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Department of Archaeology & Historical Research
Jaipur State

ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAINS
AND

EXCAVATIONS AT BAIRAT
BY

RAI BAHADUR DAYA RAM SAHNI

C.I.E., M. A.

Director of Archaeology and Historical Research

JAIPUR STATE
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CONTENTS.
Pagre.
L is t of J^la tes .. .. .. .. .. .. v

I ntr od uction .. .. .. .. .. i
Sambhar .. .. .. .. .. .. 2
i Nagar .. .. .. .. .. 3
Dausa .. .. .. .. .. .. 4
Chatsu .. .. .. " .. .. g
Newai .. .. .. .. .. .. 8
Ramgadh .. .. .. .. .. .. 8
Amber .. .. ... ,, .. g
Moroli .. .. .. .. .. io
B airat .. .. ,. _ 12
Bairat Valley .. .. .. .. .. 12
Mahadevaji Id Dungii .. .. .. .. .. 12
Bhimji-kl-Duhgri .. .. .. .. .. 12
Brick temple .. .. .. . .. .. 13
Cremation Ground .. .. ' .. .. .. 13
‘ Mgah •■ .. .. .. .. .! 14
Mughal Gateway, etc. .. .. .. .. .. 15
Jaina Garden .. ., .. .. .. 15
Mosque .. .. .. .. .. 15
Jaina temple and inscription .. .. .. .. 16
Excavations at Bijak-ki-Dungri or Pahari .. .. .. 17
Chert flake .. .. .. .. .. .. 17
Shrine of Hanumanji .. .. .. .. 17
Bairat-Calcutta Edict .. .. .. .. .. 18
E xcavations .. .. .. .. .. .. 19
Monastery .. .. .. .. .. .. 20
Silver coins .. .. .. .. .. . . 21
Cotton cloth .. .. .. .. .. 22
Remains of Asoka Pillars .. .. .. \ . 26
Circular Temple .. .. .. .. . . 28
Brick Platform .. .. .. .. . . 32
Coins .. .. .. .. .. .. 32
Pottery .. .. .. .. .. .. 36
Bricks .. .. .. .. .. . . 37
C onclusions .. .. .. .. .. . . 39

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LIST OF PLATES.
#
Plate I. (a) Brick temple on the east edge of Bhunji-ki-Dungri.
(h) Portico of Jaina temple in the town of Bairat.
Plate II. Stone bearing Bairat-Calcutta edict of Asoka.
Plate III. (a) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Cells on east side of monastery on upper platform.
(6) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Remains of cells on north side of monastery on
upper platform.
Plate IV. (a) Piece of cotton cloth in which the punch-marked coins were wrapped.
(b) 1-8 Punch-marked coins of silver. 9 etc.—Greek and Indo-Greek
silver coins. 870—a copper coin.
Plate V. (a) a to d—Terracotta figurines of yakshis or dancing girls ; e, o and q—
inscribed bricks ; / —potsherd with lotus rosette ; g—terracotta
beads ; li, j, k and p —decorated potsherds ; i—pottery finial ;
l and m—miniature terracotta pilasters ; n—pierced pottery cone
to hold incense sticks.
Plate VI. (a) Bijak-kJ-Paharl. Stack of chippings from cores of Asoka pillars.
(b) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Fragment broken from junction of polished and
unpolished surfaces of Asoka pillar.
(c) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Fragment from summit of Asoka pillar, showing
tapering hole for reception of copper bolt.
(d) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Fragments of Asokan umbrella.
Plate VII. (a) Bijak-ki-Pahari, Lower Platform. Circular temple, general view
from top of staircase to upper platform.
(b) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Circular temple. From east showing positions
and remains of doorways and small bits of stupa within.
Plate VIII. Bijak-ki-Pahari. Plan and section of Circular temple.
Plate IX. a—Bijak-ki-Pahari. Part of Asokan stone bowl, inner view, b—-
ditto, outer view : c—Part of Asokan grindstone ; d—Fragment
from ankle of Asokan figure of lion ; e—Chert flake ; / —Core of
chert; g—Ivory object; A—Reel of metallic ribbon ; i—Piece
of soap-stone casket; j —Piece of pottery bangle ; k—Chert
flake ; l—Amulet of slate stone ; m—Chert flake ; n—Piece
of conch bangle.

Plate X. a—Ear cleaner of copper ; b—Copper needle ; c-d—Iron fish-plates

with nails ; e and m—Thick iron nails ; / and n—Patches of
mud plaster with impressions of flutings ; g~h—Strips of sheet
copper which had been used for ornamentation or repair of
pottery vessels ; i to 1—Iron cramps ; o—Iron screw rod of cotton
press ; p —Arrow head of iron.
Plate XI. a-c—Tops of water jars ; d—Suspension lamp ; e-/—Copper strips
rivetted to pieces of pottery bowls ; g—Pottery sp o u t; h__Part of
pottery incense burner ; i—Pottery dish ; j —Piece of potterv
offertory tank ; k to t—Pottery vessels.
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LIST OF PLATES.
*
Plato I. (a) Brick temple on the east edge of Bhimji-kl-Dungrl.
(6) Portico of Jaina temple in the town of Bairat.
Plate II. Stone bearing Bairat-Calcutta edict of Asoka.
Plate III. (a) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Cells on east side of monastery on upper platform.
(6) Bljak-ki-Paharl. Remains of cells on north side of monastery on
upper platform.
Plate IV. (a) Piece of cotton cloth in which the punch-marked coins were wrapped.
(b) 1—S Punch-marked coins of silver. 9 etc.—-Greek and Indo-Greek
silver coins. 870—a copper coin.
Plate V. (a) a to d—Terracotta figurines of yakshis or dancing girls ; e, o and q—
inscribed bricks ; / —potsherd with lotus rosette ; g—terracotta
v beads ; h, j, k and p —decorated potsherds ; i—pottery finial;
l and m—-miniature terracotta pilasters ; n—pierced pottery cone
to hold incense sticks.
Plate VI. (a) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Stack of chippings from cores of Asoka pillars.
(b) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Fragment broken from junction of polished and
unpolished surfaces of Asoka pillar.
(c) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Fragment from summit of Asoka pillar, -showing
tapering hole for reception of copper bolt.
(d) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Fragments of Asokan umbrella.
Plate VII. (a) Bijak-ki-Pahari, Lower Platform. Circular temple, general view
from top of staircase to upper platform.
(&) Bijak-ki-Pahari. Circular temple. From east showing positions
and remains of doorways and small bits of stupa within.
Plate VIII. Bijak-ki-Pahari. Plan and section of Circular temple.
Plate IX. a—Bijak-ki-Pahari. Part of Asokan stone bowl, inner view, b—
ditto, outer view ; c—Part of Asokan grindstone ; d—Fragment
from ankle of Asokan figure of lion ; e—Chert flake ; /-—Core of
chert; g—Ivory object; h—Reel of metallic ribbon ; i—Piece
of soap-stone casket; j —Piece of pottery bangle ; k—Chert
flake ; l—Amulet of slate stone ; m—Chert flake ; n—Piece
of conch bangle.
s x

Plate X. a—Ear cleaner of copper ; b—Copper needle ; c-d—Iron fish-plates

with nails ; e and m—Thick iron nails ; / and n—Patches of
mud plaster with impressions of flutings ; g-h—Strips of sheet
copper which had been used for ornamentation or repair of
pottery vessels ; i to l—Iron cramps ; o—Iron screw rod of cotton
press ; p—Arrow head of iron.
Plate XI. a-c—Tops of water jars ; d—Suspension lamp ; e-f—Copper strips
rivetted to pieces of pottery bowls ; g—Pottery snout • h__Part of
pottery incense burner; i—Pottery dish; j —Piece of pottery
offertory tank ; k to t—Pottery vessels,
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INTRODUCTION.
The Archaeological Suryey of India has, during its existence
since 1861, rendered valuable service in the matter of preservation
of ancient buildings of great artistic and historical interest throughout
the country, in the exploration of numerous buried sites of ancient
cities and of religious establishments, and in the discovery and
publication of epigraphical material of great value. Some of the
Indian States have followed this noble example of the Supreme
Government and have maintained separate archaeological offices of
their own. These are Hyderabad, Mysore, Baroda, Travancore,
Gwalior, etc. The rulers of the Jaipur State have for centuries
patronized art and science and the five astronomical observatories
built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singhji have won the admiration of
visitors from far and near. The antiquities of the State had, how­
ever, unfortunately received little attention. The State authorities
are, therefore, to be congratulated on their decision to start a small
archaeological office of their own as a temporary measure in the
first instance and it may be hoped that the results achieved during
the last ten months will be considered a sufficient justification for
the continuance of this office for at least a few years during which
peiiod it is expected that not only sufficient material will have been
brought together for a first rate Museum of Archaeology at Jaipur
but valuable light will also have been thrown on the ancient past of
this interesting territory. The excavations at Bairat which form
the subject of this brochure were undertaken at the express sugges­
tion of the Finance Member, Rai Bahadur Pandit Amarnath Atah to
whom I am deeply indebted for much enlightened interest in these
and other tasks undertaken by me.
I have considered it advisable to preface this my first report
on archaeological work in the State with an introduction embodying
a very brief resume of the researches carried out among the ancient
remains of the Jaipur State by Sir A. Cs uingham. the first Director-
General of Archaeology in India, in 1864-65 1; by his assistant Mr.
A. C. L. Carlleyle during the cold weather of 1871-72* and by Dr. D. R.
Bhandarkar, a former Superintendent of Archaeology in the Western
Circle, during the year 1909-108. These notes also include such
further information as I have myself been able to collect about the
monuments in other places than Bairat.
1 Archaeological Survey Reports, Vol. II.
2 Ibid., Vol. VI.
3 A nnual Progress Report o f the Archceologieal Survey of In d ia , Western Oirole for the year
ending 31st March, 1 9 1 0 . £ ^ >
 ■g°5x

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INTRODUCTION.
The Archaeological Survey of India has, during its existence
since 1861, rendered valuable service in the matter of preservation
of ancient buildings of great artistic and historical interest throughout
the country, in the exploration of numerous buried sites of ancient
cities and of religious establishments, and in the discovery and
publication of epigraphical material of great value. Some of the
Indian States have followed this noble example of the Supreme
Government and have maintained separate archaeological offices of
their own. These are Hyderabad, Mysore, Baroda, Travancore,
Gwalior, etc. The rulers of the Jaipur State have for centuries
patronized art and science and the five astronomical observatories
built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singhji have won the admiration of
visitors from far and near. The antiquities of the State had, how­
ever, unfortunately received little attention. The State authorities
are, therefore, to be congratulated on their decision to start a small
archaeological office of their own as a temporary measure in the
fiist instance and it may be hoped that the results achieved during
the last ten months will be considered a sufficient justification for
the continuance of this office for at least a few years during which
period it is expected that not only sufficient material will have been
brought together for a first rate Museum of Archaeology at Jaipur
but valuable light will also have been thrown on the ancient past of
this interesting territory. The excavations at Bairat which form
the subject of this brochure were undertaken at the express sugges­
tion of the Finance Member, Rai Bahadur Pandit Amarnath Atah to
whom I am deeply indebted for much enlightened interest in these
and other tasks undertaken by me.
I have considered it advisable to preface this my first report
on archaeological work in the State with an introduction embodying
a very brief resume of the researches carried out among the ancient
remains of the Jaipur State by Sir A. Cunningham, the first Director-
General of Archaeology in India, in 1804-65 1; by his assistant Mr.
A. C. L. Carlleyle during the cold weather of 1871-72® and by Dr. D. R.
Bhandarkar, a former Superintendent of Archaeology in the Western
Circle, during the year 1909-10®. These notes also include such
further information as I have myself been able to collect about the
monuments in other places than Bairat.1*3
1 Archaeological Survey Reports, VoL II.
^ Ibid., Vol. VI.
3 A nnual Progress Report o f the Archaeological Survey of In d ia , W estern Oirrlo for tho vear
ending 31st March, 1910. ’
 2
The possibilities of archaeological research in the Jaipur State (§L
are very great indeed. In his monumental work, Mohenjodaro and
the Indus Civilization, Sir John Marshall in drawing attention to the
pre-historic antiquities found in certain mounds m Kathiawad,
expresses the hope that when a systematic search is instituted the
chalcolithic culture of the Indus valley will, probably, be found to
extend across Rajputana and down the valleys of the Jumna and
the Gano-es. A survey of this kind in the Jaipur State is one ot
the aims I have in view. Here it is interesting to observe that
already the numerous portable objects found in the course of my
excavations at Bairat include two flakes and fragments of several
cores of chert similar to those found at Harappa and Mohenjodaro
which augur well for future discovery of such material. The number
of sites of the historical period, i.e. those dating from about the
3rd century B.C., that await exploration, is very considerable.
The few places about which information is available from the
researches referred to above are noticed here.
I. Sambhar or &akambhari, the capital of the Chahamana or
Chauhan kings, Prithvlraja and his predecessors, in the 12th and
earlier centuries, and so well noted for its salt lake, possesses some
very ancient mounds situated in the vicinity of the fresh water
lake known as Nalia Sar. These mounds, which had in antiquity
been honeycombed with pits excavated by the villagers for old
bricks, were partially explored by Mr. Lyon, Assistant Commissioner
of Inland Revenue at Sambhar, under the general direction of
Surgeon-Major T. H. Hendley, who read a paper on them entitled
‘ Buddhist remains near Sambhur ’ \ before the Royal Asiatic
Society in November, 1884.
These excavations were carried down at places to a depth of
over 20 feet but are stated to have yielded no important buildings
or streets. The portable antiquities, some of which are now kept
in a small show-case in the Jaipur Museum, were of a varied nature
and included pinnacles of temples or dwelling-houses, beads of
faience, beads of carnelian with white geometric patterns burnt into
them 2, bone spikes with sharp points at each end which Colonel
Hendley thought might have been used for securing planks of wood
together, terracotta figurines of men and animals including one of
a monkey seated, as on a tripod, with its tail serving as the third
leg of the seat, reels of clay, small coins of copper which, when
cleaned, may be found to be punch-marked coins and, lastly, a12

