of India, as we learn from the edicts of Asoka that have been found on rocks to the north of Peshawar, at Supārā near Bombay, and at Dhauli in Orissa, in some of which he laid claim to dominion over Southern India and Ceylon. In earlier times, however, its territories were not so extended, but almost corresponded in their extent to the present Province of Bihar1. Its capital, during the time of Buddha Gotama, and his royal patron Bimbisāra, was Rajāgriha, about 16 miles to the south of the city of Bihar, but, in the time of Asoka, the seat of Government was changed to Patna, the Palibothra of the Greeks, and which had been founded about 500 years before Christ by Raja Ajātasatru, a contemporary of Gotama. Bihar seems to have been its capital during the first century of the Christian era, and, in the Muhammadan period, it was also the capital and gave its name to the province.

This important Hindu State flourished from the sixth century before Christ down to the fifth century of the Christian era.

After the death of Alexander the Great, Seleukos Nikator invaded Magadha and appointed Megasthenes as bis representative in the city of Patna. But the Greeks, not many years afterwards, were driven from the Punjab by the grandfather of Asoka, Chandragupta, 303 B.C., the Sandracottus of their historians,

Magadha, however, apart from its glories as an ancient and leading Indian kingdom, whose kings had encouraged arts and commerce, and whose ships had carried its trade even to Java and the neighbouring island of Bali, will ever be memorable as the country which gave birth to Buddha Gotama, one of the most noble figures that has ever appeared among men as a Teacher of Righteousness.

1 This word is derived from Wihāra, a Buddhist monastery.

2 Derived from patana, literally the "town."

3 Buddhism seems to have been introduced into Java by missionaries from Kalinga who visited the island in the sixth or seventh centuries.

The most famous of its spots and also, in the estimation of 450,000,0001 of our race, the most sacred place on earth is Baddha Gaya, where Buddha Gotama attained Buddhahood under the bodhi-drum, or Tree of Wisdom, after six years of severe but useless penance, in the forest of Uruwela, on one of the northern spurs of the Vindhyān range of mountains.

The Chinese pilgrims, Fah Hian 2 and Hwen Thsang,3 visited many of the more important Buddhist places in Magadha, but, even in their times, they were generally a heap of crumb. ling ruins.

The numerous sculptures grouped under Bihar, but the exact histories and localities of which have been lost, have only been placed there tentatively, because they present all the characters of the Buddha Gaya series of antiquities.

Buddha Gaya.

B. G. 1.-2.-Two impressions of human feet, right and left, each measuring 2' 2" long, excavated at Buddha Gayā, in 1877, by some Burmese officers who had been deputed by the late King of Burma to repair the ancient temple. These specimens have been figured and described by Dr. Mitra, along with two other footprints dug up at the same time. Each of the stones on which they are carved was probably originally the domical portion of a large chaitya that had been cut down for the purpose, as the part corresponding to its upper surface has a square mortise for the reception of the tenon of a kalasa and, moreover, there are on the sides, the remains of the ornaments over the recesses that contained the figures of Buddha.

'Max Müller, in " Chips from a German Workshop," Vol. I, p. 214. 2 Beal's Fah Hian, pp. 103 to 134.

S. Julien's Vie de H T., pp. 136 to 171; Mém. de H. T. t. 1, pp. 409 to 493.

Buddha Gaya, 1878, p. 124, Pl. xu, figs. 3 and 6.

The human figures roughly outlined on these two footprints have all the characters of Burmese art, and as some of the symbols occur on a large footprint in this Museum carved in marble, and taken from Rangoon, it is probable that these Buddha Gaya footprints were executed by Burmese sculptors. The curious scroll-like mass at the heel of B. G. 2, and on which a peacock stands, is a symbol that occurs, no less than seven times, on the marble footprint, and, in all likelihood, it is intended to represent mountains or rocks. The zayat-like structure, on the same footprint from Buddha Gaya, is also essentially Burmese, and the object, which has been described by Dr. Mitra as a staff, mounted on a pitcher, recalls an inscribed slab of stone from Tenasserim, in this Museum,' on which a ragoda is represented, terminating in a long staff, with umbrellas at intervals, flags being substituted for umbrellas in the Buddha Gaya representation.

