circumference, before it narrows into the neck. This inscription has been read by Professor Dowson1 and General Cunningham.2

The former renders it thus:

"Gihilena Siha-rachhitena cha bhratarehi Takhásilae ayam thuvo pratiṭhavito sava Buddhana puyae," i.e., "This Tope was erected in Taxila by the brothers Gihilena and Siha Rachhitena, in honour of all the Buddhas."

This vase which was stolen from the Peshawar Museum, was discovered in Calcutta, and returned by this Museum to the Lahore Museum in December 1871.

Ta. 2.-A relic casket of steatite, 2"-35 high and with a maximum diameter of 1"-92. The lower portion is 1"-15 high, and the cavity has a diameter at the opening of 1"-22, but the cavity has a greater diameter below this. It is urnshaped, and the two halves are ornamented with the conventional lotus leaf pattern, with arrow-like markings below them. The handle to the lid is the same as in the Manikyāla casket, and in the previous vase.

Presented by the Archæological Survey of India, 11th August 1882.

Ma. 3.-A miniature saucer, 2" 25 in diameter, and 0'58 high, with an inscription on the centre of its upper surface. It has been made over to Dr. Mitra to decipher, and, if the inscription is of sufficient interest, the result of Dr. Mitra's examination will be given in an Appendix.

Presented by the Archæological Survey of India, 11th August 1882, but without any history.

Peshawar.

The city of Peshawar, which is situated about 190 miles

1 Journ. Roy. As. Soc., Vol. XX, p. 241, Pl. I, fig. 2.

2 Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XXXII, p. 151, p. 172, p. 428, Arch. Surv. Rep., Vol. II, p. 125, Pl. LIX, fig. 2.

south-east from Kabul, was the ancient capital of Gandhara,' a kingdom that was founded in the earliest days of the Aryan colonization of the Peshawar valley 2 by a prince of that name and belonging to the Lunar race of kings, but, during Hwen Thsang's time, Gandhārā had become a province of the kingdom of Kapisa or Kabul.

3

The city of Parashāwara, as it was anciently called, and which was ignorantly altered to Peshawar by Akbar, is mentioned by Fah Hian in A.D. 400, under the name of Fo-lau-sha, and again in A.D. 520 by another Chinese pilgrim, SungYun, who, however, does not give the name of the city, but described the great stupa erected by Kanishka. Hwen Thsang, who describes the city in great detail under the name of Pou-lou-cha-pou-lo, or Parashawara, has mentioned the following among the chief objects of interest to Buddhists: 1st, the stupa that contained the alms-bowl of Buddha, which has now, after a chequered history, found at last a resting place at Kandahar, where Sir Henry Rawlinson. says it is held in high estimation by the Musalman inhabitants; 2nd, the pipal tree that marked the spot where

'Conf. antea Pt. 1, p. 198.

2 Imp. Gazt. Ind., Vol. VII, p. 357.

Beal's Travels of F. H. & S. Y., p. 34.

4 Beal's op. cit., p. 202.

5 S. Jullien's Mém. de H. T., t. 1, p. 104; Loewenthal, Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XXXII, p. 1, Pls. I—II.

6 The above curious fact, if the Kandahar bowl be the veritable bhikshapātra (Conf. Bellew's "Indus to Tigris, " p. 143, and Ind. Ant. Vol. X, p. 153), reminds one of the perhaps still more unexpected circumstance that Buddha Gotama, as Max Müller has shown, is enrolled among the number of Christian saints under the name of Saint Joasaphat, which is a corruption of the word Bodhisat. For the literature of this subject, see "Buddhist Birth Stories," by Fausböll, translated by T. W. Rhys Davids, p. XXXVI, et. seq.

7 This was seen and described by the Emperor Babar about A.D. 1505, Conf. Cunningham, Arch. Surv. Rep., Vol. II, p. 87: Anct. Geo. of India, p. 75; also Babar's Memoirs, p. 157.

Buddha Gotama predicted to his disciples the coming, after his Nirvāṇa, of King Kanishka, who would build a pagoda on the spot; 3rd, this great stupa built by Kanishka, close beside the tree, and that contained many famous relics of Buddha; and 4th, a monastery also built by the same king, and that flourished as a Buddhist seat of learning even to the ninth or tenth century.1

2

* * *

*.

