The capital is 3 feet 2 inches in height, bell-shaped, and reeded like the capitals of the Asoka Pillars. A large portion of the capital is broken of on the western side, thus exposing a deep narrow socket, which could only have held a metal spike. The upper portion of the shaft also is split to a depth of about 2 feet. The people say that the pillar was struck by lightning many years ago. It certainly was in the same state when I first saw it in January 1836, and I know of only one reason to make me doubt the accuracy of the people's statements, namely, that both the iron pillar at Delhi, and the stone pillar at Navandgarh Lauriya, have been wantonly injured by cannon shot. If the capital of the Bhitari Pillar had been surmounted by a statue of any kind, as it most propably was when the Muhammadans first settled there, I think that the breaking of the capital may be attributed to their destructive bigotry with quite as much probability as to lightning. I found a portion of the broken capital in my excavation at the foot of the pillar.

I

The inscription, which is cut on the eastern side of the base, consists of 19 lines of well shaped characters of the early Gupta period. Unfortunately, this face is much weather-worn, and the stone has also peeled off in several places, so that the inscription is now in even a worse condition than when I first saw it in January 1836. The copy which I then made by eye I compared letter by letter with the original inscription on the spot, and, although I found several errors in different parts of the inscription, yet the only serious one is an omission of five letters in the 15th line. made also an impression of the inscription over which I pencilled all the letters as they appeared to the eye. This is, indeed, the only successful method of copying a weather-worn inscription; for the edges of the letters being very much rounded, an impression gives only a number of confused and shapeless spots, although many of the letters being deeply cut are distinctly legible, and may easily be copied by the eye. The value of an impression thus pencilled over is very great, as it ensures accuracy in the number of letters, and thus most effectually prevents all errors, both of insertion and omission. The copy which I have thus made is, I believe, as perfect as it is possible to obtain now, considering the weather-worn state of the letters.*

From the copy which I prepared in January 1836, a translation was made by Dr. Mill, which was published in Prinsep's Journal for January 1837. My re-examination of the inscription has corrected some of Dr. Mill's proposed readings, while it has confirmed many of them, a few being still doubtful owing to the abraded state of the letters. As translated by Dr. Mill, the inscription refers chiefly to the reign of Skanda Gupta, closing with his death, and the accession of his infant son. The object of the inscription was to record the erection of a sacred image, the name of which Dr. Mill was unable to read, but which may possibly be recovered when my new copy is re-translated by some competent scholar. In my remarks on the lower inscription on the Bihar Pillar, I have already noticed that all the remaining part of the upper portion of it, which contains the genealogy, is letter for letter identical with the first part of Bhitari record, and I repeat the notice here for the purpose of adding that, by a comparison of the two inscriptions, every letter of the upper part of both, or about one-third of the whole, may be restored without chance of error.*

The sculptures now to be seen at Bhitari are very few, but they are sufficient to show the former existence of several large stone temples. In the village there is a colossal figure of Ganesa, and a broken bas-relief of the Navagraha, or "Nine Planets." The colossal statue must almost certainly have been the principal figure enshrined in a temple dedicated to Ganesa. There is also a large slab with a half-size two-armed female figure, attended by another female figure holding an umbrella over her, both in very high relief. The figures in this sculpture are in the same style and in the same attitudes as those of the similar group of the Raja and his umbrella attendant on the gold coins of the Gupta Princes. This sculpture, I believe, represents a queen on her way to worship at the temple. The group is a favorite, one with Hindu artists, and, as far as my observation goes, it is never used singly, but always in pairs-one on each side of the door-way of a temple. The age of this sculpture I am inclined to fix as early as the time of the Gupta Kings, partly on account of the similarity of style to that of their gold coins, partly also because the pillar belongs to one of

The two inscriptions may now be compared in Plates XVII. and XXX.-See my previous remarks in note in page 38.

that family, but chiefly because the bricks found in various parts of the ruins are stamped with the name of Sri Kumára Gupta.

If I am right in attributing the sculptures to the time of the Gupta Dynasty, or from A. D. 100 to 300, then the Bhitari ruins will be amongst the oldest Brahmanical remains now known to us. For this reason alone I would strongly advocate the excavation of all the isolated mounds, and more particularly of the pillar mound, in which we might expect to find not only all the fragments of the original capital, but also many sculptures and other objects belonging to the temple in front of which the pillar was erected. I have already stated that the bridge over the Gângi River is built entirely of stones taken from the ancient buildings of Bhitari. Many of these stones are squared, and ornamented with flowers and various mouldings, and on one of them I observed the syllable vi. This is a mere mason's mark, but as the shape of the letter is the same as that of the Gupta alphabet, the discovery of this single character tends strongly to confirm the accuracy of the date which I have already assigned to the Bhitari ruins on other grounds. As Bhitari is in the Jaghir of the enlightened Raja Deo Nârâyan Singh, every facility for excavation would, of course, be obtained on application to him.

