the Mahábhárat they are classed with the Gándháras, Arattas, and Sindhu-Sauviras. Professor Lassen has doubted the accuracy of Professor H. H. Wilson's reading of Khasa in the Mahábhárat; but this reading is supported, as M. Burnouf observes, by the above mention of the Swasas or Khasas as neighbours of the Taxilans; and is fully confirmed by a copy of the Mahábhárat in the possession of a Brahman at Thanesar.

10. Shortly after the reduction of Taxila, the successful Asoka was appointed to the government of Ujain, the capital of Malwa. Asoka set forth to assume charge of his government in about 274 B. C. On his way he tarried some time at Chaityagiri or Baisnagara,* situated at the junction of the Besali River with the Betwa, two miles to the northward of Bhilsa. Here he gained the affections of Devi, the lovely daughter of the Sreshti or "chief man" of the place. A year afterwards she bore him a son named Mahendra, and one year later a daughter called Sanghamitra, both of whom became celebrated in after times as

* See Turnour's Pali Annals, Prinsep's Journal, vii. 930, where Buddhaghoso calls the city Wessanagara, which Mahánámo calls Chetiya and Chetiyagiri (Mahawanso, p. 76). The story is the same in both authors; and as the ruins of the old city of Baisnagar, or Besnagar, two miles to the north of Bhilsa, are situated on the high road between Pátaliputra and Ujain, there can be no doubt of the identification. Wessanagara was the city; Chetiyagiri was the hill of the great Chaitya at Sánchi, about four miles to the south of the city.

the introducers of the Buddhist religion into Ceylon.

11. Of Asoka's administration of Ujain little is known, save the establishment of a celebrated place of punishment, which was significantly named Hell,* because criminals were therein subjected to the same tortures in this life, as have been generally accorded to the wicked in the next. During Asoka's government of Ujain, the people of Taxila again revolted against Bindusára, who deputed his eldest son Susima to reduce them; but the prince was unsuccessful.t During his absence the king fell grievously sick, and directed his ministers to send Prince Asoka to Taxila, and to recall Prince Susíma to court, that he might establish him on the throne. But the ministers, who were friendly to Asoka, deceived the king by a false report of his illness, and at the same time informed the young prince that his father was on his death-bed. Asoka instantly hurried from Ujain to his father's palace at Pátaliputra; but the sudden appearance of his younger son showed the king that he had been deceived; and in the midst of a fit of passion, he burst a blood-vessel and died. This event happened in the year 263 B. C., when Bindusára had reigned twenty-eight years.

* Fo-kwe-ki, c. 32, for Fa Hian's mention, and p. 393, for Hwan Thsang's account of "Hell."

+ Burnouf, Buddhisme Indien, p. 363.

CHAPTER IX.

REIGN OF ASOKA.

1. IMMEDIATELY on his father's death Asoka seized the government, and gave orders for the slaughter of all his brothers, save Tishya, who was born of the same mother. His eldest brother, Prince Susima, who had marched against him from Taxila, was cut off by an artifice; and the Mauryan dynasty was thus reduced to the single family of Asoka; who, finding himself safe from the usual jealousies and intrigues of relatives, gave up his whole energies to the achievement of military glory. In the short space of four years he succeeded in reducing the whole of Northern India, from the mountains of Kashmir to the banks of the Narbadda, and from the mouth of the Indus to the Bay of Bengal ;* and

Nepál was probably included in the conquests of Asoka; for the kings of Tibet trace their origin to the Lichhavis of Vaisáli; and Khri-tsanpo, the first king, is said to have taken refuge in Tibet about 250 B. C.-that is, in the reign of Asoka. See Csoma's List of Tibetan Kings in Prinsep's Useful Tables, p. 131; and also Fo-kwe-ki, c. xxiii. n. 6.

H

India, perhaps for the first time, was brought under the control of one vigorous and consolidated go

vernment.

*

2. During the first three years of his reign, the mind of Asoka was fully occupied with views of worldly ambition and personal aggrandizement; but in the fourth year, when all India was at peace, his restless activity found a more pleasing occupation, and a more lasting employment, in the acquisition of the Buddhist faith. Like his father Bindusára, he had been brought up as a worshipper of Agni and Surya, of Indra and Váyu; and, like him, he showed his respect for the Brahmans by feeding sixty thousand of them daily. But Asoka was of a passionate and impulsive temperament; and when he became a convert to the Buddhist faith, he embraced it with all the fervid zeal of his ardent nature; and though, like Alexander, he may once have wept that no more worlds were left for him to conquer, he now found that he had still himself to subdue. The task, though difficult, seemed not impossible; and the royal convert, who had before been called Chand-Asoka, or "Asoka the Furious," now submitted himself to the outward discipline of the Buddhist faith, and at last became so distinguished a follower of Dharma, that he acquired the more honourable title of DharmAsoka, or "Asoka the Virtuous."

• Mahawanso, c. 23; but Buddhaghoso has the more moderate number of eight thousand.-See Turnour's Páli Annals in Prinsep's Journal, vi. 731.

3. The first proof which Asoka gave of his conversion to Buddhism was the dismissal of the sixty thousand Brahmans, in whose stead an equal number of Srámanas, or Buddhist ascetics, were daily fed. His next act was the distribution of the relics of Sákya to all the chief cities of India. These relics had been collected by Ajátasatra, at the instance of Kásyapa, and were deposited together in one large Stupa at Rájagriha. But the king had now determined to manifest his zeal for the faith of Buddha, by the erection of eighty-four thousand Vihárs, or monasteries, in honour of the eighty-four thousand discourses of Buddha.* As this precise number has always been deemed a fortunate one both by Brahmans and Buddhists, it may be looked upon as the common expression for any very large number.† These Vihárs are said to have been erected in eightyfour thousand different cities. I would reject the thousands, and read simply eighty-four cities and eighty-four Vihárs. The building zeal of Asoka is fully confirmed by the Chinese pilgrim Hwan-Thsang, who travelled through India in the middle of the 7th century of our era. At different places on his route, from Anderáb, beyond the sources of the Kabul River, to Conjeveram, in the south of India, and from Pitoshilo, in the delta of the Indus, to Tamluk, at the mouth of the Ganges, this pilgrim saw upwards of

• Mahawanso, p. 26.

+ See Sir H. M. Elliott's Supplementary Glossary of Indian Terms for a number of proofs.