1 J .R .A .S ., 1884.
2 B ead s with such decoration h a v e b een fo u n d a t K is h in M eso po tam ia w h ere t h e y occur
in association w ith antiquities of th e pre-Sargonic p erio d, a t H a r a p p a a n d M oh enjod aro a n d
n u m e r o u s o t h e r sites in Sind a n d o th e r p a r t s o f India*
 ‘ ®<w\

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hemispheric shaped sealing of terracotta with one large face and six
smaller facets on the sides. Hendley’s conclusion that these anti­
quities are Buddhist and that the mounds in which they have been
found would be found to be the site of an important Buddhist town
seems to have little to commend it. On the contrary, the terracotta
sealing, which deserves here a somewhat detailed description,
provides incontrovertible evidence of their being Brahmanica L
The principal impression, on this sealing, displays a sacrificial post
{yupa) surrounded by a railing. The upper portion of the post is,
in accordance with the rules laid down in the Satcipatha Brahmapa,
bent down to about the middle of the shaft and has a bifurcated
end Below this is the well-known Ujjain symbol consisting of a
cross with balls attached to each arm and on the opposite side the
Prakrit legend Imdasamasa, ‘ of Indrasarman ’, in Brahml characters
of about the 3rd century B.C. Five of the smaller facets of the
sealing display the mystic symbol svastika while the sixth one
shows a triangular pattern with five cross bars. This last device
appears to represent the ladder by which the sacrificer and his
wife ascended to the top of the yupa and, looking m the different
directions, muttered prayers and offered to Prajapati 1/ pieces of
salt tied up in pippala leaves. . ,
The setting up of yupcts in the celebration of yajnas is mentioned
in the Atharva Veda, Kanda XII, Sukta 1 ; and several ancient
inscriptions on stone and other monuments evidence the performance
of such sacrifices down to the 5th or 6th century A.D. The yupa
device is also found on the Yaudheya 1 coins of about the beginning
of the Christian era and on the Asvamedha coins of Samudragupta
and I am glad to be able to refer to an actual terracotta sealing
similar to the one found at Sambhar. This was found many years
ago at Sunet near Ludhiana in the Punjab and dates from the Gupta
period. It shows a horse standing looking towards a sacrificial
post which has a different shape in that it is bent in the middle
instead of at the top.2 , _
The mounds at Sambhar deserve careful exploration as they
may be expected to yield valuable relics pertaining to the Vedic
sacrifice, e.g. stone yupas similar to those found neai Mathura
and other antiquities of great interest.
II. Nctqar.—The ancient remains at Nagar, or Ivarkota Aagai,
situated in the territory of the Raja of Umyara or Omara in the
Jaipur State cover an area of about four square miles. They were

R ^ h t e n f t h e PiinJaK The device on these moulds is undoubtedly a yupa and not a tree ».
a railing.
2 J .R .A .S ., 1901, page 102.
 ' Go*&\

4 ( 1

\^S^dO Tefally surveyed by Mr. Carlleyle in 1871-72 but have obviousbp1' ;

XV: Vhot been visited by any other archaeologist since his time. On a
portion of this site, which Mr. Carlleyle believed to have been the
site of the local mint of Nagar, he collected over 6,000 copper coins
which lay in some places ‘ as thick as shells on the seashore ’. About
a third of this number were found by Mr. Carlleyle to be worth
keeping and, out of these good pieces again, 400 were stolen from
his possession. 110 out of this balance are in the Indian Museum of
Calcutta and are described in Dr. Vincent Smith’s Catalogue ; but
nobody knows what has become of the remainder. Dr. Smith
fervently hoped that some one would take the trouble of visiting
the place and collecting other specimens. According to Smith,
all these coins with the exception of some 35, which were of outside
origin, must have been minted at Nagar itself by the chiefs of the
local Malava tribe, who may not necessarily have been the same
as the Malavas of Dhara. Mr. Carlleyle found the names of not
less than 40 chiefs of this clan on the coins discovered by him ;
the names read by Smith on the coins now kept in the Indian
Museum number only 20. The legends of these coins which include
some of the smallest and lightest coins in the world are inscribed in
the Brahml script of the 2nd century B.C. to the 4th century A.D.
and some of the legends are inscribed in reversed order so th at
they have to be read from right to left. Some of the names of
these Malava chiefs are also considered to be of foreign origin. A
systematic exploration of this site is an urgent desideratum to solve
this and other problems connected with this interesting group of
coins and the extensive ancient city in which they have been found.
III. Dausa, which is known to have been the first capital of
the Kachhwaha rulers in the Jaipur State, is situated at the foot of
a high hill at a distance of about 32 miles east from the city of
Jaipur. The top of the hill is occupied by an irregularly shaped fort
winch is believed to have been constructed by a tribe of Bargin'ars
tom whom it was wrested by the Kachhwaha Prince Dulharai,
e migrated from Narwar in Gwalior in the beginning of the
, i centuiy A.D. In the course of his tour in the Jaipur State in
le year referred to above, Mr. Carlleyle found on the sloping ground
o ie north of the loot of the hill a number of stone circles, one or
wo O' which contained cromlechs, a few cairns and a sepulchral
moun. ol pre-historic date. The cairns were opened by Mr. Carlleyle
|inc •V.H' ' et some rude stone implements while in the mound he
noug i to light pottery urns covered with lids and containing
luman ones, also chert flakes, etc. During my short visit of a
single cay to Dausa, I had no time to examine these interesting
remains, but was able to discover other interesting antiquities which
can j c assigned to the late mediaeval period. These include a
I(l)f g
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collection of some 40 or 50 fragments of stone images of some of the
principal Hindu gods and goddesses, red Karauli stone pilasters
adorned with the vase and palmette and other patterns, crocodile­
mouthed gargoyles, and a large stone linga, whose top alone is
visible above the ground, which originally belonged to a Siva temple
which stood on the summit of the hill and whose site is now occupied
by a later temple of Nilakantha Mahadeva standing within a small
fortified citadel. One or two guns in the fort bear Nagari inscrip­
tions dated in Vikrama Sarhvat 1849, etc. Another group of finely
carved sculptures of about the 12th century A.D. is worshipped in
or built into the front wall of a modern temple known as Matajl-ka-
Mandir. Among these antiquities are a well-preserved image of
the Sun, window lintels, etc. A largish mound outside the Mori
Darwaza of the fort, which is partly occupied by what is known as
Bhaumyajl-ka-Mahal, deserves excavation. There is also opposite
the school building a brick temple of about the 14th century A.D.
similar in style to the one at Bairat to be referred to later on, frag­
ments of other sculptures to the north of the Juma‘ Masjid and'a
number of stone pillars of ancient date in the audience hall of the
temple of Somanatha on the right, side of the road leading to
Bharatpur.
IV. Chatsu. At Chatsu, distant 25 miles from Jaipur, in
1871-72, Mr. Carlleyle discovered an undated stone inscription
which was edited by Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar in the Epigraphia Indica,
\ ol. XII, pp. 13 seq. This document records the construction of a
temple of Murari-Vishnu by Baladitya, a Guhila prince, to com­
memorate his wedding to a Chahamana princess. This stone
was found built into the side wall of the steps leading down into the
great tank of Guliil Rao to the west of the town of Chatsu. The
whole of the eastern portion of this extensive tank is provided
with steps built up from the material of the numerous temples with
\vInch, like the two similar tanks at Dholka and Viramgam in the
Ahmedabad District, this tank was originally surrounded.
Mr. Carlleyle found only one small temple actually standing in all
Chatsu. This, however, is only one of the miniature conical spires
from the side of one of the larger temples of Chatsu. Both
Mr. Carlleyle and Dr. Bhandarkar also visited the Jaina temple
on the top ol the hill known as Shiv Dungrl, situated about two
miles west of Chatsu.
The ancient remains of Chatsu deserved a further close study
and, I was glad, a small additional grant for trial excavations at
this place gave me the much desired opportunity of undertaking
this work. The ancient walled city here is practically desolate!
oniy a small portion of it being now inhabited. The city had four
gates one of which, known as Kot Darwaza, has alone survived on
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the' south side. My trial trenches were excavated in different lXLj
parts of the northern portion of the town and reveal the fact that
the whole of the upper portion of the mound was composed of the
debris accumulated during several centuries past and that the
really ancient structural remains lie twelve to thirteen feet below
the surface. The outer wall of the city has survived on all four
sides and a section of about a hundred feet in length, which I
exposed, is found to be standing to a height ot about 18 feet from
the base and to be no less than eight feet in thickness. There were
clear signs of a reconstruction of this wall in about the 14th century
A.D., but there is no means of ascertaining when the original wall
was built. A Jaina temple in the same area which appears to date
from the late mediaeval period contains a large number of Tirthahkara
images ranging in date from Saihvat 1316 to 1680 but it is not known
whether they were not imported from other places and what is
worse, the inscriptions upon them contain no names of kings. I
made a careful examination of the numerous well-carved architec­
tural stones from ancient temples now employed in the ghats around
the great tank mentioned above or lying scattered about this town,
but the only sculptures I found were a six-armed figure of Durga,
another well-carved figure of Ganapati and a Buddha head which is
the only Buddhist object so far noticed at Chatsu. A more interest­
ing monument which I discovered in the eastern extension of the
city is a temple of the 10th or 11th century A.D. which had been
only partially destroyed by the Muslim invaders. Its doorway is
decorated with a figure of dancing Siva and the extant portion of
its mamlapa, 30 ft. by 16 ft., is supported on well-carved pillars of
stone from the Moraindi quarries situated a few miles from Chatsu.
No inscriptions contemporary with the original construction of this
fane have survived but a Nagarl inscription dated in the year
Vikrama Samvat 1538 (1481 A.D.), when Sultan Gyas Din was
reigning, presumably provides the date when many of the temples of
Chatsu were destroyed. This king is undoubtedly identical with
Ghiyath Shah (1469 to 1500 A.D.), the second Khaljl king of Malwa.
The interior of the temple was littered with refuse and rubbish of
all kinds which I had cleared away. I also freed the carvings from
successive coats of lime to enable the taking of photographs. Over
this temple a later temple, known as Chaturbhujaji-ka-Mandir,
was constructed in Saka year 1542, Vikrama Samvat 1677, which is
the date inscribed on the principal image in this temple. Maharaja
Mana Simha was at that time the ruler of Jaipur and the Emperor
Akbar reigning at Delhi.
Mr. Carlleyle had held the view th at the temples of Chatsu
were destroyed first by ‘Ala-ucl-Din Khaljl and again by the Mughal
Emperor Aurangzeb. It, however, more probable, as stated above,
 ■GofeX

|( I ) | <SL
that this wholesale destruction was the work of the king of Malwa
named above. The Persian inscription 1 engraved on the inside of
the dome of a small Muhammadan cenotaph, constructed with the
spoils of broken temples, records the martyrdom in a holy war of a
certain Gurg ‘All Shah at Chatsu. The chronogram is unfortunately
incomplete, but I have a strong suspicion that the holy war in
question refers to Ghiyath Shah’s invasion of Chatsu. That Chatsu
had probably come under Muslim influence before this time, is
testified by a fragmentary Persian inscription which I found lying
in a deserted mosque in the town. It is dated on the 2nd of
Muharram in A.H. 783 (1381 A.D.) and contains the name ‘ the
Old Parganah of Chatsu ’, but unfortunately the name of the long
is missing. Another old temple which may be mentioned here is
that of Lakshml Narayana, whose construction was commenced
in Saka 1505 or Vikrama year 1640 and which was consecrated in
Vikrama Saihvat 1660 when the ‘ Lord of the land ’, Raja Mana
Simha was ruling over Jaipur during the reign of the Mughal Emperor
Akbar.
At the Jaina temple on the Shiv Dungri hill I have copied
all the Nagari inscriptions including those on the two sculptured
pillars described by Carlleyle and Bhandarkar and which are now
kept in the Jaipur Museum. Of these, the pillar of white stone is
better preserved and I found that, contrary to Mr. Carlleyle’s state­
ment, the labelled figures of the first 95 Jaina pontiffs beginning
with Bhadrabahu are portrayed consecutively on the different
sections of the octagonal shaft. The earliest inscription on this
pillar states that in Saihvat. 1706, when Sri Dcvendra Klrtti was in
the pontiff’s chair, and in the reign of Maharaja Sri Jayasiihha this
‘ genealogical column ’ (Pattavali-stambha.) was set up in the temple
of Neminatha at the place known as Dungri, near the town of
Champavati. Five pontiffs that came to the chair in succession
after Narendra Kirtti had their own names and dates inscribed on
this pillar, the name and date of the last one being Kshemendra
Kirtti and Saihvat 1815 respectively.
Two Pattavalis or ‘ succession lists ’ of the Digambara Jaina
pontiffs were published by Dr. Hoernle in the Indian Antiquary,
Vol. XX, pp. 341 seq. The manuscripts upon which these lists
are based were written in Saihvat 1840 and 1938 respectively.
There are a few minor differences between the lists published by
Hoernle and that found on the stone obelisk from Shiv Dungri
but as the latter is 134 years earlier than the earlier one of the
two fists published in the Indian Antiquary, the fist on the pillar

