bell. 17. A miniature copper 18. A fragment of a crucible. 19. Lumps of clay of the same composition as the crucible. 20. Fragments of enamelled earthenware; black and variegated patterns. 21. A miniature teapot, broken;-vessel about an inch and a quarter, with a spout. 22. Miniature terra cotta chaityas, containing within the seals of the Buddhist creed, some having seals stamped on the bottom. 23. Ditto having the figure of nine chaityas stamped on its sides and of seals at the base. 24. Several of the above seals detached. 25. Balls of earth pear-shaped and perforated. 26. Cylinders of do.; both probably intended for nets, to make them sink fast. 27. A number of pebbles. 28. Fragments of red ocherous rock. 29. A number of terra cotta lamps, circular, flat-bottomed, the spout not very projecting. 30. Handles of terra cotta frying-pans. 31. Fragments of handles, spouts and covers of earthenware vessels much stronger than ordinary. 32. Ditto of terra cotta basso-relievo figures, red-glazed. 33. Head of Vishnu in baked clay, seasoned with paddy and glazed in red, with the seven-headed cobra over head (the only Hindu relic met with). 34. Well formed heads of surki cement plastered with stucco, one with a particularly beautiful profile. 36. Fragment of a tile with basso-relievo figures of palms. 37. A bit of crystal. 38. A round hollow piece of iron covered with copper gilt and stamped with the figure of a chaitya on each side. 39. Fragments of encaustic tiles. 40. Fragments of white stucco coloured red in fresco from the floor under the great copper statue. 41. Fragments of cylinders, red-glazed. 42. Fragments of terra cotta ornaments. 44. Lamps of stone, similar in shape to No. 29. The articles named above leave no doubt as to the nature of the building in which they have been found. The quadrangle was evidently a large Buddhist monastery or Vihára, such as at one time existed at Sárnath, Sánchi, Buddhagayá, Manikyálá and other places of note, and at its four corners had four chapels for the use of the resident monks. Two of these which abutted on the mart have already disappeared, and of the other two, that on the south-west has yielded the relics noted above, and the last remains under the railway bungalow, a most promising field for the antiquary who could devote a week or two to its exploration. Of the history of this Vihára nothing is now traceable. From its extent and the style of its construction, it is evident that at one time it was a place of great repute, and the resort of innumerable pilgrims. But its glory set a long while ago, and even the name of the place where it stood is now lost in obscurity. The present appellation (Sultánganj) is quite modern, not more than two or three centuries old, and is due to a prince of the house of Akbar. Fa Hian makes no mention of it, and Heuen-Thsang talks of the ruins of several large monasteries in the neighbourhood of Bhagulpore, but gives us no clue to the one under notice. It is to be presumed therefore that it had been ruined and forsaken, or at least had fallen into decay, before the advent of the latter Chinese traveller. The inscriptions on the minor figures, in the Gupta character of the 3rd and 4th century, shew that the Vihara with its chief lares and penates had been established a considerable period before that time, probably at the beginning of the Christian era or even earlier, for Champa (modern Bhagulpore,) was a place of great antiquity and the Buddhist took possession of it very early as the capital of Eastern India, and established many Viháras and chaityas in and about it. Though most of these have been destroyed by the ravages of time and the ruthless hands of adverse sectarians, there still stand in its vicinity two round towers, each about seventy feet high, the names of whose founders and the object for which they had been built have long since been forgotten, but which from their close resemblance to the pyrethra so common in Affghanistan and elsewhere, are evidently Buddhist monuments of yore. Though the principal residents of Buddhist monasteries were priests who were sworn to celibacy and poverty, who shaved their heads, wore the simplest garments, and earned their subsistence by alms, still the Viháras of old were not without the possession of considerable wealth, and the proximity of a mud fort was always deemed a desirable source of security. Hence it is that large mounds, the remains of former mud forts, are generally met with in the neighbourhood of extensive monasteries. At Sárnáth a fort stood within five hundred yards of the Vihára, at Buddhagayá one was situated within a stone's throw of the great temple, and at Kusia and elsewhere the like may be seen within very short distances. It was to be expected therefore that at Sultánganj there should be a fort within hail of the monastery, and according ly we find one to the west of it at a distance of about three quarters of a mile-a square mound of about 400 yards on each side raised to the height of about 20 feet from the plain, and now the site of an indigo factory. To the south of it there is a large tank which yielded the earth of which the mound was formed. Another peculiarity in which the Vihára at Sultánganj bears a close resemblance to Buddhist monasteries in other parts of India, is the great abundance of the little fictile bell-shaped structures called chaityas. They occur either in alto-relievos as No. 22, or in bass-reliefs stamped on small tiles, as No. 23. The former generally have the Buddhist creed enclosed within or stamped at bottom, and the latter the same stamped below the figure of the Chaitya. The