he is quite correct, but in the latter part he is undoubtedly wrong, as every rill of water that passes through Usmân is drawn by artificial means from the Haro River. Two miles to the south, towards the ruins of the old city, the irrigation is carried on by cuts from the Lundi Nala, but as the main body of water in this stream is artificially obtained from the Haro, the whole of the irrigation may be truely said to be derived from that river.

In describing the existing ruins of the ancient Taxila, I propose to begin at the south, with the outlying remains near the village of Shahpur, and to proceed northwards until I reach Seri-ki-Pind, the most distant monument in the holy tract of the Babar-Khâna. The site of each object is numbered in the accompanying map, and my description will follow these numbers. It is only necessary to premise that Shahpur is a small village on the south bank of the Tabrâ Nala, 3,000 feet to the east of Bir mound, and 2,000 feet to the south of Hatiâl. From Sir-Kap the road to the Shahpur group of topes lies through a pass, to the east of the citadel, which cuts off the Hatiâl hill from the end of the ridge. The distance from the east gate of Sir-Kap to the Shahpur Topes is rather more than one mile,

No. 1, the largest stupa of ancient Taxila, which equals the great tope of Mânikyalâ in size, is situated on a high mound to the north of the Tabra Nala, and about half a mile to the east of Shahpur. It is generally known as the Chir Thup, or the "Split Tope," from a broad cut having been made right through the building either by General Ventura, or by some previous explorer.* The cut is 20 feet broad at the west end, and 38 feet at the east end with a

depth of 32 feet. This enormous opening has utterly destroyed the appearance of the monument from the east and west sides, where it looks like two massive mounds 17 and 18 feet thick at top, with a gap of 40 feet between them. These numbers give a top diameter of 75 feet; but at 32 feet lower I found the circumference to be 337 feet, which gives a diameter of 107 feet. But as the outer casing of smoothed stones has entirely disappeared, this diameter could not have been less than 115 or 120 feet, and as the point

See Plate LVIII. for a view of this Topę.

of measurement was 20 feet above the level of the courtyard, the actual base diameter may be set down as from 120 to 125 feet, or within 2 feet of that of the great Mânikyâla Tope. The loss of the outer casing has brought to light the interior construction, which was regulated by a series of walls radiating from the centre of the building. These walls are 4 feet thick and 11 feet apart, where visible outside of the broken surface. As the outer wall or casing would have been at least as thick as these radiating walls, we shall obtain the least possible diameter of the building at 20 feet above the ground level, by adding twice the thickness of one wall, or 8 feet to the measured diameter of 1073 feet, which gives a minimum diameter of nearly 116 feet. But as the external wall would have been almost certainly of greater thickness than the radiating walls, we may conclude that the diameter at 20 feet above the ground was at least 120 feet, and that it may have been much as 125 feet. The people have no tradition about the contents of this stupa, from which I conclude that its exploration was effected long before the time of General Ventura. The stupa stood originally in the midst of a large rectangular court, surrounded by cells for monks, of which only the foundations now remain. Inside the court, and to the south-east of the great topę, there was formerly another stupa, No. 2, of small size, which was explored long ago by the villagers. The platform on which the great tope stands is 60 feet in height above the general level of the fields.

Nos. 3 and 4 are the ruins of small topes with attached monasteries, which stand on the high ground to the north of the great stupa, in the direction of the pass leading to Sir-kap. Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8 are the remains of small topes to the south-east of the great stupa, and Nos. 9 to 16 are the ruins of eight small topes to the west of No. 1, which are clustered around the village of Shahpur. All of these fourteen topes were opened some years ago by the villagers, from whom I ascertained that No. 13 yielded an inscribed stone vase, and No. 14 a copper plate inscription, in three or four pieces, which was given to Major Pearse eight years ago, or about A. D. 1855. This copper plate inscription, which is still in the possession of Major Pearse, is a short record of one line in Arian-Pali characters, which has not

yet been made public.* Some of the letters are doubtful, especially at the beginning, but the greater part are very distinct and easily legible. I read the whole as follows:

Samvatsara (dasa) miti 10 tena Sabhayakena thuba
pratistavito Mata pitu puyaë aghara cha puyaë.

"In the year 10 by one named Sabhayaka this Thuba (Tope) was erected in honour of his mother and father and in honour of (?)". The first letter is more like a than s, but the next three letters, and specially the compound letter ts, are so plain as to make my proposed reading a very probable one. The inscribed stone vase I was unable to trace satisfactorily, but I believe it to be the Taxila vase which is now in the Peshawar museum, as it corresponds with the description which I received from the villagers. The inscription on this vase has already been published by Professor Dowson, as well as by myself. I read it from three different fac-similes as follows:

Sihilena Siha-Rachhitena cha bhratarehi Takhasilaë
ayam thuva prathitavito sava Budhana puyaë.

"This Thuva (Tope) was erected in Taxila by the brothers Sinhila and Sinha-Rakshita in honor of all the Buddhas." This inscription fully proves the accuracy of my identification of the vast ruins near Shah-dheri with the famous Taxila of the Greeks, and the equally famous Takkasila of the Buddhists.

Nos. 17, 18, and 19 lie to the south of the Tabrâ Nala, between Shahpur and the Bir mound. The first is a large square mound 35 feet in height, called Kotera-ka-Pind. It is evidently a ruined monastery, as the cells of the monks can still be traced on all four sides. Midway and in front of the west side, there are the ruins of a small square building, which I presume must once have held a statue of Buddha in the usual position facing the east. The walls of the monastery are very massively built of large squared stones, and this apparent solidity, combined with the great height of the place, must, I believe, have originated its modern

* See Plate LIX., fig. 2, for a copy of this inscription.

Royal Asiatic Society's Journal, XX., p. 221., and Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal, 1863, pp. 151 and 172. See plate LIX, fig. 3, for a copy of the inscription.