1 Edited by Mr. G. Yazdani in his article ‘ Unpublished Persian inscriptions from the Jaipur
State * in the Epiyraphia, Indo-Mosle?nica, 1923-24.
X jS * ' G“i x

^ '< llro u id perhaps be regarded as more reliable. There are in t h i s i j

^^T e^iple other inscribed Jaina obelisks of smaller sizes and bearing
dates from Sam vat 1556 to 1590. A separate account of this
material and the other antiquities at and near Chatsu will be desirable.
V. Newai, a small R ajput town, situated at the foot of a
hill some 17 miles south of Chatsu on the road leading to Tonk,
does not appear to have been visited by Mr. Carlleyle or any other
archaeologist. The town is noted for some pretty hot and cold
water springs covered with k&taki, kumudini and other creepeis.
This town is said to have been founded by a Naruka Rajput, named
Sahasa Mallaji, and possesses some well-built Chhatris or cenotaphs
in typical Mughal style. The inscriptions on the memorial slabs
are noteworthy for the fact th at the satis concerned are, in accord­
ance with ancient Rajput custom, designated by their own family
names.
VI. Ramgadh, distant some 20 miles from the city of Jaipur,
is supposed to have been the second capital of the Kachhwaha
rulers in the Jaipur territory but it is not known when they shifted
to this place. A well-preserved Sanskrit inscription 1 engraved on
a red standstone slab, which was removed from Ramgadh many
years ago and placed in the Jaipur Museum (No. 1938) on the 3rd
of May, 1936, records the interesting fact th at the fort of Ramgadh
which is designated as the ‘ Defence of Ramagadha ’ was caused
to be built when 1,669 years of the Vikrama era had elapsed, on
Sunday the fifth of the bright fortnight of the month of Phalguna
in the Salivahana year 1534 (expired) in the reign of Jahangir Shah
Salim, by Maharajadhiraja Manasimha, who was ‘ resplendent
with abundant fame acquired from his conquests of the entire
territory and of his enemies whom he had overpowered by his
prowess ’. The building was completed under the control of Purohita
Pitamvara, the son of Padmakara Purohita. The name of the
lather of Maharaja Manasimha is spelt in this inscription as
Bhagavamtadasa. This is also the form found in two Hindi inscrip­
tions dated in the year 34 of the reign of Akbar which are engraved
on the temple of Govinda Deva at Brindaban. The name is similarly
spelt in an inscription discovered by me on the doorway of the
temple of Kalyanarai at Amber and everywhere in the Akbar
Namah of AbuJ Fazl. The Sanskrit inscription on the temple of
Govinda Deva has the form Bhagavaddasa. The name Bhagwan
Das is only a vulgar form of the Sanskrit name and it is a mistake
to suppose that it was borne by a separate prince. A ruined temple
known as the temple of Jam va Mata, in the picturesque little

1 This and some forty other inscriptions, which I have copied and deciphered, will be pub­
lished in detail in a separate memoir.
If t )| <SL
NsX^^?

valley adjoining the Ramgadh lake, contains a number of stone

pillars and pilasters of about the 10th century A.D.
VII. Amber.—The city of Amber, the third capital in suc­
cession of the Jaipur State, is believed to have been founded in the
10th or 11th century A.D. An interesting stone inscription of
16 lines now in the Jaipur Museum (No. 1951), which was removed
from a Jaina temple known as Sanghvi Jhunta Rai’s temple, records
the construction of this temple on Wednesday the 10th of the
dark fortnight of the month of Phalguna in the Vikrama year 1714.
Amber is in this inscription designated as Ambavati1 which was
the Rajadhan! or capital of the territory named Dhunda or Dhundha-
hada, which was adorned with step-wells, wells and tanks and
with beautiful gardens replete with fruit-bearing trees of all
seasons. This city was beautified with noblemen’s mansions and
with Jaina temples with golden kalcisas. The ruler of Dhundhahada
at the time was Maharaja Jayashiiha (Saihvat 1678-1724) whose
valuable services to the king of Dhili (Aurangzeb) had been rewarded
with the grant of 27 towns. The temple was built in honour of the
Tirthesvara, Vimalanatha, by Mohana Dasa of the Khandelval
family who was the chief minister of Maharaja Jayasirhha and the
Governor of Ambavati, at the instance of the Jaina pontiff, Devendra-
kirtti who, we know from the inscriptions on the Pattavali-stambha
from Chatsu, died in Saihvat 1722. The gardens, lakes and wells
of Amber are well known. The temples had, however, received
scanty attention. I spent two or three days going round the town
and was able, with the help of inscriptions I discovered on them,
to determine the dates of five of them. The earliest of these epigraphs
occurs in a small temple of the Sun, situated on the slope of the
hill at the back of the town, which has been much repaired in recent
times. The stone pillars of the mandapa and the ceilings, however,
remain unaltered and one of the pillars in the front row bears a
two-armed figure of Ganapati, khatvdnga in the right hand and an
uncertain object in the left. Above and below this figure is a short
inscription of seven lines dated on Friday the 11th of the dark
fortnight of Bhadrapada, Saihvat 1011. The inscription is badly
engraved but appears to record the obeisance of a pri vate individual
whose name is illegible but whose father’s name appears to read
Chamundahari.
The next temple in date, so far as is, at present, known is that
of Lakshmi Narayana, attributed to Balabai, a queen of the
Kachhwaha Maharaja Prithvi Raja. A short inscription of two
lines engraved above the figure of a dvdrapdla on the left jamb of

1 General Sir A. Cunningham derives the name Amber from Ambike^vara tho nam e of
a targe temple at Amber.
(o n | 10 (ct
\A the' sanctum contains a date in Sarnyat 15x5. Unfortunately thekX L j
‘ tens ’ digit is not readable. The temple of Jagat Siromani is, I
gather from Rao Bahadur Thakur Narendra Singh of Jobner,
attributed to Kanwar Jagat Singh (born Samvat 1625 ; died Sariivat
1656), who was the first son of Maharaja Man'Singh (A.D. 1590 to
1615), and grandson of Maharaja Bhara Malla (A.D. 1548 to 1578).
The figure of Garuda worshipped in the Chhatri in front of this
temple is, however, dated the 7th of the bright fortnight of Phagun
in the Samvat year 1611. This date falls in the reign of Bhara
Malla and the temple must have been originally built in the reign
of that ruler and perhaps renovated by Kanwar Jagat Singh.
The temple of Kalyanaraiji has been freed from fallen debris
and other rubbish, and a short inscription discovered on the finely
carved doorway of its sanctum in the course of the scraping off of
lime plaster. I t is now definitely ascertained th at this temple
(prdsada) was built by a Purohita named Kanhada on the 2nd of
the dark fortnight of Marga-sirsha in the year Vikrama Sariivat
1631 in the reign of Bhagavata Dasa in the reign of Akbar.
Another noteworthy monument at Amber is a white marble
torana in the temple of Narasiiiiha in the Purana Mahal in which
the Maharajas of Jaipur continue to be installed to the Gaddi and
where their marriage rites are celebrated. The inner face of the
north pillar of this torana bears a Sanskrit inscription which states
that on Thursday, the 8th of the dark fortnight of Phalguna, in the
Sariivat year 1702, Sri Damayariitiji, of the SisaudanI family, the
mother of Maharaja Jaya Siriiha (Sariivat 1678 to 1724) made a
swing (dola) in honour of Krishna, the son of Yasoda.
A group of Chhatris or cenotaphs of the past riders of Jaipur,
situated just outside the town of Amber, includes some very well-
built structures in Mughal style. Unfortunately they contain no
inscriptions and the names of the rulers cannot at present be as­
certained. During the period under report the grounds around the
Chhatris were freed from debris and levelled up and an estimate for
further urgent repairs has been submitted to the Finance Member.
VIII. Moroli, Telisil SiJcrai.—On a mound or hill, known as
Bundwali Durigrl, a few cliavmrs of village Moroli found in 1933
some gold coins, out of which 39 complete pieces, one half of another
and some gold were recovered from the finders and submitted to
the Mahakma Khas. These were examined by Rai Bahadur
Amarnath Atal and identified as coins of Chandragupta I, Samudra-
gupta and Chandragupta II. Three of them were placed as exhibits
in the Jaipur Museum and the others deposited in the Kapardwara
or Reserve Treasury of the State. I t now appears that a part of
this treasure had remained in the possession of the discoverers and
four other pieces of the collection were recovered recently. I have
((1 ) | <SL
11

examined these and also the three kept in the Museum and hope
that it may be possible to explore the area where these coins were
found.
Besides the few places of archaeological interest mentioned above,
there are many others awaiting attention, e.g. Todaraisingh, 45
miles south-west from Chatsu, where several important inscriptions
of the time of the Kachhwaha rulers remain unpublished ; Visalpur,
7 miles south-west by south from Toda, which was founded by
Visaladeva of the Chauhan dynasty ; Khandela, where there is an
early Brahmi inscription, etc. I am informed that, besides the 10th
century sculptures removed from the Harshnath hill, there are in the
newly started museum at Sikar a very large collection of punch-
marked coins requiring careful study.
 ' e°lfcX

|( 1 ) | ■ <SL
BA IRA T.
Bairat is the headquarters of a tehsil in the Jaipur State and
now. easily accessible by a fine metalled road which connects Delhi
with Jaipur, the distance from the latter being 52 miles. Tradition
identifies this town with Viratapura, the capital of Virata, king of
the Matsya country, at whose capital the five Pandava heroes and
their spouse Draupadi passed in concealment the 13th year of their
exile. The ancient remains of Bairat were visited by Cunningham
in the year 1864-65 and by his assistant, Mr. Carlleyle, in the year
1871-72 (vide Archaeological Survey Reports, Vols. II and VI), both
of whom have left detailed accounts of what they saw and of the
legends connected with the place. Bairat was visited by Dr. D. R.
Bhandarkar during the year 1909-10 (vide Progress Report of the
Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle, for the year ending
31st March, 1910), but by no other archaeologist during the last 26
years.
The present town of Bairat stands in the midst of a valley
about 5 miles in length from east to west, by 3 to 4 miles in
width, which is surrounded by three concentric ranges of hills, the
outermost being the highest and the innermost the lowest. The
Jaipur-Delhi road enters the valley through a narrow pass at the
north-west corner and the area is drained by two rivulets, the
Bairat Nala, which runs northward to join the Ban Ganga river
and by the Bandrol Nala on the south side. The ancient route
to Jaipur left the valley on the south-west by a flagged ramp along
the foot of the hill known as Bijak-ki-Pahari, which was the main
scene of my operations during the last cold weather. The innermost
range comprises many flat-topped hills but, unlike those around the
ancient city of Taxila, few of them have any remains of antiquity.
Thus the only buildings on the hill immediately to the east of the
Bijak-ki-Pahari, which is locally known as Mahadevaji-ki-Dungri,
are a gateway of the late Mughal period giving access to a rock-cut
tank, a modern temple in which a water-worn block of stone is
worshipped as Ganapati, a small cavern used as a shrine, a large
reservoir dammed by a masonry wall and a Chhatri on the summit.
jjdter structure contains an inscription ol Sam vat 1733, the
oth ol the bright fortnight of Magha which records the installation
ol the foot-prints of a certain Chuhavana or Chauhan. Nor does
the more prominent hill known as the Bhimji-ki-Dungri, situated
about a mile to the north-east of the town of Bairat, boast of any
ancient remains, though a large cavern is here shown as the very
abode ol Bhima, the second Pandava brother and a long deep cleft
f( S ) | <SL
13