General Cunningham says that the pipal "tree is not noticed by Fa-Hian, but it is mentioned by Sung-Yun as the Pho-thi, or Bodhi tree Beneath it were four seated statues of the four previous Buddhas. Sung-Yun further states that the tree was planted by Kanishka over the spot where he had buried a copper vase containing the pearl tissue lattice of the great stupa, which he was afraid might be abstracted from the tope after his death. This same tree would appear to have been seen by the Emperor Baber in A.D. 1505."

"The stupa of Kanishka, Fa-Hian says, was about 400 feet high, and "adorned with all manner of precious things," and Hwen Thsang describes it as upwards of 400 feet in height and 1 li, or just one quarter of a mile in circumference. It contained a large quantity of the relics of Buddha" * * * *

The monastery became celebrated amongst Buddhists "through the fame of Arya-Párswika, Manorhita and Vasabandhu, three of the great leaders and teachers of Buddhism about the beginning of the Christian era. The towers and pavilions of the monastery were two storeys in height, but the building was already much ruined at the time of Hwen Thsang's visit. It was, however, still inhabited by a small

1 Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. 1849, p. 494.

2 Op. cit., p. 88.

number of monks, who professed the Lesser Vehicle,' or escoteric doctrines of Buddhism."

Pr. 1.-A small male human figure cast in a thin plate of copper, height 5"-40. It is badly proportioned, as the lower limbs are much too short; but the general character of the figure, and the way in which it is treated, suggest Greek influence. It is standing erect, playing a lyre-shaped stringed instrument. There is a high head-dress. The figure is too much oxidized to permit of the details being made out.

It was found in a compound at Peshawar, and was presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Colonel Ruggles, 19th Regiment P. N. I., 5th August 1874.

Dewangiri.

This fortified village is situated in the northern portion of the Kamrup 1 District of Assam, on the range of mountains overlooking the valley of the Brahmaputra. It has long been known as one of the great centres of trade between Assam and Thibet, and it is the site of an annual fair, but it is not known that the place has a history of any very great age." It had a few temples which Pemberton describes as being visible from the plains.

Di. 1.-A slab of pale-greenish talcose slate, measuring 1' 7" x 1' 2", having a seated figure cut on it in feeble relief, and in itself forming also a flat surface in the manner usual

1 Kamarupa is the old name of Assam, which was visited by Hwen Thsang, who states that Buddhism had not penetrated in his time into the vicinity of Kamarupa. Conf. S. Julien's Mém. H. T., t. II, p. 76, and p. 389: Blochmann, Journ, As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XLII, Pt. 1, p. 236.

2 Conf., Dalton, Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XVIII, Pt. 1, p. 66.

3 Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. VIII, Pt. 1, p. 210.

in Chinese and Thibetan sculptures of this kind. The figure has a conical crown, and there is a flat, disc-like nimbus behind the head. The ears are elongated, with a simple ring in the lobe. The face is Mongolian, and the attitude is in the usual overdone tragic kind seen in Chinese theatres, the right arm being thrown up, and holding an object like a club. The lower half of the arms is bare, and the body is clothed in flowing drapery. According to the donor, this relief, or more properly drawing in relief, is one of the Tibetan Bodhisatwas.

Presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Lieutenant Wallace, 5th July 1865.

Di. 2.-Another and somewhat similar slab. The figure is seated with the two hands in front, and in the attitude of teaching. A halo is behind the head on which there is a Tibetan hat, resembling that on the head of the copper-gilt' figure of the Dharma Raja of Bhutan in this Museum. The head is evidently shaved, and the ears are large but entirely without ornaments.

Presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Lieutenant Wallace, 5th July 1876.

Di. 3.-Another slab, but smaller, with a seated figure similar to the first, but with a fierce expression of face, and holding a small mammal in his left hand, the animal being represented in the act of biting a round object, while in the right hand of the figure is an oval symbol.

From the Fort of Dewangiri, Bhutan; presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Brigadier-General H. Tombs, 3rd May 1865.

1 For an account of the system employed in outlining the figures of deities and other religious drawings as practised in Ladak, Zaskar, &c., Conf. H. H. Godwin-Austen, Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XXXIII, p. 151.