OTHER CENTERS OF CIVILIZATION 
career of Alexander, the new ruler seems to have taken for 
his model the great Persian Empire which had been affect- 
ing Indian civilization so strongly for more than two hun- 
dred years. : 
From various sources we learn a good deal regarding the 
organization of this realm, which from the surname of its 
founder is known as the Maurya Empire. It lasted for 
over a century, and its third ruler, Asoka, is remembered 
to this day as the great patron and supporter of Buddhism. 
His connection with the latter faith has often been com- 
pared to that of the Roman emperor Constantine with 
Christianity. Of the two men, however, Asoka seems to 
have possessed by far the finer character. For uprightness, 
sincerity, tolerance, and humanity, this Indian emperor 
who reigned twenty-two hundred years ago seems worthy 
to stand beside the noblest rulers of history. Buddhism, 
founded over two centuries before his time, had acquired 
a certain following among the peoples of northern India; 
but it was Asoka who enabled it to become a great world 
faith, penetrating far beyond the limits of the Indian 
peninsula. Under him India became a source of enlighten- 
ment and progress for a large part of Asia. 
Apparently the great extension of trade under the 
Maurya Dynasty first brought those countries comprising 
what we know as Indo-China into direct relations with 
the world civilization of antiquity. These contacts were 
no doubt mainly by land, but there exists some reason to 
believe that the use of sea-going ships, already long known 
in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the waters to the 
west of India, spread to the eastern shores of the Bay of 
Bengal and possibly to the islands of the East Indian 
Archipelago about this time. 
ANCIENT CHINA 
There still remains to be described one other great civi- 
lizing center in the Old World, the region which we now 
call China. 
for7.] 