The sculptures from Buddha Gaya enumerated in this catalogue, as presented by the Government of Bengal, were collected by Dr. Mitra, and some of them have been described and figured by him in his work entitled Buddha Gayā.'

These and the following two sculptures were presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by the Government of Bengal, 27th March, 1879.

B. G. 3.—A chaitya 18" high, and 14"-50 broad opposite to the recesses. The tee is broken off. There are four recesses, somewhat projecting, and each has an Indo-Persian pilaster on either side of its arched entrance. Over each arch, there is a triangular ornament covered with scroll-work intersecting three bold transverse mouldings or distinct roofs that diminish in size, from below upwards, the top being crowned by a ribbed domical ornament or amlasīla, and a pinnacle. Between Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XXIII, p. 586.

2 Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. IV, Pl. 111.

the recesses, there is a deep rounded moulding running parallel with an angular moulding and two lotus borders. In each recess, there is a seated figure of a Dhyani Buddha, one holding an alms-bowl, while two are in the attitude of teaching, and one in meditation.

Of the chaityas in this Museum, the majority appear to have been dedicated to the different mulras, so to speak, of Buddha Gotama, while a few have Bodhisatwas or Şaktīs introduced with these mudras, to the exclusion of some of them, whilst others appear to bave been wholly set apart as votive offerings to Padmapāņi, or Avalokiteṣvara 1 and their female counterparts.

In chaityas, each Dhyani Buddha has his own side of the structure, thus-Akshobhya, the second Buddha, occupies the eastern niche; Ratna-sambhava, the third Buddha, the southern; Amitabha the western; and Amogasiddha the northern. Vairochana, the first Dhyani Buddha, is supposed to occupy the centre invisibly, but he is sometimes placed on the right hand of Akshobhya.2

B. G. 4.—A fragment of a sandstone tee, consisting of four umbrellas, each separated from its fellow by four pagodalike structures placed at intervals.

B. G. 5.—A small chaitya with a short inscription and with part of the tee broken off, but measuring 11'' high by 5′′ broad at the base. The shaft of this chaitya is, relatively, much more elongated than in the previous specimen, and, halfway up, it has a broad plain moulding.

This and the following chaitya were probably collected by Captain Kittoe and presented by him to the Asiatic Society of Bengal on the 5th May 1847.

B. G. 6.—A chaitya resembling B. G. 3, but without the 1 Cowell, Ind. Ant., Vol. VIII, p. 249.

2 Hodgson's Illustrations, 1841, p. 117.

3 Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XVI, Pt. 1, p 602.

lotus ornament and the triple roof over the recesses. The latter contain erect figures, one of Padmapāņi, two of Buddhas, and one of some form of Tārā. Between each pair of recesses there is a smaller arched recess, too shallow to hold a figure.

B. G. 7.-A small imperfect chaitya measuring 7" in height by 5" 50 in diameter at the base.

This and the following sculpture were presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by the Government of Bengal, 27th March 1879.

B. G. 8.-A small chaitya 8" 75 high.

B. G. 9.-A tee consisting of nine umbrellas, height 6" 50. Probably one of Kittoe's specimens already mentioned.

B. G. 10.—A chaitya like B. G. 3, but with the expanded pedestal of the tee entire. Height 23′′; diameter 14′′-50. Presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by the Government of Bengal, 27th March 1879.

B. G. 11.—A small chaitya 6" 25 high. No history.
B. G. 12.-A small chaitya 5"-50 high.

Presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by the Government of Bengal, 27th March 879.

B. G. 13.—The basal portion of the domical part of a chaitya 15" 50 high, and about 14" 50 in diameter. It has no recesses, nor any ornament, except the five rows of small seated Buddhas, and one of the nirvana, which encircle it. No history.

B. G. 14.-A similar portion to the last, but with the domical part intact.

Presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by the Government of Bengal, 27th March 1879, along with the following eight sculptures.

B. G. 15.—A tee consisting of ten umbrellas and measuring 9" 25 in height.