the right hand placed on the little finger of the left hand for the purpose of enforcing his argument.' In these times, many a scientific gentleman is attracted to visit the curious and venerable tower for archæological investigation. In the opinion of Major Kittoe, 'the arrangement of this tower was precisely the same as at Rangoon, rows and rows of small temples, umbrellas, pillars, &c., around the great tope.'

In the neighbourhood of the Dhamek, is the ruin of another large brick stupa. In 1794 this tower was first excavated by the Dewan of Cheyte Sing to obtain bricks for the erection of a bazar, when 'two vessels of stone and green marble, one inside the other, had been discovered, the inner vessel containing a few human bones, some decayed pearls, gold leaves, and other jewels of no value, along with a statue of Buddha, bearing an inscription dated in Samvat 1083, A.D. 1026.' It is recorded in this inscription, that 'Mahi Pala, Rajah of Goura (Bengal), having worshipped the lotus-like feet of Sree Dharmarasi (Buddha), caused to be erected in Kasi hundreds of Isana and Chitraghanta. Sri Sthira Pal and his younger brother Vasanta Pal having restored religion, raised this tower with an inner chamber and eight large niches.' This was a relic tower, supposed to have originally been a hemispherical stupa, 82 feet in diameter, and not less than 50 feet in height. It has been reduced to a ruin by the vandalism of Cheyte Sing's Dewan.

Choukandi, or Luri-ka-kodan, so called from the leap of an Ahir by the name of Luri from its top, is a lofty

Sarnath,-another Tower.

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mound of solid brickwork, surmounted with an octagonal building. Hwen Thsang describes this tower to have been no less than 300 feet in height. The lofty monument sparkled with the rarest and most precious jewels. It was not ornamented with rows of niches, neither had it the usual bell-shaped cupola, but its summit was crowned with a sort of religious vase, turned upside down, on the top of which was an arrow.' The upper portion of the building no longer exists, and the mound. in question has lost much of its original loftiness— measuring now not more than 98 feet in height. The octagonal building on the top was raised by Hoomayoon, with an inscription over one of the doorways, recording its erection as a memorial of that emperor's ascent of the mound.

The once flourishing condition of Sarnath, is perhaps mysteriously alluded to in the Kasi-khund. The account of the glorious reign of Divodasa, and the universal adoption of Buddhism by the males and females of the city, may be understood as referring to the beneficent administration of the Buddhist Kings of Gour, and their conversion of Benares into a Buddhistic city. The humiliation of the Shivites seems to be indicated by the myth of Shiva's exit from Benares, and his exile on Mount Mandar. The god is represented as having become disconsolate for the loss of his favourite city, and to have at various times had recourse to the aid of Brahma, Surya, Ganesha, and others for its recovery. This is, perhaps, meant to state that the various sects of those divinities, embarking in a common cause, made

only fruitless efforts from time to time to subvert a religion which had the powerful support of the sovereign. The hopeless Shivites had to bide their time till the Rajahs of Kanouge, becoming predominant in the land, annexed Benares under their sway in the eleventh century. The Kanougians of that period were stanch believers in the Puranic creed. It was from Kanouge that Bengal had afterwards to indent for Brahmins to restore Hindoo orthodoxy in that benighted and heretic land. The success of the Kanougians produced a strong reaction in favour of the Shivites. They now rose up in arms, and put forth their whole strength for the reentry of Shiva into Benares-the restitution of his worship in that city. Never did sect over sect triumph with such signal success. The Buddhists were overpowered rapidly, completely, and for ever. Their tem

ples and towers were razed to the ground so as not to leave a trace of them behind. The images of their gods were torn from their shrines, defaced and broken, and then flung into the streets. Their monasteries and colleges were attacked as dens of heresies. The monks of the one, and the professors of the other, were hunted with an implacable revenge. The inhabitants were attacked, and allowed no refuge but in flight and dispersion. All Sarnath was reduced to ashes, and in that fair city reigned only desolation and silence. The vestiges yet discernible bear abundant marks of the agency of fire, which had been employed by the Brahmins to exterminate their enemies, and uproot all landmarks of the existence of Sarnath. To quote Major

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Kittoe: all has been sacked and burnt, priests, temples, idols, all together. In some places bones, iron, timber, idols, &c., are all fused into huge heaps; and this has happened more than once.' Proofs of a great final catastrophe by fire have been afforded by 'pieces of charred wood with nails sticking in some of them,' ' stores of unhusked rice only partially burnt,' and 'evident traces of fire on the stone pillars, umbrellas, and statues.' From 'the remains of ready-made wheaten cakes,' and from 'portions of wheat and other grain spread out in one of the cells,' the destruction of Sarnath is concluded to have been both sudden and unexpected.' Such a conclusion is well borne out by the following account of Mr Thomas, late Judge of Benares :-'The chambers on the eastern side of the square were found filled with a strange medley of uncooked food, hastily abandoned on their floors,-pottery of everyday life, nodes of brass produced apparently by the melting down of the cooking vessels in common use. Above these again were the remnants of the charred timbers of the roof, with iron nails still remaining in them, above which again appeared broken bricks mixed with earth and rubbish to the height of the extant walls, some six feet from the original flooring. Every item here bore evidence of a complete conflagration, and so intense seems to have been the heat, that in portions of the wall still standing, the clay, which formed the substitute for lime in binding the brick-work, is baked to a similar consistency with the bricks themselves. In short, all existing indications lead to a necessary inference that

the destruction of the building, by whomsoever caused, was effected by fire applied by the hand of an exterminating adversary, rather than by any ordinary accidental conflagration.'

The work of excavation at Sarnath had been going on until a recent period. The idols and sculptures dug up from that place have scarcely turned out in an entire state. Many of these curiosities are deposited in the museum of the Benares College. Among the various articles exhumed the most remarkable are 'pestles and mortar sills (or flat stones for mashing), loongas, &c., &c., found in a large quadrangle or hospital,' 'fine specimens of carved bricks;' heads of Buddha, made of pounded bricks and road-earth, coated with fine shelllime, in beautiful preservation;' 'a fine head of a female in white marble (partly calcined), and a portion of the arm;' 'two stone umbrellas, one in fragments (burnt) of six feet diameter, mushroom-shaped, and another, also burnt, but not broken, elegantly carved in scroll on the inside, but nearly defaced by the action of saltpetre; a square, elaborately corniced block, that was the seat of the Teacher for the daily reading and expounding of the Buddhist Scriptures;' and 'an impression in burnt clay, of a seal, 1 inch in diameter, with two lines of Sanscrit, surmounted by a lozengeshaped device, with two recumbent deer as supporters.' The device of the two deer is said to prove that the seal belonged to a monk of the Deer Park monastery at Sarnath, whose name is stated in the inscription to have