History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c12.s5.1

c12.s5.1

Owing to the well-organised character of the government there do not seem to have been many instances of violent crime. Yuan Chwang testifies to this rather amazing fact : “As the government is honestly administered and the people live together on good terms the criminal class is small.”³ But the roads and river routes were by no means immune from bands of brigands, Yuan Chwang himself being stripped by them more than once. At one time, when the pilgrim had proceeded eastward from Ayodhyā (not very distant from Kanauj) and was going down the Ganges with about eighty other fellow-passengers on board a ship, the robbers selected him on account of his handsome form as an offering to the goddess Durgā, whom they paid worship; and it was fortunately through the intercession of Nature that he escaped meeting a cruel death at their hands. We learn that all of a sudden a “black tempest” (typhoon) arose, which terrified the pirates, and interpreting it as an indication of divine anger they sincerely felt repentance for their evil ways and not only spared Yuan Chwang’s life but also “took on themselves the five obligations of a lay-believer.”¹