Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/279

REIGN OF HUVISHKA 241 splendid Buddhist monastery bore his name and no doubt owed its existence to his munificence, for, like Kanishka, he was a liberal patron of Buddhist ecclesias- tical institutions. But he also resembled his more famous predecessor in an eclectic taste for a strange medley of Greek, Indian, and Persian deities. The types on the coins of Huvishka include Heracles, Sa- rapis, Skanda with his son Visakha, Pharro, the fire- god, and many others, but the figure and name of Bud- dha are wanting. It would seem that the Buddhist convictions of these old Turkish kings were not very deeply seated, and it is probably justifiable to hold that the royal favour was granted to the powerful monastic organization of the Buddhists as much as to their creed. No prudent monarch in those days could afford to neglect the wealthy and influential order, which had spread its ramifications all over the empire. The town of Hushkapura, founded by Huvishka in Kashmir, occupied a position of exceptional importance just inside the Baramula Pass, then known as the " western gate " of the valley, and continued for cen- turies to be a place of note. When Hiuen Tsang visited Kashmir about 631 A. D., he enjoyed the liberal hospi- tality of the Hushkapura monastery for several days, and was escorted thence with all honour to the capital, where he found numerous religious institutions, at- tended by some five thousand monks. The town of Hushkapura is now represented by the small village of Ushkiir, at which the ruins of an ancient stupa are visible.