slope, and within 50 feet of Jarasandha's Tower, a tank 100 feet square has been formed, partly by excavation, and partly by building up. There is a second tank, at a short distance to the north, formed by the excavation of the rock for building materials. Both of these tanks are now dry.

The stupa, called Jarasandha-ka-baithak, is a solid cylindrical brick tower, 28 feet in diameter, and 21 feet in height, resting on a square basement 14 feet high. The cylinder was once surmounted by a solid dome or hemisphere of brick, of which only 6 feet now remain, and this dome must have been crowned with the usual umbrella rising out of a square base. The total height of the building could not, therefore, have been less than 55 feet or thereabouts. The surface has once been thickly plastered, and the style of ornamentation is similar to that of the Great Temple at Buddha Gaya.* I sank a shaft 41 feet in depth from the top of the building right down to the stone foundation; and I continued a gallery, which had been begun many years ago, at the base of the cylinder, until it met the well sunk from above, but nothing whatever was discovered in either of these excavations to show the object of the building.

On the west side of Jarasandha's Tower, and almost touching its basement, I observed a low mound which seemed like the ruin of another stupa. On clearing the top, however, I found a small chamber 5 feet 8 inches square, filled with rubbish. This chamber gradually widened as it was cleared out, until it became 7 feet square. At 5 feet in depth, the rubbish gave place to brick-work, below which was a stratum of stone, evidently the rough foundation of the building. In the south-west corner of the brick-work, about one foot below the surface, I found 84 seals of lac firmly imbedded in the mud mortar. The seals were all oval, but of different sizes, generally about 3 inches long and 2 inches broad. All, however, bore the same impression of a large stupa with four smaller stupas on each side, the whole surrounded by an inscription in mediæval Nâgari characters, Ye Dharmma hetu prabhava, &c., being the well known formula of the Buddhist faith. Externally, this building was square with projections in the centre of each face and similar in its ornamentations to the basement of Jarasandha's Tower.

* See Plate XV. for a sketch of this stupa.

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On the eastern side of the Panchâna River, there is an extensive mound of ruins, being half a mile long from north to south, and 300 yards broad in its widest part. There are the remains of two paved ascents on the river side, and of three more on the opposite side of the mound. In the middle of the mound there is a small mud fort, and at the northern end there are several pieces of sculpture collected together from different places; one of these is inscribed and dated in the year 42 of some unknown era, somewhere about the eleventh century, or perhaps even somewhat later.

At two miles to the south-west of the village of Giryek, and one mile from Jarasandha's Tower, there is a natural cavern in the southern face of the mountain, about 250 feet above the bed of the Bânganga rivulet. This cave, called Gidhadwâr, is generally believed to communicate with Jarasandha's Tower; but an examination with torches proved it to be a natural fissure running upwards in the direction of the tower, but only 98 feet in length. The mouth of the cavern, is 10 feet broad and 17 feet high; but its height diminishes rapidly towards the end. The cave is filled with bats, and the air is oppressively warm and disagreeable, which alone is sufficient to prove that there is no exit to the cavern otherwise there would be a draught of air right through it. Vultures swarm about the precipitous cliffs of pale grey horn stone, and I picked up their feathers in the mouth of the

cave.

The remains at Giryek, which I have just described, appear to me to correspond exactly with the accounts given by Fa-Hian of the "Hill of the Isolated Rock," where Indra questioned Buddha on 42 points, writing each of them singly with his finger upon a stone, and with that given by Hwen Thsang of the hill of Indra-sila-guha, which refers to the same story.* Fa-Hian states that traces of these written questions still existed, and that there was a monastery built upon the spot, but he makes no mention of any stupa. Hwen Thsang states that on the crest of the hill there were marks in two places where the four former Buddhas had sat and walked. On the eastern peak there was a stupa and also a monastery called the "Hansa Sangháráma” or Goose's Monastery," to account for which he relates the

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* Beal's Fa-Hian, c. 28; and Julien's Hwen Thsang, III., 58.

following legend: One day, when taking exercise, a mendicant, who was the steward of the monastery, saw a flock of geese high in the air, and as the monks of his fraternity, although strictly abstemious, had experienced great difficulty in procuring sufficient food, he exclaimed playfully"To-day the pittance of the monks is insufficient. O noble beings (Mahasattwas) you ought to have compassion on our circumstances." No sooner had he spoken these words, than one of the geese fell dead at his feet. The horror-struck mendicant ran to tell the tale to his brethren, who became overwhelmed with grief. "Buddha," said they, "established his law for man's guidance under all circumstances. The Mahayana (Great Vehicle) is the source of truth, while we have foolishly followed the doctrine of the Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle). Let us renounce our former opinions. This goose has taught us a salutary lesson, let us do honour to her eminent virtue by transmitting it to the most distant ages. They accordingly built a stupa over the dead goose, which was interred in the base of the monument, and adorned it with an inscription relating the pious devotion of the goose.

If my identification of the Giryek Hill with the Indrasila-guha of Hwen Thsang is correct, there can be little doubt that Jarasandha's Tower is the very stupa that was built in honour of the devoted goose. Only this one stupa is mentioned by Hwen Thsang, and Jarasandha's Tower is the only one now existing on the hill. In further corroboration of this identification, I may mention that close by I found a broken figure with a large goose carved on the pedestal; and further, that one of the stupas on the lac seals found on the spot, appears to bear a goose on its summit. As no mention is made of any stupa by Fa-Hian, the erection of this tower most probably took place between his date and that of Hwen Thsang, or about A. D. 500.

The position of Giryek corresponds so exactly both in bearing and distance with that of the hill of Indra-silaguha, that I feel quite satisfied of their identity. No etymology has yet been proposed for the name of Giryek; but it seems to me not unlikely that it is nothing more than Girieka, "one hill," that is, the Hill of the Isolated Rock of Fa-Hian.

Both of the pilgrims mention the cave in the southern face of the mountain, which corresponds exactly with the