near it where this hero kicked water up to the surface for the benefit
of his mother. A fair is held here on the 2nd days of the bright fort­
nights of the months of Bhadrapada and Magha. It was on a large
rock at the foot of this hill that Mr. Carlleyle discovered the now
well-known Bairat version of the Rupnath and Sahasram edicts of
Asoka. The surface of the rock was so weather worn and rough
that only the keenest observer could have discerned the existence
of an exceedingly defaced inscription upon it. In ancient times a
wide and well-chiselled rocky spur, immediately to the west of this
inscribed rock, gave access to the top of the hill. It has, however,
been in disuse for centuries and the hill is now ascended by a narrow
track further west.
Brick Temple.—A small brick temple (Plate I, a) noticed by
Mr. Carlleyle on the eastern edge of Bhlinji-kl-Dungrl or the Pandus’
hill, as he designated it, was freed from debris in the course of my
stay at Bairat. It yielded a few fragments of stone images of no
special interest. Mr. Carlleyle considered this structure to be a
very ancient building. I myself think that it cannot be earlier than
the 14th or 15th century A.D. To about the same period should be
assigned the massive masonry dam which is built across the Bairat
nala not far from this temple.
Cremation Ground.—The area to the east of this rivulet has for
centuries been the cremation ground of the Bairat town. Here
there are several well-built Chhatris to commemorate the immolation
of devoted wives on the pyres of their deceased husbands. Each
one of these Chhatris has its own inscribed and figured stone tablet
and I was able to distinguish two distinct types among these
memorials. In one case the deceased husband appears as riding
a horse which is preceded by his wife or wives. In the other ease
the memorial plaque exhibits the Satx standing, holding her deceased
husband between her hands, ready to jump into the blazing pile.
I quote here as a specimen of the epitaphs employed the inscription
on one of these tablets :—
1. 1. ii fkrcr
1. 2. wtcutfm Hfgt; sfif tcif -u-
1. 3. infrrT m uptr tfua
1. 4. % *jir »fhfsr
1. 5. tntrs? u-
1.6. w-
1. 7. *T5T % sfprom I t [ujufl
1. 8. *•^TTcft xfkmsr jft§ : u-
1. 9.
1. 10 .
 u
Translations.
(fiT
j l j

‘ Om Rama is true. In the Sariivat year 1743, oil the 5th of

the bright fortnight of Pausha, Pande Chhltar Mai, the son of Todar
and the grandson of Dhaniya, proceeded to heaven. In his company
his widow Jamna, who was the daughter of Mohana, a minister of
Jhodala, became Sati. This Chhatri was built by Saval Das, son
of Pamraj and nephew of Chhltar Mai who was a Gauda Brahman a
and of the Haritavala sasana ’. Dr. B.handarkar who summarized
the contents of this inscription at p. 46 of the Progress Report of the
Archceological Survey of India, Western Circle, referred to above,
adds that the Saval Das referred to was granted the title of singli
and the village of Papcli as a jagir by the Muhammadan Emperor
Naurang Shah who is generally identified with the Mughal Emperor
Aurangzeb.
"Idgdh.—An ancient building in this neighbourhood which has
escaped the notice of previous writers is the Tdgah near the village
of Papdi at the north-west corner of the valley in which Bairat is
situated. This, as usual, is an open enclosure surrounded by a
high wall with hexagonal masonry pillars at the corners. A white
marble slab built into the back wall above the prayer niche bears
the following Persian inscription :—

Text.
ti/Gj j*^ 6 (•/C’j p 1.1.
- LJjlhsc f wLcri Ij iul
;l 1. 2.

- S-!Z J \yi iS z'tSAyC

ygjl O-fi/ (jjiiU. J. 3,

- ix& { J j,L>jd j ,j| (.3
... ^ iU l JU» 1. 4.
- ,£Aj fa-X/c

v_ document purports to state th a t in the reign of the king

1 U?fl ( 'H\n’ a man named Mulla Khwaja built at Bairat for his
are ,p, *)eautiful Tdgah which gladdened the eyes of the on-
,.°o 019. Ihe date of construction is supplied by a chronogram which
a it has been finely built ’ and works to A.H. 1022 —
' • ■ ,M'S date falls in the reign of Nuru-d-Dln Jahangir, the
|(I)| <SL
son of Akbar Shah and this, I have no doubt, is the king intended.
As we are aware, a mint was started at Bairat by Akbar and copper
coins of Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb bearing the mint
name of Bairat are well known. The site of this mint is pointed out
m the middle of the present town. It is a large walled enclosure
occupying the loftiest portion of the mound on which the town is
situated. The bulk of the nodules and drops of copper slag, which
are found in such abundance all over the town, must have been
due partly to the smelting of copper for the making of coins in this
mint.
Another building of this late period is a large and well-built
Mughal gateway, two cupolas on the upper storey of which bear
stucco paintings depicting legendary scenes from the Sanskrit
epms and scenes from the Mughal Court, e.g. the reception of
Maharaja Mana Simha by the Emperor Akbar, when he was out on
a hunting excursion to the Jaipur territory. Not far from this is a
Mughal garden with a rectangular pavilion facing north and supported
on tapering marble pillars and plastered brick pilasters. In front of
ns pavilion is a fountain tank which was fed in the usual way from
a high level reservoir attached to a well. Opposite to the Mughal
gateway mentioned above is a garden known as the Jaina Bagh
which contains a number of funeral Chhatris. One of these contains
lie <htt) ana-p ad11ku, of a Jaina teacher Lalitaklrtti of the K a .........
sangha, the Prakara gana and the Mathura gaclichha, who died in
the Vikrama year 1851. The Chhatri adjoining this is built over the
remains of Lalitakirtti’s disciple and successor, Pandita Sadasukha,
who died in Samvat 1937. This garden at Bairat'is stated, in the
latter inscription, to have been made by Rishabhadasa.
The extensive and high mound on which the town of Bairat
stands would, if it was at all possible to excavate any portions of it,
leveal strata upon strata of ancient buildings and sculptures, inscrip­
tions and other antiquities of all kinds. The only ancient buildings
that have survived above the ground are a plain little mosque of
Mqn san 895 and a Jaina temple of the time of Akbar. A slab
,'e eentral arch ot the prayer chamber of this mosque contains
the following :—
“ 4JjI )’| &i| $ 1. 1.
i I j! 1. 2.
aC)o 11 **» 1. 3.
The king mentioned in this inscription must be ‘Alau-d-Din
Alam Shah, the last Sayyid king of Delhi, who died at Badaun
m A.H. 883 (A.D. 1478).
 16
The Jaina temple (Plate I, b) is situated in the neighbourhood
<SL
of the tehsil and consists of a sanctum preceded by a spacious
Sabha-mandapa and surrounded by a broad circumambulatory
passage on the other three sides. There is an oblong open courtyard
surrounded by a high wall and a beautifully carved pillared portico
in front of the entrance on the east. In the south wall of the
courtyard on the inside is built a large inscribed slab which was first
noticed by Dr. Bhandarkar (vide his report referred to above). The
inscription has not, however, been edited in detail. The epigraph
consists of 40 lines, and is defaced in several places. The object
of the inscription briefly is to record th at one Indraraja, who was a
Srlmala by caste and of the Rakmana Gotra caused images to be
made of three Tlrthankaras, i.e. a stone image of Parsvanatha in
the name of his father, another of copper of Chandraprabha in his
own name, a third of Rishabhadeva in the name of his brother
Ajayaraja and placed them along with an image of Vimalanatha,
who is described here as the principal pontiff, in a temple desig­
nated Indravihara with the alternative name of Mahodayaprasada
which he had himself constructed at Vairata ( W'rrre ) at a con­
siderable expense. The actual consecration was performed by Sri
Hiravijaya Suri with the assistance of his disciple Kalyanavijaya
Gani who was ‘ an adept in the art of sowing the seed of
spiritual knowledge in the sanctified field of the minds of pious
m e n ’. The date of this pious act was Sunday, the 2nd of the
bright fortnight of Phalguna in the Saka year 1509 in the reign of
the Mughal Emperor Akbar. The corresponding Vikrama year
which was also given is now completely effaced. Lines 3 to 11
constitute a eulogy of Akbar who had illuminated the circle of the
four directions by means of his prowess, who had dispelled the dark­
ness in the shape of the crowd of his adversaries and had attained
the high standard of the fame of ancient kings like Nala,
Ramachandra, Yudhishthira and Vikramaditya. This king had
been so impressed and moved to mercy by the clever expounding
of piety by Sri Hiravijaya Suri th at he granted security of life
(amari) 1 to animals of all kinds for 106 days in the year for all time
and in all parts of his kingdom : namely on 18 days on account of
the Paryushana fast, for 40 days in celebration of his birthday and
on the 48 Sundays in the year. Another passage in the inscription
supplies a genealogical account of the donor Indraraja and yet
another of the pontiff Hiravijaya Suri. We are further informed
th at this pontiff was the recipient of the renowned title of ‘ universal
teacher , a collection of books and amnesty for prisoners from
“Jalalu-d-Din Akbar, the son of Humayun, whose feet were adored
i This order prohibiting slaughter of animals was issued in A.D. 1582. Vide Smith, Akbar
the (b e a t Mogul, p. 167. b
1(1)1
W 17
<SL
K A

by the kings of Kashmir, Kamarixpa,.............. , Kabul, Badakshan,

Phili, Marusthali (Marwar), Gurjaratra, Malava ’, etc. It is interest­
ing to note here that this visit of Sri Hlravijaya Suri to the Emperor
Akbar at Fathpur Sikri and the consequent promulgation of a
Farman prohibiting the slaughter of animals on certain dates in the
year is also graphically described in the Mahakavya named Hlra-
scmbhdgycmi of Devavimala Gani which contains a poetical account
of the life of this well-known teacher. The enumeration of the
dates of prohibition, however, differs in some details from that given
in the Bairat inscription. Verses 261 and 263 of Canto 14 of this
work also mention the construction of Indraraja’s temple at Bairat
and its consecration by Sri Hlravijaya Suri at the invitation of
Indraraja. The date of the Mahakavya is not known. It is now
clear that it must have been composed a good deal after the date of
the Bairat inscription.
BIjak-Jd-Pahari.—As stated by Cunningham, the hill known as
Bijak-kl-Pahari or the ‘ inscription hill ’ forms a conspicuous object at
the south-west corner of the valley of Bairat and cannot be missed by
visitors on approaching the valley through the Bhilwari Ghati on the
west. The hill is composed of enormous blocks of grey granite of a
friable nature, with thick veins of felspar which dissolves and causes
the blocks to split in the course of time. The hill is about three-fourths
of a mile in circuit round its base. Between this hill and the middle
range of hills, referred to above, is a small narrow valley dotted
with roughly built stone platforms surrounded, along the edges, by
walls of unhewn or irregularly cut boulders and levelled at top
with thick layers of fine red gravel which is so abundant among
these hills. These platforms must originally have supported some
kind of dwellings which have now disappeared. I examined two of
them on the southern spur of the Bijak-ki-Pahari, and found a small
fine chert flake (Plate IX, k) and potsherds in one of them and an
ancient brick wall running east to west, the tall stem of a pottery
offertory dish and an incuse coin in the other.
The top of the Bijak-ki-Pahari affords a picturesque view of the
entire valley of Bairat, with the Bhimjl-kl-Dungri hill and the
monuments around it on the north and a perfectly level plain which
surrounds the lofty town on all sides. Behind him the spectator
sees the comparatively high hills in which have, to this day, survived
the deep shafts from which copper ore was quarried in ancient
times and of which a special mention is made by Abu-1-Fazl in his
Ain-i-Akbari. At the eastern edge of the summit of the hill is
found the colossal block of granite known as the ‘ Top ’ or cannon,
73 feet in length, with its southern end elevated some 14 feet above
the surface, under which a small chamber has been constructed in
modern times to serve as a shrine of Hanuman.
 • GOlfcX

f\V(^tX)W| IX
QO <SL
Bairat-Calcutta Edict.—I t was near this shrine beneath the
large boulder, Dr. Bhandarkar was informed, th at the stone bearing
the so-called Bhabru Rock Edict was found by Captain Burt in
1840, and transferred to the Museum of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal where it has been preserved since that time. This stone
(Plate II) is an irregularly shaped block of grey granite, of the
ldnd so abundant at Bairat and measuring about two feet in length,
the same in width and a foot and a half in thickness. I t was for a
long time wrongly believed that this edict had been found at Bhabru,
distant 12 miles in a direct line to the north of Bairat. A strong
objection to the Bhabru origin of this edict was the absence of
any ancient remains, except those of modern dwellings on the
slopes of the hill behind this village, or in the neighbourhood of it.
There was on the other hand at least one other Asoka edict in situ
at Bairat and the important Asokan relics that have now been
brought to light by my excavations on the Bijak-ki-Paharl finally
dispel any possible doubt, th at may still have existed, as to the
edict in question having been discovered on this hill.
This edict is of special importance for, as pointed out by
Dr. Bimala Churn Law, it is the only known edict of Asoka
which is inscribed on a stone slab (sila-phalaJca) as distinguished
from a stone pillar (sila-thamba), etc. This edict also provides
definite proof of Asoka’s faith in the Buddhist religion and his
consequent exhortation to monies and nuns and to laymen and
lay-women to listen to and to study seven select passages from the
Buddhist scriptures, for which he himself felt a special preference,
as being most conducive to the continued prosperity of the Law
of Piety promulgated by the Buddha. Four of these selections were
identified long ago by Prof. Rhys Davids and other scholars 1 with
(1) the Munisutta, No. 12 of the Sutta Nipata, (2) the Upatissa-
Panho, i.e. Sariputta’s question to Assaji which led to the former’s
conversion to the Buddhist faith, (3) the Anagatabhayani, ‘ Disasters
to come ’, i.e. the ten dangers happening to hermits, like corruptions
in the doctrine and discipline from incompetent and untrained men
among the members of the Order, and (4) the Rdhulovdda Sutta in
Pali, which constitutes an Exhortation to Rahula, the son of the
great Teacher on the subject of falsehood (Majjhima-Nikdya, Sutta
61). The difficulty in the identification arises from the titles of
the passages in question adopted by Asoka and the absence of an
authoritative classification of the Buddha’s teachings in the time
of th at emperor.
1 J o u rn a l o f the P a li T ext Society, 1846, p p . 93 to 98 a n d t h e In d ia n A n tiq u a ry . X U , p. 40.
X-S* ■g°i&x

® (SI.
EXCAVATIONS.

