VI

A ruin—yet what ruin! from its mass
Walls, palaces, half-cities have been rear'd

BYKON

* (C¦¦T is one of the tragedies of history '\ writes Aldous

J Huxley wh^-i discussing the medkeval tale of
Barlaam and JosapJiat, ^thafc Christendom should
never have known anything of Buddhism" save a
garbled version of Gautama's life. cc But alas! as far as
the West was concerned the Enlightened One was
destined, until very recent times, to remain no more
than the hero of an edifying fairy tale ".

It is sad, too, perhaps, that the Enlightened One
was destined to have a greater following in other lands
than in the country of his birth and ministry. From
the great bulk of Buddhist scriptural literature, stories
and legends; out of the number of glowing accounts loft
by Buddhist monks who came from far-off lands; in the
monuments and sculptures found everywhere in India;

and through the relics unearthed from some buried
cities, the mind can draw a picture of the days whoa
the Buddha's doctrines and precepts bloomed in his
own country. Those were the times when Taxila was
a living city though it is a tomb of kingdoms, today.

Taxila was the first city which Asoka the Great,
who ranks amongst the powerful emperors of Indian
history, governed as a prince. As an emperor he
adopted Buddhism and, under his enlightened patronage,