvu/19

 is frequently brought out in our story, as the foregoing sketch will shew, he seems indeed to be more than half a Buddhist at heart; and it is remarkable that we find a similar view of his character in Hiuen Thsang's account, although he may naturally exaggerate the amount of favour shewn. His language might indeed imply that the king almost professed himself a Buddhist; but his narrative clearly shews that he was equally tolerant to both the great religions of his subjects.

Thus, when he held a great assembly at Kanyakubja, twenty kings attended it, with the most distinguished Cramanas and Brahmans in their districts. An immense sangharama was erected with a tower and a golden image of Buddha, and every day viands were presented to the Cramanas and Brahmans ; and, in the disciples' account of the second assembly held at Prayaga, we find that on the first day they installed the statue of Buddha, on the second that of the Sun, and on the third that of Mahecvara. Hiuen Thsang says of the inhabitants of Kanyakubja, " une moitie suit la vraie doctrine, et 1'autre s' attache a 1'erreur"; and our narrative similarly shews us the two religions existing side by side; and in the elaborate description in the eighth chapter of the Vindhya forest, we find Buddhists and Brahmans of every sect, "all diligently following their own tenets, pondering, urging objections, raising doubts and resolving them." When we read these accounts of India in the seventh century they lend some support to the theory that later Brahmanism was itself a renaissance, and was separated by a chasm from the ancient cult, just as the Sassanian religion was a later revival (after the long Parthian domination) which turned a longing eye to the past glories of the Zoroastrian creed under the Achsemenidse.

For our translation we have chiefly used the Bombay text (though with a corrected punctuation), but we have collated it with the Calcutta and Kashmir editions. Pandit