Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/223

THE LAST SUNGAS 185 the extreme oppressiveness of the Jain and Buddhist prohibitions when ruthlessly enforced, as they certainly were by some rajas, and probably by Asoka. The won- der rather is that persecutions were so rare, and that as a rule the various sects managed to live together in harmony, and in the enjoyment of fairly impartial offi- cial favour. When Pushyamitra, some five years subsequent to the retreat of Menander, died, after a long and event- ful reign, he was succeeded by his son, the crown prince Agnimitra, who had governed the southern provinces during his father's lifetime. He reigned but a few years, and was succeeded by Sujyeshtha, probably a brother, who was followed seven years later by Vasu- mitra, a son of Agnimitra, who as a youth had guarded the sacrificial horse on behalf of his aged grandfather. The next four reigns are said to have been abnormally short, amounting together to only seventeen years. The inference that the extreme brevity of these reigns indicates a period of confusion, during which palace revolutions were frequent, is strongly confirmed by the one incident of the time which has survived in tradition. Sumitra, another son of Agnimitra, who was, we are told, inordinately devoted to the stage, was surprised when in the midst of his favourite actors by one Mitradeva, who " severed his head with a scimitar, as a lotus is shorn from its stalk." The ninth king, Bhagavata, is credited with a long reign of twenty- six years, but we know nothing about him. The tenth king, Devabhuti, or Devabhumi, was, we are assured,