The ancient remains on the Bijak-ki-Pahari are distributed on

two distinct platforms, the western one of which is found, after
excavation, to be 30 feet higher than the other. Both these
platforms were on my arrival found to be completely enveloped
in jungle and cut up with trenches excavated, according to Sir A.
Cunningham, by His late Highness Maharaja Ramsingh (1835-80)
and, according to Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar by a Qiladar named Kitaj!
Khamgarot in 1845. My enquiries at the Secretariat Offices of the
State have failed to bring to light any record of the operations.
Nor is there any information available regarding the gold casket
which was stated to have been found in that excavation. The
bricks with which the hill was covered at Sir A. Cunningham’s
visit had long since been carried away and I have myself seen
several buildings in the town of Bairat constructed wholly with
this material. Some of these bricks had found their way to more
distant places. Thus five well-preserved specimens marked, as
usual, with traced finger marks are being worshipped in a temple
of the chamdrs at the village of Bhilwari on the road to Jaipur.
Heaps of boulders and the excavated earth were, however, found
all over the site and these had to be cleared away and the jungle
cut down before any excavation could be started. A convenient
spot for the commencement of the operations was found on the
east of the upper platform where a rough pile of boulders indicated
the existence of a massive retaining wall. Large portions of this
wall have survived all round the platform except at places where
colossal blocks of stone occurred along the edge, and rendered such
protection unnecessary. The width of this wall averages three to
four feet though at the base it may be much greater. A similar
irregularly shaped wall was found around the lower terrace.
An interesting feature of the upper terrace that came to light
early during the excavation was the discovery of what must have
been a broad staircase to give access to the top, though all the
steps had perished. In its upper portion this staircase is flanked
on the south side by a colossal rock, but there is a well-built plat­
form, 20 feet long by 12 feet wide and 4 feet 5 inches high, on the
other side. 11 is composed of bricks of unusually large size, measuring
2 feet 7 inches long by 1 foot 4 inches wide and about 3 inches in
thickness giving a ratio of about two widths to the length. The
same ratio characterizes the bulk of the other bricks used on this
site which are 20" X about 10|" x 2|". Bricks on other early sites,
apart of course from those of the Indus Valley, have a very ineon-
 __

20
ient proportion ranging from 3 : 2 to 5 : 4. The bricks under
§L
comment are, as usual with bricks of this early period, made of a
very coarse kind of clay mixed with chopped straw or husk of grain.
To judge from the height of the upper- platform, there must
have been two or three other landings or a plain ramp composed of
stone rubble. The lower terrace was also provided on the east
side with a staircase flanked in the same fashion, i.e. by a massive
rock on one side and a brick platform on the other. Both these
staircases were buried deep under debris at Cunningham’s visit
and were not seen by him. He, therefore, located the main approach
to this establishment on the south side of the upper platform where
he saw the remains of a large entrance with a flight of stone steps.
No such remains have survived in the position indicated, although
a long projecting spur of the hill on that side, which is protected
about the lower reaches by rubble walls, would have afforded a very
likely site for a second approach.
The Monastery.—As to the actual buildings on this upper
platform, Sir A. Cunningham thought that the large mass of rocks
in the centre must have been the core around which a brick stupa
had been constructed and th at the ruins of brick walls around the
stupa formed the chambers of the resident monks of this monastery.
Monasteries with stupas in their central open courtyards did not
come into vogue until the mediaeval period ; one well-known example
of this type is the large monastery at Paharpur in the Rajshahi
district of Bengal. Cunningham’s suggestion is, however, untenable
for the reason that there is not space enough on this platform for
the stupendous stupa that would have been needed to cover such a
large mass of rocks. These rocks are six in number, the largest of
which, measuring some 30 feet from north to south by 28 feet wide,
is balanced upon four others. All these together with the sixth,
lying apaid on the west side, obviously formed part of one and the
same rock which stood on one end with the other end elevated in the
air in the fashion of the rock known as ‘ Top ’, on the east edge of
the hill to which a reference has already been made. The frac­
tured sides of these separate sections seem to leave no doubt as to
the correctness of this suggestion. The approximate date of the
splitting of this colossal boulder will, be guessed from the fact that
some of these broken blocks lie upon the brick ruins of the monastery
around them. As Mr. Cai’lleyle was sure th at a gold casket had
been found in the previous excavation in this area, I cleared away
the debris and found, cut into the bed of the rock beneath, an
irregularly shaped chamber about 8 feet in diameter by 5 feet deep.
I t was carefully examined but yielded no relics except brickbats and
potsherds.
The brick remains on this platform were found to have been so
? (t)! <SL
.■&£/ 2j

thoroughly devastated by the previous excavators., referred to above,

and the excavated material so completely ransacked by the villagers
that the task of understanding the arrangement of these remains
was exceedingly difficult. This difficulty was aggravated by the
circumstance that, during the three centuries that this establishment
was in existence, it had been renovated or rebuilt two or three
times. The one fact that was clear from the outset, however, was
that the building, we were concerned with, was a land of monastery,
though of a much more elaborate type than those brought to lio-ht
on other Buddhist sites. The best preserved portion of this
monastery was that on the east side (Plate III, a), where a double
row of six to seven cells has remained. These cells are alternately
of larger and smaller sizes, the larger ones being each just big
enough to accommodate a single monk or nun. The bricks used in
the construction of these cells and other parts of the monastery
measuie 20 by 9f by 2§' and are, as was usual in this early period,
laid m clay mortar. The same is the case in other brick structures
brought to light on this site. The walls are about 20 inches thick
equal to one length or two widths of the bricks, which are laid
alternately as headers and stretchers. Only two courses of bricks
remain but it is obvious from large quantities of white-washed
plaster which were lying both inside and outside of these cells,
that their walls had been treated with plaster throughout. The'
debris also abounded in charred wood and pottery tiles with which
the gabled roofs were covered.
Portable antiquities recovered from these cells included pottery
jars of different shapes and ornamented with various patterns,
e.g. the triratnci upon the wheel, the svastika, etc., iron nails, oval­
shaped pierced tablets of schist which would appear to have been
amulets, etc.
Silver Coins.—The most interesting find made in this building
however, was that of a small pottery jar of coarse clay containing
ancient coins, which was found hidden in the lower course of the
outer wall behind the fourth cell from the north and which must
have been deposited there by a monk or nun in disregard of the
usual monastic rules which prohibit members of the Order to keep
valuable articles. This treasure consisted of 30 silver coins which
have been kindly cleaned for me by the Archaeological Chemist in
Jndia and found to be in very good preservation (Plate IV, b). Eight
of these, which are punch-marked coins, were wrapped in a piece
of cloth; the other 28, which were of Creek and Indo-Greek kings,
lay loose in the jar.
This find presents several points of interest . Spirst with regard
to the eight punch-marked coins. Such coins have, in the past,
oeen found in company with datable coins. One hoard of 160
f( 1 ) | 22 <SL
\5^wg5eoins of debased silver, which Sir John Marshall found at Taxila
in 1912-13, consisted of 159 punch-marked pieces and one gold
coin in fine condition of Diodotos, king of Bactria (circa 245 B.C.).
Sir John Marshall also found at the Bhir mound at the same site a
much larger collection of 1,167 silver coins all of which were punch-
marked pieces with the exception of two of Alexander the Great
and one of his step-brother and successor Philip Aridraeus. These
two finds showed th at punch-marked coins were in circulation at
Taxila in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. My own collection proves
that this circulation continued down to the 1st century A.D. or
even to a later period. The Greek coins include one of Heliokles
(circa 140 B.C.), the second son of Eucratides, and the last Greek
king of Bactria (No. 9); one of the Indo-Greek king Apollodotos
(Nm 10); 16 coins of Menander, showing five varieties (Nos. 11-26);
one of Antialkidas (No. 27); two of Ilermaios with his queen Kalliope
(circa 20-45 A.D. ; Nos. 31-32) and four of the same king alone
(Nos. 33-36).
These coins show that during the period, to which they belong,
Bairat and the country around it formed part of the Greek dominions.
Menander was probably the first Indo-Greek ruler to invade
Rajputana and perhaps it is due to this circumstance that 16 out
of the 28 coins of this class belong to his coinage. Lastly, these
coins provide authentic evidence of the Buddhist establishment on
the Bijak-ki-Pahari having continued to be occupied until about
50 A.D.
Cotton Cloth.—This discovery also throws interesting light on
the kind of clothing worn in the first century A.D. In the course
of my excavations at Mohenjodaro in 1926-27, I had the honour of
bringing to light fragments of textile material which, on examination
by Messrs. A. N. Gulati, M.Sc., and A. J. Turner, M.A., B.Sc., of the
Indian Central Cotton Committee, Technological Laboratory, were
found to be true cotton cloth and established the use in the Indus
valley of such material about 3000 B.C. when the Babylonians and
the Egyptians wore dresses of only linen and wool. The same
experts have very kindly tested a fragment of the cloth (Plate IV, a)
in which the 8 punch-marked coins referred to above were wrapped.
They have furnished me with a most interesting report and three
photographs, I reproduce the following extracts from this report.
‘ Id of the fibres.—The microscopic examination of the
fibres showed the presence of convolution, marked by the letter C
in the photomicrographs, which is a distinctive feature of the cotton
fibres. Hence, the cloth was made from cotton.'
‘ The weight of 1 square yard of cloth.—A piece measuring x
y was cut with the help of a safety razor blade and was weighed on
a torsion micro-balance. Its weight at 70% R.H. was found to be
!(S)| <SL
4-55 mgm., from which it is concluded that a square yard of this
cloth would weigh 3-3 ozs. Owing to the small size of the sample
and there being only one observation, this figure should be regarded
as approximately correct. Furthermore, no attempt was made to
clear away the deposit of mud on the cloth, as there was a danger of
its breaking into small bits when washed in w ater........ ’
‘ The cloth was thus woven from 20’s and 16‘s yarns, it being
impossible to say which yarn was warp and which was weft.
Furthermore, as there was a mud deposit on the material, these
counts should be regarded as the lowest limit, the actual counts
probably being somewhat higher.’
‘ The number of threads per inch in the texture of cloth.-—The
number of strands to an inch was also counted and found to be
50 in lengthwise direction, and 34 in the other.’ As regards certain
patches of greenish stain on the piece of cloth the experts conclude
that this stain was most probably due to rust from the coins round
which they were found.
The portion of the monastery referred to above had undergone
a rebuilding and, although the later foundations in some cases were
laid over the earlier ones, they deviated slightly in other cases.
The later structure over one of the cells at the north extremity
showed a large pottery tile, 2 feet 2 inches quare, which was
surrounded by a paving of schist slabs and, when removed, revealed,
underneath, a tiny chamber lined on two sides with thin bricks
standing on edge. These bricks measure 21f" by 13" by 1 and
are identical in size and fabric with those used in an oblong platform
found on the lower platform to be referred to later on. This chamber
was dug down to a depth of 3 feet 6 inches, where the foundation
composed of a layer of copper stone was reached, but revealed no
antiquities of any kind.
The remains of the monastery on the other three sides are even
more fragmentary. The portion on the west side revealed a confused
mass of fragments of walling and floors among which four distinct
strata can be distinguished. I was able to trace the remains on the
lowest level over a length of 83 feet, which would afford room for a
row of 12 cells, i.e. six of the larger and six of the smaller size. There
are moreover three parallel rows of cells on this side separated by
narrow galleries or corridors to provide access to the cells in each
line. The innermost of these three rows was partly buried under
one of the six colossal boulders mentioned above showing, as hinted
above, that the splitting of the rock must have taken place after
the construction of this monastery. This catastrophe may perhaps
have been one of the causes of its desertion.
Portable antiquities found in this area included a terracotta
figurine (Plate V, a) of a dancing girl or Yakshi which has lost the
 24 Qt
and the feet. The left hand rests on the hip while the r i g h ^ ^ J
arm is laid across the chest to support the left breast. The figure
is naked except for a girdle of three strings of beads round the
waist. Figures similar to this are found on railing pillars of about
the first century B.C. at Mathura. This figure was lying a little
above the floor level. I found in this area also another figure of
the same type of which only the bust remains. Yet another object
found in this area th at deserves mention is the lower portion of a
terracotta pilaster (height 5|") consisting of a vase-shaped base on a
triple pedestal and a semi-octagonal shaft above (Plate V, l). Pilasters
of this design are found in the Anantagupha Cave in the Khandagiri
hill in Orissa (Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture,
Vol. II, p. 16 and figure 271) and on the gates of the Sanchi Stupa
(Smith, Fine Art in India and Ceylon, PL XVII, B). Other note­
worthy antiquities recovered from this part of the monastery were
three saucer-shaped pottery lamps (Plate XI, d) with tubular pro­
jections in the middle through which a string was passed for suspen­
sion, the lower portion of an incense burner (Plate XI, h), and a
portion of a conch bangle.
On the south side no remains of the residential cells have sur­
vived, but that the general arrangement was the same as on the west
side is obvious from the long walls of the corridors that are still
extant. Behind these corridors at the south-west corner of the
platform the excavations revealed a stretch of stone paving or a
causeway, the exact purpose of which is not intelligible. By the
side of this structure were standing two large pottery jars for the
storage of water or other provisions. I also found in this area a
large collection of common pottery lamps with round pierced pedestals
which would appear to have been used to illuminate the buildings on
special festivals, e.g. the Uposatha days.
In the northern wing of the monastery ( Plate III, h), fragments
of only the later rebuildings have survived. These included what
looked like the sill, composed of granite and mica-schist slabs, of a
doorway, which gave access to what might have been a storeroom.
Here a large variety of objects were found, e.g. a copper rod, thick
at both ends, which may have been used as an ear-pick (Plate X, a),
an iron scythe with a broad curved blade for cutting vegetables or
mowing grass ; the iron screw rod of a cotton press (Plate X, o)
and an iron pickaxe (length 6")- There were also several fragments
of pottery bowls of very fine light fabric, some with a beautiful
golden lustre, which had been repaired with copper rivets (Plate XI,
e and /), several pieces of Chunar stone polished on both sides and
also exquisitely ribbed on the underside, which no doubt belonged
to an Asokan umbrella (more of these will be mentioned in connection
with the lower platform) and a fragment of the rim of a similar object.
Xji®' G
“ix

