Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c8.31

c8.31

Fa-hien in the fifth century and Hieuen Tsang in the seventh seem to have been impressed with India's population. Fa-hien travelled in the Gupta Empire from A.D. 405 to 411, and stayed at Patliputra for a year and a half. He speaks of Magadh as a prosperous region with large towns and wealthy population. Between the Indus and Mathura he saw many monasteries. In Mathura alone there were 20 monasteries with 3,000 monks. Hieuen Tsang travelled the whole of India between A.D. 630 and 644. He says that Purshapura (Peshawar) and Taxila were almost in ruins because of the atrocities of Mihirikula. But the crowds of pilgrims at Prayag impressed him greatly. He saw about 5000 monasteries and these contained about 200,000 monks "Both Fa-hien and Hieuen Tsang refer to a large number of towns and the latter gives their area as 20, 30, or 40 *li* in circuit, one *li* being about one-sixth of an English mile "¹⁸