________________
A MONK AND A MONARCH
CHAPTER FIRST
GENERAL CONDITIONS This world is changing. There is not a single thing existing which has always remained in the same condition. Rise and fall come to every man, to every city and to every country. Therefore it is no wonder if India too has experienced ups and downs.
Alexander the Great had found Astronomers, Physicians, Fortune-tellers, Architects, Ascetics, Philosophers, Minerologists, Chemists, Dramatists, Poets, Agriculturists, Moralists, Politicians, Heroes and Merchants the like of whom he had not seen elsewhere in his vast expeditions. India was then matchless. Bankimchandra Lahiri, in his "Samrat Akabar" says:
भारतेर मृत्तिकाय रत्न, स्वर्ण, रौप्य, ताम्र प्रभृति जन्मित । जगतेर सुप्रसिद्ध कहिनूर भारतेइ उत्पन्न हइयाछिल । एखानकार वृक्ष लौहेर न्याय एढ । एखाने पाहाड श्वेतमर्मर, समुद्र मुक्ताफल, वृक्ष चन्दनवास ओ वनफूल सौगन्ध प्रदान करे । स्वर्णप्रसू भारते किसेर अभाव छिल ?
(Indian clay produces gold, silver, copper, pearl, etc. The world-famous Kohi-noor was produced in India. Trees of this land are firm like iron. Its mountains yield marble, oceans pearls, trees sandals and flowers fragrance. What is wanting in Indiagold--producing country ?)
The famous traveller Al--Beruni also, in his description of Gujarat, speaks of 70 varieties of roses growing during the four seasons of the year as also of vines yielding two crops every year. He also speaks very highly of the fertility of the soil, which yielded such cotton--plants as compared favourably with the 'willows' and 'planes' of the western countries. He asserts that each plant yielded crop continuously for ten years.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
