The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.90

c29.90

dominions of Chandra-gupta Vikramāditya were well governed; the authorities interfering as little as possible with the subject, and leaving him free to prosper and grow rich in his own way. The devout pilgrim pursued his Sanskrit studies for three years at Pātaliputra, and for two years at the port of Tāmralipti (Tamlūk), without let or hindrance, and it is clear that the roads were safe for travellers.¹ Fa-hien never has occasion to complain of being stripped by brigands, a misfortune which befell his successor Hiuen Tsang in the seventh century more than once. Probably India has never been governed better, after the Oriental manner, than it was during the reign of Vikramāditya. The government did not attempt to do too much; but let the people alone, and was accordingly popular. The merciful teachings of Buddhism influenced the lives of all classes, except the most degraded; while, inasmuch as the sovereign was a Brahmanical Hindu, the tendency to the harassing kind of persecution, which a Buddhist or Jain government is apt to display, was kept in check, and liberty of conscience was assured. Fa-hien, as a pious devotee, necessarily saw everything through Buddhist spectacles, but it is evident that, with a Brahmanical supreme government, Hinduism of the orthodox kind must have been far more prominent than his account would lead the reader to suppose, and sacrifices must have been permitted. In fact, the Brahmanical reaction against Buddhism had begun at a time considerably earlier than that of Fa-hien's travels; and Indian Buddhism was already upon the downward path, although the pilgrim could not discern the signs of decadence.