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burnt. In a few places I found what appeared to be pieces of terraced roofing; and, in one place, a large heap of charcoal. On the south side the central room was lost by previous excavations; but on the north side I found a room entirely open towards the verandah, as if it was a hall, or place of general meeting for the resident monks. Inside this room there was the base or pedestal of what I believe to have been a small votive Stupa, the top of which probably reached to the roof, and took the place of a pillar. A small drain led under ground from the north-west corner of the central square to the outside of the building on the north, for the purpose, as I conclude, of carrying off the rain-water.

"The building which I have just described would appear to have been a Vihára, or 'Chapel Monastery,' that is, a monastery with a chapel or temple, forming an integral part of the building. From the thickness of the outer wall, I infer that this edifice was not less than three or four stories in height, and that it may have accommodated about fifty monks. The entrance was, probably, on the south side; and I think that there must have been a statue of Buddha in the northern verandah. The bass-relief which I found in the central square almost certainly formed one of the middle architraves of the court.

"Continuing my excavations on the high ground to the westward, I came upon the remains of a building of a totally different description. The walls of the edifice were three feet thick throughout; and I found the plaster still adhering to the inner walls of what I will call the verandahs, with borders of painted flowers,

quite fresh and vivid. The mass of the building consisted of a square of thirty-four feet, with a small porch on each of the four sides. The building was divided into three parts, from west to east; and the central part was again subdivided into three small rooms. I think it probable that these three rooms were the shrines of the Buddhist Triad, Dharmma, Buddha, and Sangha; and that the walls of the two long rooms or verandahs, to the north and south, were covered with statues and bass-reliefs. The entrance verandah of one of the vihára caves at Kánheri, in Salsette, is adorned in a similar manner; and, even in the present day, the inner walls of the temples, both in Ladak and in Burmah, are covered with figures of Buddha. This, also, we know from Hiouen Thsang's account, was the style of the walls of the great vihára in the Deer Park at this very place; and a similar style of ornamentation prevailed both at Buddha Gayá and at Nálanda. Outside the walls, also, I found a great number-about fifty or sixty-of deeply-carved large stones, which had once formed part of a magnificent frieze, with a bold projecting cornice. The face of the frieze was ornamented with small figures of Buddha, seated, at intervals, in peculiar-shaped niches, which I have traced from the rock-hewn caves of Dhamnár, in Málwa, to the picturesque but fantastic Kyoungs of Burmah. A few of these stones may now be seen in the grounds of the Sanskrit College at Benares. As I found no traces of burnt wood, I am inclined to believe that the roof of the building was pyramidal, and that the general appearance of the edifice must have been strikingly similar

to that of the great temple of Brambanan, depicted in the second volume of Raffles's 'Java.'”

I have before observed, that, for the most part, the statues discovered in these ruins were found in two places. One of them was the chamber, above which stood the relic-tower, an account of which has been already given. The other was a small building, ten feet square, which contained about sixty statues and bass-reliefs. Of this curious discovery, Major-General Cunningham, in his report, says: "I was informed by Sangkar, Rájbhar of Singhpur, the same man who had pointed out to me the position of the relic box in Jagat Singh's stupa, that, whilst he was engaged in digging materials for Jagatganj, the workmen had come upon a very large number of statues, all collected together in a small building. The walls were pulled down, and the bricks were carried away; but the statues were left untouched, in their original position. I at once commenced an excavation on the spot pointed out by Sangkar, which was only a few feet to the north of the temple just described. At a depth of two feet below the surface, I found about sixty statues and bass-reliefs, in an upright position, all packed closely together within a small space of less than ten feet square. The walls of the building in which they had been thus deposited had been removed, as stated by Sangkar; but the remains of the foundation showed a small place of only eleven feet square outside. I made a selection of the more perfect figures, which, together with the bassreliefs, I presented to the Asiatic Society. A sketch of the principal bass-relief, which represents the four great

events in the career of Sákya Muni, has been published as Plate I. of M. Foucaux's translation of the Tibetan history of Buddha. A second bass-relief represents the same four scenes, but on a smaller scale. A third bassrelief, which gives only three scenes, omitting the Nirvána, has a short inscription below, in two lines, which records the sculpture to have been the gift of Hari Gupta. The characters of this inscription, which are of the later Gupta type, show that this piece of sculpture is certainly as old as the third or fourth century. Some of the seated figures were in excellent preservation, and, more particularly, one of Buddha, the teacher, which was in perfect condition, and coloured of a warm red hue. The remaining statues, upwards of forty in number, together with most of the other carved stones which I had collected, and which I left lying on the ground, were afterwards carted away by the late Mr. Davidson, and thrown into the Barna river, under the bridge, to check the cutting away of the bed between the arches.

"As the room in which I found all these sculptures was only a small detached building, and as it was quite close to the large temple which I have just described, I conclude that the whole of the sculptures must have belonged to the temple, and that they were secreted in the place where I discovered them, during a time of persecution, when the monks were obliged to abandon their monasteries and take refuge in Nepal. This conclusion is partly borne out by the fact, that I found no statues within the walls of the temple itself. To the north of the temple, at a distance of twenty-six feet, my excavations uncovered a large single block of stone,

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six feet in length, by three feet in height, and the same in thickness. The stone had been carefully squared, and was hollowed out underneath, forming a small chamber, four feet in length, by two feet in breadth, and the same in height. This large stone has, also, disappeared, which is the more to be regretted, as I think it highly probable that it was the celebrated stone, described by Hiouen Thsang, on which Buddha had spread out his kasháya to dry, after washing it in the neighbouring tank. Certain marks on the stone appeared to the Buddhists to represent the thread lines of the web of Buddha's cloth, as 'distinctly as if they had been chiselled.' Devout Buddhists offered their homage before the stone daily; but, whenever heretics or wicked men crowded round the stone in a contemptuous manner, then the dragon (Nága) of the neighbouring tank let loose upon them a storm of wind and rain."

One of the most curious and interesting relics found at Sárnáth is the chaitya, a small vessel made of baked clay, flat below, and ending in a blunt point above. When the bottom is knocked off, a seal-inscription, in a circular form, and, originally, made separately from the vessel itself, is displayed within, exhibiting the celebrated religious formula of the Buddhists, the translation of which has already been given. These words comprise the Buddhist confession of faith, which, it seems, every Buddhist is well aware of, and is able to repeat. "Nothing can be more complete, or more fundamental," remarks Mr. Hodgson, "than this doctrine. It asserts that Buddha hath revealed the

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