I® *SL
I-Tsing tells us that pottery vessels of cheaper kinds were used only
once and then discarded and dumped into a ditch. One such dump
was found in this area between a group of large natural boulders.
Two curious little structures built of the usual kind of large
bricks but belonging to the latest period were opened in this area
and found to contain well-built square chambers (18 inches square).
Neither of these, however, yielded any antiquities. A larger struc­
ture to the west of these, which is paved with stone slabs, probably
supported a shrine which had completely disappeared.
The upper terrace had now been completely explored and all
that remained to be done was to make sure that no earlier ruins lay
buried beneath the level of the monastery. With this object in
view, three open spots were selected on the south side, at the north­
west corner and in the middle of the platform and dug down to the
level of the natural boulders with which the site was originally
strewn. It has now become obvious that the monastery was the
very earliest building on the platform and that, as it would have
been an arduous task to clear the site of the rocks referred to, it
was simply levelled up by filling the crevices with gravel collected
from the hillsides and the work of construction begun. The last of
the three trenches mentioned above revealed a broad and thick
layer of iron slag, the remains presumably of a temporary smithy
set up for the making of iron and copper objects for the use of the
occupants of the monastery.
I he lower platform was heavily encumbered with stone blocks
and other debris, particularly on the wrest side where only a few feet of
the east boundary wall of the upper terrace were visible. In the
middle of this terrace Sir A. Cunningham saw a square chamber
which, he was informed, had been laid open by Maharaja Ram Singh’s
excavations and which he judged to be the interior of a temple.
He also saw fragments of brick walls on all four sides of the platform
which he believed to be the remains of a second monastery. This
statement is only partially correct for although my excavations
have indeed brought to light in the northern half of the platform an
interesting circular temple of the time of Asoka surrounded by a
rectangular enclosure wall, no remains of residential cells have been
found on the sides of the platform.
The present dimensions of this platform, which has a very
irregular shape, are 170 feet from north to south by 180 feet from
east to west. My excavations revealed the interesting fact that the
whole of this platform was not built at one and the same time, that
is to say, along with the Asokan temple referred to above, but that
the northern and southern portions were added at a somewhat later
aate to provide space for the increasing number of votaries. The
original platform was only 114 feet wide from north to south, i.e.
 ‘ e°i^X

t(D |. 26 ,
■AA.|cfsf wide enough to afford a margin of about 24 feet on the north
§L
~~and south of the temple. The wide staircase on the east side of this
platform must have been constructed when the original platform
was extended on the south side.
The retaining wall of the original platform is well preserved on
the north, from the level of the north-east corner of the enlarged
platform to about the west extremity of the temple, and is standing
to a height of 12 feet with a thickness of 6 feet near the base. On
the south side a length of only about 33 feet has survived. These
walls are, nearly half way between the facade of the temple and
the east boundary wall of the platform, connected by a cross wall,
the northern portion of which runs under a modern Muslim grave
which, by the way, is not mentioned by any of the previous writers.
Of the two rectangular enclosures thus formed, the one on the east
is occupied for the most part by large boulders of stone, one large
mass of which, 12 feet high, was surrounded by a heap of ashes
and badly burnt in antiquity by bonfires, the exact purpose of
which could not be ascertained. Close to this spot was another
saddle-shaped block, 22 feet long by 19 feet wide at the base and 12
feet high at the west end. The underside of this block had been
hollowed out either by natural action or by human hands into a
cosy little cavern which might well have been resorted to by monks
requiring solitude for quiet meditation. This cavern is 13 feet deep
by 10 feet wide and 5 feet high at the entrance . i the west. Brickbats
and potsherds were found in this cavern mixed with loose rough cut
stones but no objects of interest.
Remains of Asoka Pillars.—In a deep crevice in the midst of
the boulders on the south was found a collection of 100 polished
pieces of Chunar stone and a still larger number of unpolished ones,
which must no doubt be the remains of one or more Asoka pillars
which had been battered to pieces. Several thousands of other
pieces (Plate VI, a) of these pillars were found on the southern
extension of the platform, some of which lay in heaps. Other
pieces were found all along the east retaining wall, ol this platform
and lower down on the slope of the hill and by the side of the large
rock, named as the ‘ Top ’. A few pieces were also found in the
circular temple to be described below.
Only a few of these pieces were found on the upper terrace,
all the others on the lower platform. The polished pieces vary in
size from tiny chips of a quarter of an inch to about 18 inches in
length by 7 it ches in height. All of them show the usual curvature
giving an approximate diameter of about 3 to 3 | feet. The large
collection of chips referred to above included a fragment which
is polished in the upper 7 inches but roughly chiselled below
(Plate VI, b). This fragment is obviously broken from the base of
 ' GoteX •**

:(f)|
.vX^y/'
<SL
one of the Asoka pillars at the point where the lower rough surface
met the upper polished surface. This circumstance is intei’esting as
showing that the pillar to which it belonged was broken down to its
very bottom. Another piece (Plate VI, c) is broken from the summit
of the shaft and preserves a part of the well-cut tapering hole (dia­
meter 2") into which was fitted the metallic bolt to support the
abacus of the capital which crowned the pillar. The upper surface
of this fragment bears the usual Maurya polish and the Brahml
letter na, the significance of which is not ascertainable. No portions
of the abacus have been recognized but a tiny roundish piece, polished
ill the usual way, appears to have been broken from the shin or
ankle of a large statue of a lion (Plate IX, d). I am inclined to
think that the capital of one of the pillars supported a statue of this
animal.
The largest unpolished fragment from the core of the pillars
is one measuring 2 feet 2 inches by 1 foot 9 inches by 1 foot 5 inches
thick (Plate VI, a). This block bears a series of chisel marks which
appear to have been made to split it into smaller chips. These
chips are, for the most part, of unspotted drab Chunar standstone.
A few of them including the fragment, broken from the division of
the polished and unpolished surfaces,- has black spots showing that
there were, on this hill, not one but two Asoka pillars. That these
two pillars were set up on the lower platform is obvious enough
from what has been stated above but where exactly they stood I
was unable to determine, in spite of a thorough exploration of the
site. The pillars at Sarnath and Rampurva and, presumably also
all the other Asoka pillars known to us, stand on thick rectangular
slabs of the same kind of stone of which these pillars are made and
I fondly thought that the base slab of one or the other of the two
pillars, under discussion, would be found, but there was no such
luck.
The question as to how and by whom these pillars were destroyed,
at present, remains a mystery and I am doubtful if it will ever be
effectively solved. Any suggestion that these pillars were destroyed
by a Muhammadan invader must, I think, be ruled out of court.
Many of the fragments being dealt with were lying at such con­
siderable depths, that the destruction could not have taken place
at such a late date as the end of the 12th cent ury A.D. when Shihabu-
d-Din (Ihor! destroyed the Buddhist remains at Sarnath or the 14th
century A.D. when Bakhtiyar Khalit massacred the shaven-headed
Buddhist monks in the Bihar and Nalanda monasteries. Nor was
it the doing of the reforming Hindus like Kumarila Bhatta \ seeing1
1 Tnkakusu finds no trace of B rahm anieal hostility towards B uddhism in the chronicle of
j-l.d rig (B uddhist Practices in India) whose travels in India presum ably took place during the
itetirne of K um arila B h atta and Suhkarucharya.
t(s)|
:
28
that marvellous tolerance and goodwill existed between the followers
<SL
of the Hindu and Buddhist faiths. In this connection one is reminded
of the violence perpetrated by the White Hun Mihirakula (circa
510-540 A.D.) in Kashmir and on the North-West Frontier where,
according to Hiuen Tsang, in the course of his invasion of Gandhara,
he overthrew Buddhist Topes, destroyed monasteries and put to
death myriads of the population. The monuments of Bairat may
well have been destroyed by this invader.
Other antiquities, found in the portions of the lower platform
under description, were a tapering piece of stone resembling a leg
of a human statue of local Bairat stone ; 14 pieces of a dish (Plate XI,
i) of grey clay which fit together and which were lying to the east of
the grave ; a white chert flake and cores of chocolate coloured flint
.(Plate IX, m, e and /) ; a well-carved piece of a casket (Plate IX, i)
of steatite ornamented with dog-tooth and other patterns which
was found at the south-west corner of the same structure and a
part of a grindstone of Chunar sandstone (Plate IX, c).
The Circular Temple.—The temple (Plates VII and VIII) is
found to be a most interesting structure which must be contempora­
neous with the Asoka pillars referred to above and built by the same
emperor. I t was destroyed by a great fire. When I commenced
my excavations on this part of the lower platform, I found on the
surface no traces of the square chamber of the temple which had been
brought to light by the Qiladar Kltaji and which were extant at
Cunningham’s visit. The only remains of th at previous excavation
were two trenches, one of which was found, later during the excava­
tion, to have entered and destroyed the north-east portion of the
temple, while the other followed a part of the circumambulatory
passage. In the earlier stages my work was considerably hampered
by the discovery of a long and massive boulder wall running east to
west through this area which had been constructed at a subsequent
date and caused much confusion. The portion of the original
structure that first made its appearance was the square corner on
the south-west and, inside it, a portion of a curved wall and, a
few feet interior to it again, another similar wall. The whole struc­
ture was excavated with meticulous care and found to be a circular
chamber with an inside diameter of 27' 2", having all round it a
circumambulatory passage, 1' 3" wide and around it again a fairly
well-preserved encircling wall. The circumambulatory passage is
paved with a thick layer of brick concrete, finished with a thick
coat of lime plaster, which must have been renewed two or three
times. The interior of the central structure was excavated down to
the bed of the rock which was also cut into, but yielded no relic
deposit of any kind. The contents of this chamber consisted of
earth, brickbats, potsherds and other debris. The lowest course
XS* ■e°5x

