Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/358

314 THE REIGN OF HARSHA besides choice food, drink, flowers, and perfumes. Dur- ing the next following twenty days, the great multitude of Brahmans were the recipients of the royal bounty. They were succeeded by the people whom the Chinese author calls " heretics," that is to say, Jains and mem- bers of sundry sects, who received gifts for the space of ten days. A like period was allotted for the bestowal of alms upon mendicants from distant regions, and a month was occupied in the distribution of charitable aid to poor, orphaned, and destitute persons. " By this time the accumulation of five years was exhausted. Except the horses, elephants, and military accoutrements, which were necessary for maintaining order and protecting the royal estate, nothing remained. Besides these the king freely gave away his gems and goods, his clothing and necklaces, ear-rings, bracelets, chaplets, neck- jewel, and bright head- jewel; all these he freely gave without stint. All being given away, he begged from his sister [Rajyasri] an ordinary sec- ond-hand garment, and, having put it on, he paid worship to the ' Buddhas of the ten regions,' and rejoiced that his treasure had been bestowed in the field of religious merit." The strange assembly, which in general appearance must have much resembled the crowded fair still held annually on the same ground, then broke up, and, after a further detention of ten days, Hiuen Tsang was per- mitted to depart. The king and Kumara Raja offered him abundance of gold pieces and other precious things, none of which he would accept, save a fur-lined cape,