and he became an important figure in the religion and art of the Far East.  But no allusion to him or to any of the Patriarchs after Vasubandhu has been found in Indian literature nor in the works of Hsuean Chuang and I-Ching.  The inference is that he was of no importance in India and that his reputation in China was not great before the eighth century:  also that the Chinese lists of patriarchs do not represent the traditions of northern India.

Religious feeling often ran high in southern India.  Buddhists, Jains and Hindus engaged in violent disputes, and persecution was more frequent than in the north.  It is easy to suppose that Bodhidharma being the head of some heretical sect had to fly and followed the example of many monks in going to China.  But if so, no record of his school is forthcoming from his native land, though the possibility that he was more than an individual thinker and represented some movement unknown to us cannot be denied.  We might suppose too that since Nagarjuna and Aryadeva were southerners, their peculiar doctrines were coloured by Dravidian ideas.  But our available documents indicate that the Buddhism of southern India was almost entirely Hinayanist, analogous to that of Ceylon and not very sympathetic to the Tamils.

The pilgrims Sung-Yuen and Hui-Sheng[243] visited Udyana and Gandhara during the time of the Hun domination (518-521).  They found the king of the former a pious Buddhist but the latter was governed by an Ephthalite chieftain, perhaps Mihiragula himself, who was a worshipper of demons.  Of the Yetha or Ephthalites they make the general observation that “their rules of politeness are very defective.”  But they also say that the population of Gandhara had a great respect for Buddhism and as they took back to China 170 volumes, “all standard works belonging to the Great Vehicle,” the Ephthalite persecution cannot have destroyed the faith in north-western India.  But the evil days of decay were beginning.  Henceforward we have no more pictures of untroubled piety and prosperity.  At best Buddhism receives royal patronage in company with other religions; sectarian conflicts increase and sometimes we hear of persecution.  About 600 A.D. a king of Central Bengal named Sasanka who worshipped Siva attempted to extirpate Buddhism in his dominions and destroyed the Bo tree at Bodh Gaya.[244] On the other hand we hear of the pious Purnavarman, king of Magadha, who made amends for these sacrileges, and of Siladitya, king of the country called Mo-lo-po by the Chinese, who was so careful of animal life, that he even strained the water drunk by his horses and elephants, lest they should consume minute insects.