Lives of Alcyone

jewels, his crown, and even his royal to the poor or to the temples all
his jewels, his crown, and even his royal robes. Unfortunately, only a
few years later, in the year 648, King Harsha died, and the great
Empire, which he had built up so labouriously and at the cost of so
much bloodshed, fell rapidly to pieces.
Immediately after his death his prime minister, a man of the
name of Arjuna, seized upon the supreme power. He was, however,
able to assert it over only a small part of the country that had owned
Harsha’ s sway; and in less than two years he was summarily
suppressed by a Mongolian army. After that there seem to have
been several claimants to sovereignty, and presently a prince
named Vasudharman ruled for some tithe—not, however ever
Harsha’ s Empire, but over a far smaller state or subdivision, or it
called Panchala. Through all this disturbance the city of Kanyakubja
seems to have been strangely little affected; its temples at any rate
were entirely uninjured, and experienced no greater trouble than
certain fluctuations in revenue, the Buddhist or the Hindu temples
reaping the greatest profit according to the religion of the ruler who
happened to be uppermost at the time.
When Alcyone was sent on his pilgrimage he visited all the
important Buddhist shrines in the north of India, and therefore
naturally to a great extent retraced the steps of his previous
incarnation, though he knew nothing of this. Twice, however, he had
a curious vision which involved the recollection of some of the more
striking scenes of that previous incarnation. The first time was at
Buddha Gaya itself, where, meditating in devotional ecstacy under
the Bo-tree, he had a very clear and vivid presentment of the
wonderful scene of the Illumination. The other occasion was in the
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