At my recommendation the Government afterwards authorized a small sum for excavations, and, at my request, my friend Mr. C. Horne, of the Civil Service, then Judge of Banâras, kindly undertook to superintend the work. His report, which follows, gives a tolerably full and interesting account of this ancient place:

"Bhitari is a small bazaar and village situated on the Gângi Nadi, about 4 miles north-east by north of Syedpur, on the high road from Banaras to Ghazipur. It is called Syedpur Bhitari, and Raja Deo Narain Singh derives his title from it. On approaching from the south-west by a good fair weather road, it presents the appearance of a very large ruined earthen fort. In general form it is nearly a rectangle, and the only deviation from that form is caused by an eminence or spur running from the south-west corner, and which has evidently been always crowned by some

#

East face 500 yards, South 525 yards, West 685 yards, North 700 yards.

imposing edifice. The nature of the ground has been skilfully brought to bear; and it would seem that the west face was merely scarped towards the river, having been originally very high (perhaps thirty feet), whilst to the east a large space has been lowered a few feet to provide earth to raise an embankment, in digging through which no traces of masonry can be found. On the south face the line is by no means straight, the nature of the ground having been followed, and the high bank of a tank already formed having been merely added to the north face is more regular.

"Each of these sides had large mounds, upon which were either temples or forts. There is one of these at each corner, and one-half way on each side, whilst the spur before alluded to, which forms the south-west corner, has certainly been long ago crowned with a large Buddhist temple, now re-placed with a shabby Idgah. Within this enclosure were evidently many large buildings, and their former presence is attested by the kheras or mounds of broken brick and earth scattered in every direction. At present there is a small winding bazar of insignificant shops, all, however, built of old bricks. There is also a large suburb, if it may be so termed, of ruinous brick houses with but few inhabitants. The surrounding mounds and embankments are dotted over with Muhammadan tombs, mostly of very recent erection, and many of which are built with the large nearly-square Buddhist bricks.

"But to proceed to the object of this notice, viz., the Buddhist remains at Bhitari-1st, there is a large monolith standing, as nearly as possible, in the centre of the place. This is 28 feet in height, and stands upon a rough stone 7 or 8 feet below the present level of the soil. For the first 10 feet 2 inches it is square, and stands, as nearly as possible, facing the cardinal points. At the top of the square part is an inscription which is stated by General Cunningham to contain a record of Skanda Gupta; this faces east. The upper part, including the capital which takes up about three feet, is circular, and where it joins the square part is 2 feet 3 inches in diameter, and apparently of even thickness in its whole length. The capital is handsomely fluted, and has a slice broken off it. There is also a flaw near the top in the pillar itself, which is one solid piece of sand-stone, resembling that found at Chunar, being of the hard kind.

"The monolith is out of the perpendicular, and this deviation, as well as the cracked capital, is said to have been occasioned by lightning long ago.

"I laid bare the east face of the foundation as the column slopes to the north, and found that the base was displaced three inches off the foundation-stone on the south side, and that there were two iron wedges driven under it, and that at some remote period stone-work of a massive character had been placed around to prevent further declension. I then cleared the mound away which abutted on the column, hoping to find some traces of foundations at least of the building to which the monolith might have formed an adjunct. This mound, from 12 to 16 feet in height, and extended some distance, and, as far as I could ascertain by cutting a trench and levelling, consists entirely of broken bricks and earth.

"I will now refer to the old Buddhist temple, which must formerly have stood on the high spur to the south-west. Owing to the presence of the Idgah, the number of tombs, and my limited time, I made no excavations on this spot; but I was easily enabled to trace the various parts of the temple scattered over the place and performing various functions. Firstly, there were the pillars of the shrine, with their carved suns, and grotesque faces with foliage flowing from their mouths and eyes, and the constantly recurring flat vase, all used by the Muhammadans in their mosque. Then there were the plainer columns of the cloister, square below, and octagonal above. These latter I found rounded off and set up as Muhammadan head-stones to graves, the light being burnt on the top of them! Until I discovered two of these in situ, or at the graves, the Musalmans assured me they were Hindu conversions of the Buddhist pillars into emblems employed in the worship of Mahâdeo. Secondly, there were the stone beams used also in the mosque, both as beams, and as uprights at the wells and in houses. And, lastly, there were the roofing stones used as pavement and for putting over graves.

"In compliance with the extract of General Cunningham's report, several cross cuttings were made: The one through the surrounding mounds to see what kind of wall had been erected, if any, the result of this has been before alluded to;

Another cutting was made through an isolated mound of