The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c28.117

c28.117

The dominions of Huvishka certainly included Kābul,⁴ Kashmīr, and Mathurā. At the last-named city, a splendid Buddhist monastery bore his name, and no doubt owed its existence to his munificence;¹ for, like Kanishka, he was a liberal patron of Buddhist ecclesiastical institutions. He also resembled his more famous predecessor in an eclectic taste for a strange medley of Greek, Indian, and Persian deities. The types on the coins of Huvishka include Herakles, Sarapis ('Sarapo'), Skanda with his son Visākha, Pharro, the fire-god, and many others, but the figure and name of Buddha are wanting. It would seem that the Buddhist convictions of these old Scythian kings were not very deeply seated, and it is probably justifiable to hold that the royal favour was granted to the powerful monastic organization of the Buddhists as much as to their creed. No prudent monarch in those days could afford to neglect the wealthy and influential order, which had spread its ramifications all over the empire.