Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c30.23

c30.23

**Kapis.** In Kapis "were above 1,000 monasteries with more than 6,000 brethren who were chiefly Mahāyānists" (p. 123). Here was the Chinese hostage's monastery where our pilgrim was lodged and entertained during the rainy season of A.D. 630. It had then 300 brethren, all Hīnayānists. The Kapis, a monastery, along with two other monasteries in Gandhāra and Chīnabhukti, in eastern Panjab, was built by Kanishka for the residence of hostages surrendered to him by a tributary state of the Chinese empire. A pit in the monastery contained a buried treasure given to it by the hostages whose representations in painting adorned its walls. Religious services on their behalf were also annually offered at the beginning and end of the Rain-season Retreat by the grateful monastery. The monastery had some caves at a distance where the hostages practised *samādhi*, Part of the buried treasure was unearthed by Hiuen Tsang for the purpose of some urgent repairs to the building (p. 125). There was another monastery in the neighbourhood built by a statesman named Rāhula (p. 126).