ANCIENT INDIA. 



13 



throughout the empire; he introduced a State system of 

 instruction in moral conduct ; he prohibited all convivial 

 meetings on the ground that much evil attended such assem- 

 blies ; a stringent law was enacted against such persons as 

 indulged in spirituous drinks, opium or other deleterious 

 drugs ; an edict was passed that stores of medicinal fruits and 

 roots should be maintained throughout the empire for the 

 treatment of human beings and animals; also that wells should 

 be dug and trees planted along every high road. Fa Hien saw 

 at the beginning of the fifth century in Pataliputra (Patna) 

 hospitals that had been founded by the neighbouring nobility 

 and gentry after the manner of those instituted by Asoka. To 

 them the poor, the crippled, and diseased of all countries 

 repaired ; every requisite was supplied gratuitously ; physi- 

 cians inspected their diseases and ordered diet and medicine 

 according to their respective cases. It is believed that the 

 hospices that had prior to that date been erected by 

 Brahmins were rather houses of shelter and entertainment 

 for travellers than establishments for the reception and 

 treatment of sick. Those erected by Asoka were more purely 

 hospitals as we have just seen. According also to Fa Hien 

 each of the ninety-six heretical sects, into which the followers 

 of Buddha became divided, erected Punyasalas or hospices by 

 the sides of solitary roads so that travellers might rest and 

 sleep therein and be supplied with all necessaries. All such 

 establishments have long since ceased in India, but in Burmah 

 they are still represented by the Zyats which occur at intervals 

 along the thoroughfares, still known as " works of merit," 

 but now alas ! disappearing under " the march of improve- 

 ment." 



7. House-construction. — The earliest Aryan town of which 

 we read was Hastinapura, some fifty miles north-east from 

 modern Delhi. It appears to have at that distant date 

 consisted of huts of mud and bamboos. At the same period, 



