the purpose of identification. In position it agrees almost exactly with that of the great brick mound of Chaukandi, which I have just described. The distance of this last from the ruined mound on which the village of Barâhipur stands, and which I have already identified with the position of the Deer Park Monastery, is just half a mile, but the direction is south south-west instead of south-west. With regard to size, it is difficult to say what may have been the height of the Chaukandi edifice. My excavations have proved that the centre of the present mound is all solid brick-work; but the subsequent explorations of Major Kittoe have brought to light three immense straight walls about mid-way up the eastern side, and two more on the western side, which have all the appearance of gigantic buttresses. Now, as these walls could not possibly have been required for the stability of the great solid mass below, it seems not unreasonable to conclude that they must in some way have been connected with the support of the upper portion of the building, which no longer exists. Hwen Thsang's account is somewhat vague, but I believe his intention was to describe a dome or cupola narrowed at the base, like the neck of a religious vase reversed. He distinctly states that it was not a bell-shaped cupola, that is, the dome did not spread outwards in the form familiar to us in the great Dhagopas of Rangoon and Pegu. An excellent illustration of the reversed vase form may be seen in a rock-cut temple at Ajanta, given by Fergusson.*

I will conclude this notice of the remains at Sârnâth Banaras with a short account of the excavations which have been made at different times during the last seventy years in the vicinity of the great tower of Dhamek.

The earliest excavations of which we possess any record were those made by Bâbâ Jagat Singh in 1793-94, for the purpose of obtaining materials, both stones and bricks, for the erection of a market-place, in the city, which was named after himself, Jagatganj. I have already noticed his discovery, in January 1794, of the two stone boxes containing a few bones, with some decayed pearls and slips of gold. A brief account of this discovery was published by Jonathan

*Hand-book of Architecture, I., p. 20.

Duncan,* and a more detailed notice by Wilford in a later volume of the same work. I can add little to their accounts, except that the original green stone vase, which Jonathan Duncan presented to the Asiatic Society in 1794, had disappeared before 1834, when I wrote to James Prinsep about it. I may mention also, on the authority of the work-people, that the dilapidated state of the lower part of the Dhamek Tower is due entirely to the meanness of Jagat Singh, who, to save a few rupees in the purchase of new stones, deliberately destroyed the beautiful facing of this ancient tower. As each stone was slowly detached from the monument by cutting out all the iron cramps by which it was secured to its neighbours, the actual saving to the Bâbû could have been but little; but the defacement to the tower was very great, and, as the stones were removed at once, the damage done to the tower is quite irreparable.

It

Jagat Singh's discovery would appear to have stimulated the curiosity of the British officers, for Miss Emma Roberts, writing in 1834, relates that "some 40 or 50 years ago" (that is, about 1791) "the ruins near Sârnâth attracted the attention of several scientific gentlemen, and they commenced an active research by digging in many places around. Their labours were rewarded by the discovery of several excavations filled with an immense number of flat tiles, having representations of Buddha modelled upon them in wax. is said that there were actually cart loads of these images found in the excavations before mentioned. Many were deposited in the Museums and collections of private individuals; but whether they were ever made the subject of a descriptive account seems doubtful, there being at least no public document of the kind." I can add nothing to Miss Roberts' account, as all my enquiries have failed to discover any of the wax seals of Buddha above mentioned. I may note, however, that in the temples of Ladâk I have seen small chambers quite full of similar little figures of deceased Lâmas. In Burmah also I have seen small figures of Buddha in burnt clay accumulated in heaps equal to cart loads, both in the caves and in the temples. The figured seals discovered near Sârnâth would appear to have been of a similar kind to those which I extracted from the ruined building close to

* Asiatic Researches, V., p. 131.

+ Views in India, &c., II., p. 8.

Jarasandha's Tower at Giryek, and also to those which I have described as having been found in the ruins at Bakror, opposite to Buddha Gaya.

The next excavations, as far as I am aware, were those undertaken by myself in 1835-36. These excavations, as well as the drawings of the elaborate ornament of the great tower, were made entirely at my own expense, the cost during 18 months having been Rs. 1,200. I made several desultory excavations wherever I saw traces of walls, but they all proved to belong to temporary habitations of a late period. At last, after a heavy fall of rain, I observed a piece of terraced floor which I ordered to be cleared for the purpose of pitching my tent upon it. After a few hours' labour, however, the flooring terminated on what appeared to be the edge of a small tank, which was only 13 feet 9 inches square. Continuing the work, I found the bases of pillars in pairs surrounding the square. Amongst the rubbish inside the square, I found an elaborately sculptured basrelief, in grey standstone, representing the Nirvana of Buddha. The stone had been broken into four pieces, of which one was missing, but the remaining three pieces are now in the Calcutta Museum. This sculpture, I consider, particularly interesting, as the subject is treated in a novel and striking manner. In the ordinary representations of the death-bed scene, the spectators are confined to a few attendants, who hold umbrellas over the body or reverentially touch the feet. But in the present sculpture, besides the usual attendants, there are the Navagraha or "Nine Planets" in one line, and in a lower line, the Ashta Sakte or eight female energies," a series of goddesses apparently belonging to one of the later forms of Buddhism. This sculpture is well worthy of being photographed.

Further excavation showed that the small pillared tank, or court-yard, was the centre of a large building, 68 feet square, of which the outer walls were 4 feet thick. My exploration was not completed to the eastward, as the walls of the building in that direction had been entirely removed by some previous excavation, with the exception of detached portions of the foundation, sufficient to show that it corresponded exactly with the western half of the building. The central square was apparently surrounded by an open verandah, which gave access to ranges of five small rooms or cells