The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c16.54

c16.54

The rest of the festival, which lasted seventy-five days, was devoted to the distribution of all the surplus of Harsha’s treasury which had accumulated since the last festival had been held, five years before. Everything except what was required “for maintaining order and protecting the royal estate” was given away; first to members of the Buddhist Sangha, then to Brahmans, then to Jains and devotees of various minor sects, and lastly to the poor and destitute generally. Harsha set the example of benevolence by giving away “his gems and his goods; his clothing and necklaces; ear-rings, bracelets, chaplets, neck-jewel and bright head-jewel”; and when he had nothing left he put on a mendicant’s robe which he had begged from his sister, and paid worship to all the Buddhas, rejoicing that “his treasure had been bestowed in the field of religious merit.”