In one of the monasteries resided the Arhat Deva-ṡarmā, who wrote a treatise called the Vijñāna-kāya-ṡāstra in defence of the doctrine of the non-existence of any Ego or personal self. A Stūpa, 200 feet high, was built by Aṡoka in the place where Buddha is supposed to have preached and taught during six years. Both Fā-hien and Hiouen Thsang mention the legend that he one day threw on the ground a twig he had used to clean his teeth (danta-kāshṭha), which sprouted and grew into a miraculous tree seven cubits high, at which height it always remained. The Brāhmans became jealous of the miracle and sometimes cut the tree down, sometimes uprooted it, but it always grew again and remained at the same height. Here also is the place where the four Buddhas (p. 400) walked and sat (Legge, pp. 54, 55; Beal, i. 240). _Kanyā-kubja (Kanouj)._ Kanyā-kubja[217] is the Sanskṛit name for the ancient city of Kanouj; (often spelt Kanoj), once the capital of Northern India, and said to be the oldest city in India, next to Ayodhyā. When Hiouen Thsang visited this place it was the capital of the celebrated monarch Harsha-vardhana, also called Ṡilāditya (see p. 167 of this volume), whose kingdom extended from Kashmīr to Assam and from the river Narbadā to Nepāl. When he carried off a tooth-relic of the Buddha from Kashmīr, his procession back to his capital was attended by a large number of tributary kings. Hiouen Thsang, in describing the piety of this great monarch, says of him, that ‘he sought to plant the tree of religious merit to such an extent that he forgot to sleep and to eat.’ He goes on to state as follows:— King Ṡilāditya forbade the slaughter of any living thing as food on pain of death. He built several thousand Stūpas, each about 100 feet high. Then in all the highways of the towns and villages throughout India he erected hospices, and stationed physicians there with medicines for travellers and the poor persons round about. On all spots where there were holy traces of Buddha, he built monasteries. Once in five years he held the great assembly called Moksha. Then every year he assembled the monks, and bestowed on them the four kinds of alms (food, drink, medicine, clothing). He ordered them to carry on discussions, and himself judged of their arguments. He rewarded the good and punished the wicked. He promoted the men of talent, and degraded evil men. Wherever he moved he dwelt in a travelling-palace, and provided choice meats for men of all sorts of religion. Of these the Buddhist priests would be perhaps a thousand; the Brāhmans five hundred[218]. He divided each day into three portions. During the first he occupied himself on matters of government; during the second he practised himself in religious devotion (Beal, i. 214).