111 <SL
at the base of the circular wall projected a little at several places,
to indicate that the interior had been paved with a brick floor and
at least two other small bits of brickwork had survived in situ
in the middle of the chamber. They are composed of large-sized
wedge-shaped bricks, 2 feet in length, 15" and 13" wide at the ends
and 3" thick. There was an entrance on the east side, preceded by
a portico 2 feet in depth and supported in front on wooden pillars,
charred bases of which have survived in square grooves cut into the
floor of the passage.
In front of this doorway of the central shrine were found the
remains of a broader entrance, 8' 7" wide, in the outer wall of the
circumambulatory passage (Plate VII, b). The brick jambs have
the original mud plaster still adhering to them. Of the wooden
doorway itself the following remnants were found in situ : charred
portions of the wooden uprights and of the sill; large iron nails
(Plate X, m), 9" in length and 1" in thickness near the head, which
were lying close to the stumps of the uprights; wooden pins fixed in
semicircular plastered holes in the floor immediately behind the
uprights, to support iron sockets in which the tenons of the door
leaves swung. The iron sockets are thick discs with convex bottoms
to fit into the hollowed tops of the pins. Double-pointed iron cramps
(Plate X, k and l), by which the door tenons were secured to the
door leaves, were also found in the places where they must have
fallen when the doors were destroyed by fire. In the channel which
held the wooden sill and on the floor adjoining it were lying a number
of tiny terracotta beads (Plate V, g) with pieces of thread still
remaining in their holes. These must have been used to decorate
the doorway in the same way as the doorways of temples are nowa­
days adorned on special occasions with strings of mango leaves.
The wall of the inner shrine is constructed in a peculiar style
being made up of panels of brickwork alternating with octagonal
columns of wood, which numbered 26 including two which have
disappeared in the gap on the north-east due to previous excavation.
Charred stumps of most of the other columns have survived and
double-pointed iron cramps found in the recesses, in which these
columns stood, indicate that the latter were composed of two or more
thin sections, joined together to obtain the required thickness. That
these columns and the uprights of the doorways were adorned with
vertical flutings and other patterns may be inferred from impressions
left on baked patches of mud plaster (Plate X, / and n). The single-
brick panels between these columns are, as might be expected, com­
posed of wedge-shaped bricks, 20" long by 12" and 9" wide at the
ends by 3" thick. It will be observed that the usual proportion of
length to breadth of bricks on this site is here deviated from. This
must have been due to the truncated shape of the material. As in
lH 30
Asokan brick stupas, the mortar employed in the structure
§L
Under description is ordinary mud, though the outer surface of the
wall is coated with lime plaster which must have been renewed
several times. Large patches of this plaster, burnt black and red,
were found all over the place. The outer wall of the circum-
ambulatory passage is, like the monastery on the upper platform,
composed of bricks measuring 20" by about 10|-" by 3". The whole
temple was at a later date enclosed by a rectangular wall with
internal dimensions of 44 feet 6 inches from north to south by about
70 feet in length. The eastern portion of this rectangular enclosure
must have served as an audience hall for votaries.
The superstructure of the temple would appear to have been
built in the same way as the existing lower portion, namely, that the
brick panels rose right up to the eaves and that the 26 wooden
columns supported a ceiling consisting of horizontal rafters laid one
upon each pair of the columns. Above this there was a gabled roof
covered with flat corrugated pottery tiles measuring 14" by 9" by f",
which were found in large quantities, and finished at the top with a
tall pottery finial. This finial which is broken in two or three pieces
has a plain tapering stem, the upper portion being ornamented
with a series of horizontal flanges, and terminating in an egg-shaped
ornament (anda) (Plate V, i). The circumambulatory passage was
covered by an inclined roof supported on one side upon the outer
brick wall and on the inner side upon the wooden architraves of
the pillars of the central shrine h
This is the oldest structural temple and one of those which
furnished models for the numerous rock-cut cave temples of Western
and Eastern India. The nearest approach, both in plan and design,
to this newly discovered temple is the chaitya cave of about the
1st century B.C. in the Tulja Lena group at Junnar 12. This rock-
cut temple is about the same size as the one unearthed at Bairat
and has the same internal arrangement, with only this difference
that whereas the sanctum in the cave temple in question is sur­
rounded by a circular row of 12 rock-hewn pillars, the temple at
Bairat consisted partly of brick and partly of wooden columns. It
will be noted that the columns in both these temples are octagonal.
The interior of the temple at Bairat had, as previously stated
above, been unfortunately cut away by the previous explorer, referred
to above. But if, as is almost certain, the Junnar temple represents
an exact copy of the earlier temple discovered at Bairat, the object
of worship in the latter must also have been a stupa. And as this
temple was undoubtedly the work of Asoka, the stupa may have
1 Cf. th e baa-relief illu s tra tin g ‘ th e h a ir relic sh rin e ’ in C u n n in g h am , S tu p a o f B h a rh v t
PI. X V I.
2 F erg u sao n a n d B urgess, Cave T em ples o f In d ia , p . 2i>2 a n d PI. X V I I I , 3-4.
 ' G°^X

s p jf <SL
contained a body relic of the Buddha. The two fragments of brick­
work brought to light in the middle of the central chamber (Plate VII,
b), which have been alluded to in a foregoing paragraph must have
formed part of this stupa. I was also fortunate enough to find, both
in and around this temple, numerous fragments of a large stone
umbrella of Asokan workmanship and a few fragments, which fit
together, also of a large bowl of the same material and similar tech-
nique. All the umbrella fragments are polished on both sides and
also decorated with exquisite ribbing on the lower side. Most of
these pieces are small fragments from different parts of the umbrella,
the largest being 161 inches long and about 6 inches thick. Three
of these pieces fit together (Plate VI, d). Fragments broken from
the rim are naturally thinner than the others, but no pieces of the
central portion or hub or of the stone-post which supported the
umbrella were found. To judge from the pieces under description
the umbrella must have been more than 3 feet in diameter. This
umbrella no doubt surmounted the stupa in the central shrine and
the stone bowl referred to above may have been the receptacle in
which the gold reliquary referred to above was enclosed and deposited
in the stupa. This bowl would appear to have been fashioned on a
lathe. The pieces recovered are about an inch thick and broken
from the rim (Plate IX, a-b). When entire, the bowl must have
had a diameter of about 13| inches but the pieces recovered when
fitted together are only 9 inches across.
On the outside, the walls of the temple were inscribed with
Buddhist texts in Brahmi characters of the Asokan period. Several
bricks inscribed with one or two aksharas (Plate V, e, o and q) were
found built in the rectangular enclosure wall around the temple. A
few of them read pdsam, visa, vi, kama, etc. May we assume that
these inscriptions reproduced, in bold letters, extracts from the
very texts from the Buddhist scripture, which, in the Bairat-Calcutta
edict, Asoka had exhorted his subjects to listen to and study for the
furtherance of the Buddhist religion ?
Other objects found in and around the temple included the
terracotta hood of a snake; a pottery incense burner (Plate XI, h);
three conical terracotta objects pierced with concentric rows of
holes to hold incense sticks (Plate V, n) which were lighted in the
temple at the time of worship and which were lying on the floor in
the ante-chamber ; a terracotta figure (Plate V, c) of a dancing girl
or yakshi similar to those found on the upper terrace, with the left
hand on the left hip and the right on the thigh ; a solid pottery
cylinder with railing pattern (Plate V, l) ; many fragments of begging
bowls of fine clay coated with polished slip'or paste; a fragment
of a pottery dish or offering tank with a tiny bowl or lamp attached
to the rim ; a pottery ghara with a nearly spherical body and a
A'y^XV\ ' __

f(S )| 32 <SL
V ^ j5 ^ h o r t and narrow neck, which was filled with earth and closely
resembles in shape similar vessels depicted in the Bharhut Stupa
reliefs ; spouts of pottery jars ; potsherds with scratched decoration ;
large quantities of iron cramps, nails of different sizes, large-sized
fish-plates ’with nails sticking in their broad ends (Plate X, c and cl)
which had been employed in the wooden pillars and doors of the
temple ; an iron chisel; a reel of metallic ribbon (Plate IX, h) similar
in shape to those found at Sambhar (p. 8 supra) ; a single arrow­
head (Plate X, p) ; a copper needle (Plate X, b ; length 4-2"),“one of the
few articles of necessity which every Buddhist monk carried with
him on his journeys. A fragment of a grindstone of Chunar sand­
stone was found to the south of the temple and another fragment of
a similar antiquity to the north of the staircase to the lower platform
In the narrow trench which was dug to expose the north boundary
wall of the original narrow platform around the temple, at a depth
of 14 feet below the surface, was found a potsherd broken from the
neck of a pottery ghard. This is ornamented with plain incised
decoration, and bears a short inscription in early Brahmi characters
which appears to read luparichaJcra (?). The meaning is not clear.
Another potsherd with similar ornamentation, which" was found to
the north of the staircase to the lower platform, also appears to bear
some writing but it is too much defaced to be deciphered. A frag­
ment of Chunar sandstone found on the lower platform behind the
staircase on the east may be part of a spoke of a wheel, similar to
the one that rested on the top of the Asoka pillar at Sarnath.
Brick Platform.—The only other ancient brick structure that
has survived on the lower terrace is a rectangular platform made
of two courses of bricks measuring 2 1 |" x l3 "x 11" which came to
light in the southern extension of the lower terrace. I had found a
similar low platform around the base of one of the Asoka pillars
at Rampurva in the Champaran district in 1907-8 and it had at
first sight appeared that one of the Asoka pillars might have stood
upon this paving. This, however, could not be the case, as beneath
this pavement there is nothing but natural blocks of stone. I-Tsino
tells us that ceremonies pertaining to the ordination of sdmaneras
in Buddhist monasteries were performed on a small terrace or within
a large enclosure. May this platform have been used for a similar
purpose ?
Coins.—The importance of the 3G silver coins found in the
east wall of the monastery on the upper terrace in connection with
the dating of the monuments brought to light has been noticed
above. All these coins are exceedingly well preserved and, in
view of the renewed interest being taken in the study of the punch-
marked coins, I have considered it advisable to illustrate each of
the eight coins of this class included in this collection (Plate IV, b).
 ' G°feX

|1| 33
<SL
In an interesting essay entitled Classification and significance
of the symbols of the silver punch-marked coins of ancient India 1,
Mr. Durga Prasad of Benares divides coins of this class into three
chronological types, the latest of which he assigns to about the time
of Asoka, He interprets a large number of the symbols occurring
on these coins as representing mystic signs used in Hindu worship
and mentioned in Tantric and allied texts. It is interesting to
observe that many of the symbols found on the eight coins dis­
covered by me are of the same developed type which Mr. Durga
Prasad associates with the later coins of his enumeration. Of the
remaining 28 coins which belong to the Greek and Indo-Greek
kings of North-West India, only the rarer pieces are illustrated in
the accompanying plate (Plate IV, b : 9 seq.). They are all, however,
listed below :—
L is t o r 36 S il v e r C o in s (F.R . N o . 89) f o u n d in t h e E ast W a ll of th e Mo n a ster y
on t h e U p p e r P l a tfo r m .

Serial No Shape, size and

weight.
Obverse. i Reverse. Rem arks.

P u n c h -m a rk ed Co in s .
1 1 Oblong w ith two Five or six well- One dim symbol. PI. IV, 6. Large
com ers chipped preserved sym- ' crescent w ith pro-
off. bols. jection in the
•9" X -5" X -04". middle and thick
49 . 25 , en d s; dot in r. or
1. h a lf ; probably
n o t found on other
coins.
2 Oblong w ith one F our symbols, two Dim traces of one PI. TV. b.
corner chipped of which resemble or two symbols.
off. those on No. 1. [
•8' X '3 5 'X 06'.
44-25.
3 Oblong w ith one Five symbols .. Dim trace of a D itto.
corner cu t off. symbol.
■7' X -55' X '0 3 '
45. \_.
4 Square w ith one Six fairly well- One symbol. Ores- Ditto.
corner cut off. preserved symbols cent and trid en t
■55' x -5' X -03'. including * 3- back to back.
48-5. arched sign with
3 big dots in cor- j
ners.
5 Square. About four sym- 1 Crescent with D itto.
•4 5 'X -4 2 'x -09'. bols. pointed projec-
50- 75 i ion in tho
middlo and bifur-
! cateil ends, etc.
6 Circular or oval. Five well-pro W e ll - p r e s e r v e d D itto.
Diam. -6", thick- served symbols. I eaduceus.
i ness -06'.
51- 75.

i Journal and Proceedings of the A .S .B . (New Series), Vol. X X X . 1934, 3.

/X
/SyS*—
■6°^X ^

111 “ (S I .
Serial N o. S hap e^size a n d O bverse. • R eve-se. R em a r k s.

7 C ircular o r o val. F iv e w ell-p re- C aduceus and PI. IV , 6.

D iam . -6", th ic k - se rv ed sy m b o ls. tra c e s o f o th e r
ness -05". sym bols.
52-2.5.
8 C ircular. F o u r sy m b o ls .. O ne d im a n d u n- ; D itto .
D iam . -6", th ic k - fam iliar sym bol.
■ ness -05".
48-75.

Creek and I n d o -G r e e k Co in s .

H e d io k i . e s .

9 C ircular. B u st o f K in g r., Z eus sta n d in g , PI. IV , b. S m ith

D iam . -6". d ia d . G r. legend, h o ld in g th u n d e r- —III, 2 but dif-
36-5. Basileos D ika io u , b o lt in r., a n d fe re n t m o n . New
below H liokleous. long sc e p tre in v a rie t .
1. h a n d . K h . le ­
g e n d m aharajasa
dhram ikasa, below
H eliyakreyaaa.

