Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c21.s1.18

c21.s1.18

We have no detailed contemporary notice of Ujjayinī (also called Viśālā, Padmāvatī, Bhogavatī, Hiraṇyavatī)² in the days of Chandra Gupta. But Fa-hien who visited Mid India during the period A.D. 405 to 411, has left an interesting account of Pāṭaliputra. The pilgrim refers to the royal palace of Aśoka and the halls in the midst of the city, "which exist now as of old," and were according to him "all made by spirits which Aśoka employed, and which piled up the stones, reared the walls and gates, and executed the elegant carving and inlaid sculpture-work,—in a way which no human hands of this world could accomplish." "The inhabitants are rich and prosperous, and vie with one another in the practice of benevolence and righteousness. Every year on the eighth day of the second month they celebrate a procession of images... The Heads of the *Vaiśya* families