ather in 326, and reigned until 375.
It is characteristic of India that this, probably the greatest
monarch since Asoka, is absolutely unmentioned in any history or
contemporary literature: the sole evidence for his reign and
greatness comes from coins and inscriptions. One of the latter
is to be found on a pillar originally set up and inscribed by
Asoka, now in the fort at Allahabad. It shows him a mighty
conqueror, reigning over all Hindustan; victorious in the
Deccan; and, by influence and alliances, dominant from Ceylon to
the Oxus. His coins picture him playing on the lyre; the
inscriptions speak of him as a poet and musician; in his reign
began a great renaissance in art, architecture, literature, and
perhaps especially in music,--a renaissance which reached its
culmination in the reign of his successor. Another thing to
note: when of old time Pushyamitra overturned the Buddhist
Mauryas, he showed his Brahmin orthodoxy by performing the great
Horse Sacrifice;--a sign that the ancient religion had come back
in triumph. They let loose a horse to wander where it would, and
followed it with an army for a whole year; then sacrificed it.
Samudragupta performed the same rites;--and it is known that the
Gupta age was one of strong reaction against Buddhism. I know
that it is disputed now that there was ever a persecution of the
Buddhists in India; but the tradition remains; and one of the
Teachers, in a letter that appears either in the _Occult World_
or _Esoteric Buddhism,_ speaks of India as a land from which the
Light of the Lodge had been driven with the followers of the
Buddha. Certainly there were Buddhists in India long after this
time: even a great Buddhist king in the seventh century: but it
seems more than probably that the spirit of intolerance went east
with the eastward cyclic flow we have noted this evening: from
Christianity to Zoroastrianism: from Zoroastrianism under the
Sassanids to Brahminism under the Guptas.

Not, perhaps, that there was actual persecution, yet. Emissaries
from the king of Ceylon found the shrine at Buddhagaya fallen
into decay; and they themselves were not well treated at the
site. The Buddhist kind, however, determined to remedy things as
well as he could. He sent ambassadors with rich gifts to
Samundragupta; who called the gifts tribute, and permitted him,
on consideration thereof, to restore the shrine. The monastery
then built by the Sinhalese was afterwards