Apo llo d o to s.

10 S q u are. E le p h a n t w alking. B idl sta n d in g r. PI. IV , b. New

- 0 'X -6". G r. legend, 1. K h. circ u la r v a rie ty .
35-5. Basileos, to p legend, maha-
Apollodolou, r. rajasa, A palada-
soteros. tnsa tradaram .

Me n a n d e r .

11 to 16 C ircular. H e lm e te d b u s t o f P allas to 1. K h . D itto .

•7". k in g facin g r. G r. legend, m aha-
34 to 38. legend, B asileos rajasa tratarasa,
so te ro s; below below M enadrasa
M enandrou.
17 C ircular. D itto . D itto . D itto .
•65' b u t k in g faces 1.
35-25.
18, 19, 20 C ircular. D iad . k in g r. G r. D itto . D itto .
•65". leg en d sim ilar.
35 to 37-5.
21 to 25 C ircular. D iad . b u s t o f kin g D itto . D itto .
•6". th r u s tin g ja v e lin .
36-25 to 37-75. G r. leg en d as
ab o v e.
26 C ircular. B u st of k in g D itto . D itto .
■7". th r u s tin g ja v e lin K h . legend ru n s
37-5. to 1. Gr. legend c o n t i n u o u s l y
ru n s co n tin u o u sly ro u n d m arg in ,
ro u n d m arg in .
 35

Snrinl 'NTn Shape, size an d „, „

1 Wo' w eight. Obverse. Reverse. ; R em a rks.

A n t ia l k id a s .
| Circular. B u st o f king r., Zeus 1., holding PI. IV . l>. New
■7". diad. Gr. legend, long sceptre in 1. v arie ty .
37-5. ! Basileos N ike- hand, and in r. a Cf. Sm ith, P late
pho ro u ; below sm all figure of I I I , 7, b u t ele-
I Antialkidou. N ike holding p h a n t faces r.
palm an d a
w reath tow ards
which forepart
of a sm all ele­
p h an t r., extends
its tru n k .

S tra to I.

Circular. B u st of king r. Pallas, holding N ot illustrated by

•7*. (youthful por- mgis in 1. hand Sm ith.
36- tra it), diad. Gr. and hurling th u n - | PI. IV , b.
legend, Basileos i derbolt w ith |
soteros; below r. hand. K h.
Stratenos. legend, maka-
! rajasa tratarasa ;
dhramikasa, below
. Strata sa.
-J C ircular. B ust of lung r., D itto . PI. IV , h.
•7". helm eted, youth- 1
ful p o rtra it. Gr.
legend, Basileos 1
soteros, below
Stratenos.

A n tim a ch o s N ik e p h o r o s .
•10 Circular. ^ Nike 1., holding King woaring Sim ilar to S m ith ,
']"■ palm in r., and diadem on horse- PI.VI, 3, b u t dif-
•17. fillet in 1. hand. back r. Conti- ferent. mon.
Continuous Gr. n uousK h.legend, PI. IV. b.
legend, Basileos maharajasa jaya-
Nikephorou A n ti- dharasa Arhti-
machou. mamkhasa.

H erm a io s w it h h is Q u e e n K a l l io p e .
•11.32 Circular. ^ j B u st o f king an d H elm eted king on P la te IV , 6.
■7". ^ queen r., jugate, prancing horse, r.
•IT-o and .18-25. b o th diad. Gr. K h. legend, mahei-
legend, Basileos rajasa tratarasa
soteros Krmaiou, Heramayasa, be-
below K oi K al- low K aliyapaya,
Hopes.

H er m a io s A l o n e .
33 to 36 Circular. B u st o f king r„ I Throned Zeus 1., . Sim ilar to Sm ith,
1■ diad. Gr. legend, radiate. K h. le- j PI. VI, 13.
Basileos soteros, gend, maharajasa PI. IV. b.
below Erm aiou. jtratara]sa, below
Heramayasa.
(i(ig )| 36
Pottery.-—Indian pottery of the historical period, i.e. dating
from the 3rd century B.C. downwards, continues to suffer from the
lack of a proper chronological classification. This is due to the
Jnghly conseryative character of the material and to the absence
on it of decorative designs or patterns which could be used for com­
parison and dating purposes. The fabric and shape are the only
criteria available and these do not show a considerable variety,
la m glad to have been able to bring to light at Bairat a representa­
tive collection of earthenware vessels which can be definitely assigned
to the three centuries from 250 B.C. to 50 AT). Owing to the
exceedingly small accumulation of debris between the three or four
strata noticed in the monastery area on the upper platform and of
the confusion caused by previous unskilled excavation, it is not
possible further to sub-divide the material between, say, the Maurya
and the Sunga periods. Complete specimens are unfortunately
comparatively few. The whole of the pottery revealed is wheel-
made and quite plain, uncoated even with any kind of slip or wash
m spite of the abundance of ochres of various colours in the
neighbourhood. The only ornamentation noticed on these utensils
consists of simple scratchings in vertical or horizontal rows generally
around the shoulder or on the body of the vessels, a few of the
sacred Buddhist symbols, e.g. the triratna upon the dharmachakra,
them astika and the lotus rosette (Plate V, /), the chain pattern
made with the potter’s finger-nails, or plain incised lines. These
vessels are all roughly made of coarse grey clay with a proportion
ot sand and mica and the commonest types distinguished amono-
them are: large storage jars with round bases as distinguished from
the pomted stems of similar jars on the Indus valley sites, dishes
with broad flat bases which may have been used as jar covers or
as eating dishes (Plate XI, 1c and o), ghards (Plate XI, c) with nearly
spherical bodies and similar to those illustrated in the bas-reliefs
on the Stupa of Bharhut, another type of water jar which, to judge
from numerous fragments found, was a vessel with a straight neck
and piojecting rim with the rest of the surface scored with vertical
or horizontal scratehings (Plate XI, b), tumblers or beakers for
drinking water with flat bases and straight sides (Plate X I l)
several varieties of jars resembling the modern lota of different
shapes (Plate XI, n, p, q, etc.), spouted jars for pouring water from
l rlate X I, g) of the type from which Anathapindaka pours out
water m token of his gift of the Jetavana monastery to the Buddha1
mcense burners with handles (Plate XI, h), lamps of the usual
simple shape and others with perforated tubular projections in the
middle to receive a string or iron chain by which they were sus-

! C unn in g h am , Stupa of Bharhut, P i. L V I1.

f(f)| 3, <SL
pended from a peg or a ceiling (Plate XI, d), fragments of offering-
tanks with a tiny lamp or a bird perched on the rim (Plate XI, j),
a small bowl with a rebated edge for the cover, another fragment
which may have formed part of a casket, a flesh rubber with surface
roughened with fine black gravel, the neck of a goblet (Plate XI, n)
and pottery finials. None of these articles has a slip or colour wash
of any kind with the sole exception of the casket which bears a
brown slip. It is noteworthy that no complete or broken specimens
of the well-known monk’s drinking vessel or water bottle, known
in Buddhist texts as the kundi or kundika were found among the
Buddhist remains at Bairat, although they are found in large
numbers on other Buddhist sites \
The only class of utensils that are made of a fine light clay and
coated with highly polished slips were alms bowls, numerous frag­
ments of which were collected. These bowls had been ornamented
or repaired with copper rivets and fillets and fine pins of copper are
still extant in several specimens (Plate XI, e and /). The rivet
holes indicate the use of fine boring tools. Stone vessels repaired
in the same fashion were found at Mohenjodaro and I have seen
in the Jaipur Museum conch bangles also treated in the same manner,
which date from the same early period as the Bairat specimens
and were unearthed in the ancient mound near Sambhar. An
unglazed dish of grey clay which I found broken in 14 pieces is the
only complete specimen of such a utensil (Plate XI, i diam. 8i
inches).
Bricks.—Bricks of the following sizes were found employed in the
buildings brought to light :—
(1) 2' 7" X V 4" x 3" in the platform flanking the staircase
to the upper terrace on the north side.
(2) 20" X101" X 2f" in the monastery on the upper terrace
and in the outer wall of the circumambulatory passage
around the temple on the lower platform.
(3) Wedge-shaped bricks 20" by 12" and 9" wide at the ends
by 3" thick, in the circular wall of the central shrine.
(4) Wedge-shaped bricks 2' by 15" and 13" wide at the ends
and 3" thick in the fragments of the brick stupa in the
temple.
(5) 2 1 f'x l3 £ "x l£ " in the oblong brick platform on the
lower terrace.
(6) 13£" X9" X 2", a loose brick found on the lower platform
to the south of the temple,1

1 Vide A. K , Coomaraswamy’s interesting stu d y entitled 1 Chinese B uddhist w ater vessel

and its prototype
HI - ‘SL
(7) Large flooring tiles 2' 2 " x 2 ' 2" found a t the top of the
latei chamber m the east wing of monastery on the
upper terrace. J
The advantage, for structural bonding, of bricks with the
if T n - u 0 pr°p0rtl0n of two widths to the length is well known
^ntd the commencement of excavations at Harappa and Moheniodaro
ancient n T ^ p e n s io n s had been noticed I t any
ancient site m India ; those employed in the Maurya and later

,1irdsn„ to hfour-fifths
fod of the ?length,
Wliich with
the Width vari®dthat,
the result fromwhere
two-
structural bond was necessary, bricks had to be cut up for use
The use of wedge-shaped bricks in the circular wall of the temple
is also noteworthy. Such bricks,-we know, were moulded and used
m the Indus valley m the 3rd millennium B.C. Lastly it is interest-
mg to find th at all the structures brought to light on Bijak-ki-
t o S l y ro o u n t^ bliCkS inSt6ad ° f Wi‘h S*°ne Which abounds
f(S )| <SL

CONCLUSIONS.
This small site, covering an area of not more than 400 feet by
190 feet, has yielded an unexpectedly rich harvest of archaeological
remains of the Maurya period and those immediately succeeding
it. The principal monuments brought to light are numerous
remnants of two Asoka pillars similar to the other known memorial
pillars of that emperor, a temple of an entirely new type and a
monastery both of which latter monuments must also have been
erected by Asoka himself. Of the two pillars no large sections have
survived among the thousands of pieces broken from their outer
polished surface and from the core. The cause of this wholesale
destruction and chipping of these •pillars will perhaps, never be
known. I have tentatively suggested that this was the work of the
White Hun Mihirakula in the beginning of the 6th century A.D.
It is, however, equally possible that these pillars were thrown down
by a severe earthquake and then broken up by the neighbouring
villagers and converted to profane uses. The only other site where
Asokan monuments were so completely destroyed is that of the
great audience hall ot the Maurya Emperor Chanclragupta at Patali-
putra, where only one of the hundred pillars that supported it was
found intact. The late Dr. Spooner held that these pillars had sunk
and been irretrievably lost into the earth. I venture to suggest
that the pillars at Pataliputra had met with a similar fate to that
which overtook the pillars at Bairat. With the exception of the
live rocks bearing his edicts, all the lithic monuments of Asoka
are made of a kind of sandstone found at Clninar in the Mirzapur
district of the United Provinces, and fragments of the Bairat pillars
may yet be found in the neighbourhood sooner or later.
An interesting feature of this excavation is the total absence
among the finds of anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha
in any form or material, which is in full accord with the view that
the Buddha image was not evolved until about the 2nd eenturv
A.D.
As regards the identity of the site that has been under explora­
tion or of the town of Bairat, I confess that my excavations yielded
no evidence to corroborate M. Renaud’s view that it is the modern
representative of the Po-li-ye-to-lo of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen
1sang. One serious objection to this identification is that whereas
m his very short account Hiuen Tsang mentions the existence of
as many as eight Buddhist monasteries at Po-li-ye-to-lo, only one
has been found on the Bijak-ki-Pahaxi and there* are no promising
mounds in this vicinity, in which remains of the other seven
 .asteries could be looked for. I t was not the practice in th o s e S L i

® ent times to build such hospices for monks and nuns in the
midst of busy towns, but if there was a departure from the rule
in this case, Hiuen Tsang would not have failed to say so. Fa Hian
obviously did not visit this place. Sir Alexander Cunningham
identified the ‘ K airat ’ of the Muslim historians, Abu Rihan and
Ferishta,. with Bairat and its capital Narana or Bazana with the
ancient village of Narayan, distant 10 miles, north-west from
Bairat. My friend, Mr. C. E. A. W. Oldham, C.S.I., informs me that
this identification has already been rejected by Sir Aurel Stein who
locates Narana in the Salt Range in the Punjab.
Lastly my researches on this site reveal the fact that a small
valley to the south of the Bljak-kl-Paharl was inhabited in the
prehistoric period many centuries before the Buddhist establishment
came into, being. The chert flakes and cores found in one of the
rough-built stone platforms in this valley and on the lower terrace
of the adjoining hill closely resemble those found on the chalcolithic
sites in the Indus valley.

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