en and the poor. The proceedings lasted
seventy-five days and the concourse which collected to gaze and
receive must have resembled the fair still held on the same spot.
Buddhists, Brahmans and Jains all partook of the royal bounty and the
images of Buddha, Surya and Siva were worshipped on successive days,
though greater honour was shown to the Buddha. The king gave away
everything that he had, even his robes and jewels, and finally,
arrayed in clothes borrowed from his sister, rejoiced saying "all I
have has entered into incorruptible and imperishable treasuries."
After this, adds Hsuean Chuang, the king's vassals offered him jewels
and robes so that the treasury was replenished. This was the sixth
quinquennial distribution which Harsha had held and the last, for he
died in 648. He at first favoured the Hinayana but subsequently went
over to the Mahayana, being moved in part by the exhortations of Hsuean
Chuang.

Yet the substance of Hsuean Chuang's account is that though Buddhism
was prospering in the Far East it was decaying in India. Against this
can be set instances of royal piety like those described, the fame
enjoyed by the shrines and schools of Magadha and the conversion of
the king of Tibet in 638 A.D. This event was due to Chinese as well as
Indian influence, but would hardly have occurred unless in
north-eastern India Buddhism had been esteemed the religion of
civilization. Still Hsuean Chuang's long catalogue of deserted
monasteries[249] has an unmistakable significance. The decay was most
pronounced in the north-west and south. In Gandhara there were only a
few Buddhists: more than a thousand monasteries stood untenanted and
the Buddha's sacred bowl had vanished. In Takshasila the monasteries
were numerous but desolate: in Kashmir the people followed a mixed
faith. Only in Udyana was Buddhism held in high esteem. In Sind the
monks were numerous but indolent.

No doubt this desolation was largely due to the depredations of
Mihiragula. In the Deccan and the extreme south there was also a
special cause, namely the prevalence of Jainism, which somewhat later
became the state religion in several kingdoms. In Kalinga, Andhra and
the kingdom of the Colas the pilgrim reports that Jains were very
numerous but counts Buddhist monasteries only by tens and twenties. In
Dravida there were also 10,000 monks of the Sthavira school but in
Malakuta among many ruined monasteries only a few were still inhabited
and here