type seems to have been conventional and common all over India. Mr. E. Thomas found the exact counterparts of these at Sárnáth, General Cunningham noticed them at Bhilsa, and I have seen some brought from the ruins of Brahmanabad in Guzerat and now in the possession of Lady Frere. A short time ago Colonel Phayre sent a few tiles to the Asiatic Society from Burmah which, though shaped differently, and intended to hold the figure of Buddha in the centre, have the chaityas and the inscriptions so exactly alike that they may easily pass for relics from Sárnáth or Sultánganj. The inscriptions on all these are in the Kutila type which had a long range of four centuries from the 8th to the 11th; the monuments on which they are found, must have therefore existed at least down to the 7th, 8th or even the 9th or 10th century. The Kuțila characters, however, could not have been current in some of the countries where they are met with, such as Burmah and Guzerat, and must have therefore been adopted as mystic or sacred symbols in these places. It is remarkable at the same time that while the characters remained intact the "creed" failed to withstand the change of climate, and underwent several alterations of reading. These structures are models or miniature representations of sepulchral monuments, and they owe their origin to an injunction in the Bhuddhist scriptures which recommends the dedication of such monuments as an act of great religious merit. Hence they have engaged the earnest attention of the followers of Gautama from an early age, and many are the ruins in India which now attest the lavish expenditure which some of its former kings and princes incurred in raising them in a manner worthy of their ambition. They They were originally hemispherical in shape and of stupendous size, rising directly from the surface of the earth like a bubble on water, and typical of the evanescent character of all worldly objects. are represented by the topes of Sánchi and Sátdhará, which, according to General Cunningham, date as early as the 6th century before Christ, but which certainly must have existed since the fifth. Two hundred years subsequently, about the time of the third synod, the hemispheres were raised on cylindrical plinths of small height as in the chaityas around Bhilsa. Gradually the plinths were raised higher and higher, until, in the beginning of the Christian era, their altitude became equal to the diameter of the hemisphere, as at Sárnáth near Benares and in the topes of Affghanistan; and ultimately they merged into tall round towers surmounted by a dome, or bell-shaped structures with elongated pinnacles, such as the Dehgopas of Burmah or the bass-reliefs on the clay figure under notice. These were costly edifices and could be constructed only by the wealthy. But as the merit of dedicating them was not dependent upon their size, men of moderate means satisfied their religicus craving by the consecration of small stone models which the clergy assured them would secure to them as much merit as the lordly structures would to their princely donors. They added that vows to dedicate such tokens were most effectual in averting an impending evil or securing an expected good. Thus a great impulse was given to this act of devotion, and the number of offerings was greatly multiplied. The poor supplied the place of stone models by little terra-cotta figures of small value, the offering of which was very much encouraged by the priesthood, as their consecra* Vide Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, p. 169. tion afforded the latter a small but constant source of income.* A similar cause in the present day promotes the offering of fictile models of horses to Satyapir and other local saints, and hundreds of them may be seen about every consecrated Banian tree in Bengal. The Buddhist figures were made after various designs and in different ways, but generally they were either cast in moulds or stamped on plastic clay. The basso-relievo tiles appear to be the most common. They contain figures of 1 to 20 or 30 chaityas impressed on them, and sometimes have also a figure of Buddha in the centre. In India they have preserved their independent character as objects of votive offering, but in Burmah they have been largely used in the ornamentation of temples and monasteries. That most if not all of them were, however, at one time votive offerings, is evident from the fact of many of them containing inscriptions recording the name of the donors. On the back of one of Colonel Phayre's tiles (No. 1) which was taken from the "upper layer of the arch of the relic chamber" of a temple at Pugán in Burmah, and which has the figures of 30 Buddhas and two chaityas impressed on it, there is a corrupt Mágadhi inscription in rude Burmese characters, which states that the tile was dedicated by one for the good of his parents and of all Buddhas past and to come. The words of the inscription as read by Burmese scholars have already been published, (ante p. 57) but as no attempt has yet been made to translate them and the reading appears to me to be incorrect, I here supply a different version together with a tentative translation. The reading I propose is : Atawisati mé buddha Chariya putta ra a cha Sabba satta hitá picha Buddhá hitáti nágateti. Translation-To the 28 Buddhas together with the 29th and the 30th, for the good here and hereafter of all, of my father and mother, of my tutor and his son, of all living beings, as also for the good of all Buddhas past and to come. * Vide Col. Sykes' Note on the Miniature Chaityas, &c. in the Journal Rl. As. Soc. Vol. XVI. p. 37. |