96 FOOTFALLS OF INDIAN HISTORY
under which it is conveyed. It would seem indeed as if it were only as the vehicle of the ideal that the symbol could possibly be invented or disseminated. Now if we ask what was the radiating centre for the thought and aspiration of Buddhism, the answer comes back without hesitation or dispute — Magadha. The Holy Land of Buddhism was the stretch of country between Benares and Pataliputra. Here the First Council had been held in the year after Buddha's death, at Rajgir. Here at Pataliputra under Asoka was held the great Second Council about the year 242 B.C. It is quite evident that the lead so well taken by Magadha in recognising the importance of Buddhism during the lifetime of its founder had been signally maintained, and for the Council of Kan- ishka to assert canonical rank, it must have been attended by numerous ,and authoritative representatives from the monasteries of Magadha, notably that of Nalanda, whose supremacy as the seat of exposition and elucidation was still acknowledged in the time of Hiouen Tsang in the middle of the seventh century of the Christian era. Unless then there should be unimpugnable evidence to the contrary, the rule being that ideals create symbolisms as their vehicle, and the source of Buddhist thought having always been Magadha, we should expect that that country would also be the creative centre in matters of Buddhist art, and that it would be responsible amongst other things for the devising and fixing of the image of Buddha. That
