The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c24.s1.29

c24.s1.29

¹ The reality of religious persecution of Buddhism in India, denied by Rhys Davids (*J. Pāli Text Soc.*, 1896, pp. 87–92), is affirmed by Hodgson, Sewell, and Watters (ibid., pp. 107–10). The instance of Śaśāṅka, described by the nearly contemporary Hiuen Tsang (Beal, *Records*, i, 212, ii, 42, 91, 118, 121), is fully proved. The case against Mihirakula is almost as strong. In ancient times Tibet and Khotan were closely connected with India. Tibetan history records a persecution of Buddhism by king Glang Darma (Langdarma), about *A. D.* 840 (Rockhill, *Life of the Buddha*, pp. 226, 243), and a similar event is recorded in Khotan annals, shortly before A. D. 741 (ibid., pp. 243–5; Sarat Chandra Dās, *J. A. S. B.*, pt. I, 1886, p. 200). A terrible persecution of the cognate religion Jainism occurred in Southern India in the seventh century (Elliot, *Coins of Southern India*, p. 126; *post*, ch. xvi, sec. 2). Ajayadeva, a 'Śaiva king of Gujarāt (A. D. 1174–6), began his reign by a merciless persecution of the Jains, torturing their leader to death' (*Archaeol. S. W. I.*, vol. ix, p. 16). Several other well-established instances of severe persecution might be cited.