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about twelve feet below the surrounding soil. fifty-seven feet four inches in diameter, measured three feet from the floor, and is five hundred and twenty feet to the west of the large tower. Its enclosing wall is sixteen feet and a half thick, and is composed, throughout, -with a single exception, which will presently be explained,―of large Buddhist bricks, placed horizontally, in layers one upon another, and, in no single instance, placed vertically; the outermost layer abutting on the adjacent soil. For about two thirds of the distance from the summit to the base, the wall is concave; the rate of curvature being in the proportion of one inch to every five inches and one-third of perpendicular height. Beneath the lowest stratum of bricks in the concave portion is an indurated deposit of small nodes of limestone, six inches in depth; and below it, again, a thin layer of powdered brick, one inch and a half in thickness. From this point to the floor the wall is perpendicular; and the upper portion is ornamented with a cornice and moulding.

The lower division of the wall, when compared with the upper, has a very striking appearance. Its bricks are better burnt, and are larger, some of them being eighteen inches in length, nearly thirteen in breadth, and quite three in thickness; whereas not one in the upper section can be found of such dimensions. Moreover, it has an aspect of higher antiquity; and it is difficult to reject the idea that it belongs to a prior era. If this conjecture be true, it must have been a portion of an earlier building, contemporaneous, it may be, with the old edifice lately referred to, a few remains

of whose walls have been discovered, forming part of the foundations of the more modern structure, the ruins of which, still visible, have just now been described. Major-General Cunningham's account of his excavations here, and of the views he entertains of the nature of the original buildings situated on this spot, I must transcribe, for the completeness of the narrative. It is strange, however, that he has not remarked the characteristics in the construction and antiquity of the existing wall of the chamber referred to. He writes as follows:

"This is the ruin of the large brick stupa (or tower), which was excavated by Babu Jagat Singh, the Dewán of Raja Chait Singh of Benares, for the purpose of obtaining bricks for the erection of Jagatganj. In January, 1794, his workmen found, at a depth of twenty-seven feet, two vessels of stone and marble, one inside the other. The inner vessel, according to Jonathan Duncan's account (Asiatic Researches, vol. v., p. 131), contained a few human bones, some decayed pearls, gold leaves, and other jewels of no value. In the same place' under-ground, and on the same occasion' with the discovery of the urns, there was found a statue of Buddha, bearing an inscription dated in Samvat 1083, or A.D. 1026. An imperfect translation of this inscription was given by Wilford, accompanied by some remarks, in which he applies the statements of the record to the great tower of Dhamek, instead of to the building in which it was actually discovered.

"At my suggestion, Major Kittoe made a search for this statue amongst the plundered stones of Jagatganj,

where it was found, broken and mutilated. The inscription, however, was still legible; and the remains of the figure are sufficient to show that the statue was a representation of Buddha the preacher, and not of Buddha the ascetic. Major Kittoe sent me a transcript of the inscription in modern Nágarí, which I strongly suspect to have been Brahmanized by his Benares Pandits. In its modern Nágarí form, as translated for me, it records that Mahi Pála, Raja of Gauda (or Bengal), having worshipped, the lotus-like feet of Sri Dharmarási (heap of light,' Buddha), caused to be erected in Káśí hundreds of ĺsána and Chitraghanța. Srí Sthira Pála and his younger brother Srí Vasanta Pála, having restored religion, raised this tower with an inner chamber and eight large niches.' I strongly suspect that the word ĺsána, which is a name of Siva, has been obtained by Brahmanical modification of the original. Wilford read Bhúpála instead of 'Íśána'; but I am unable to offer any conjecture as to the true reading, as I know not where the original is now deposited. Major Kittoe's fac-simile of the inscription is, perhaps, amongst those deposited by him in the Asiatic Society's Museum.

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My reasons for fixing on the large round hole, five hundred and twenty feet to the west of the great tower, as the site of the stupa excavated by Jagat Singh, are the following:-In 1835, when I was engaged in opening the great tower itself, I made repeated enquiries regarding the scenes of Jagat Singh's discovery. Every one had heard of the finding of a stone box, which contained bones, and jewels, and gold; but every one professed ignorance of the locality. At length, an old

man named Sangkar, an inhabitant of the neighbouring village of Singhpur, came forward and informed me that, when he was a boy, he had been employed in the excavations made by Jagat Singh, and that he knew all about the discovery of the jewels, etc. According to his account, the discovery consisted of two boxes, the outer one being a large round box of common stone, and the inner one a cylindrical box of green marble, about fifteen inches in height, and five or six inches in diameter. The contents of the inner box were forty to forty-six pearls, fourteen rubies, eight silver and nine gold earrings (karn phúl), and three pieces of human arm-bone. The marble box was taken to the Bará Sáhib (Jonathan Duncan); but the stone box was left undisturbed in its original position. As the last statement evidently afforded a ready means of testing the man's veracity, I enquired if he could point out the spot where the box was left. To this question he replied, without any hesitation, in the affirmative; and I at once engaged him to dig up the box. We proceeded together to the site of the present circular hole, which was then a low uneven mound in the centre of a hollow, and, after marking out a small space about four feet in diameter, he began to work. Before sunset he had reached the stone box, at a depth of twelve feet, and at less than two feet from the middle of the well which he had sunk. The box was a large circular block of common Chunar sandstone, pierced with a rough cylindrical chamber in the centre, and covered with a flat slab as a lid. I presented this box, along with about sixty statues, to the Bengal Asiatic Society;

and it is now in their Museum, where I lately recognized it.

"The discovery of the stone box was the most complete and convincing proof that I could wish for of the man's veracity; and I at once felt satisfied that the relics and the inscribed figure of Buddha found by Jagat Singh's workmen had been discovered on this spot, and, consequently, that they could not possibly have any connexion with the great tower of Dhamek. My next object was to ascertain the nature of the building in which the box was deposited. As I had found the box standing on solid brick-work, I began to clear away the rubbish, expecting to find a square chamber similar to those which had been discovered in the topes of Afghanistan. My excavations, however, very soon showed, that, if any chamber had once existed, it must have been demolished by Jagat Singh's workmen. Sangkar then described that the box was found in a small square hole, or chamber, only just large enough to hold it. I cleared out the whole of the rubbish, until I reached the thick circular wall which still exists. I then found that the relic-box had been deposited inside a solid brick hemispherical stupa, forty-nine feet in diameter at the level of the deposit; and that this had been covered by a casing wall of brick, sixteen feet and a half in thickness: the total diameter at this level was, therefore, eightytwo feet. The solid brick-work of the interior had only been partially excavated by Jagat Singh's workmen; nearly one-half of the mass, to a height of six feet above the stone box, being then untouched. I

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