i3i J 



X. 



An Account of the Difcovery of Two 

 Urns in the Vicinity of Benares. 



By JONATHAN DUNCAN, Efq. 



I HEREWITH beg leave to deliver to the Society a 

 Stone and a Marble V T efTel, found the one within 

 the other, in the month of January, 1794, by the 

 people employed by Baboo Juggut Sing iri digging 

 for (tones from the fubterraneous materials of fome 

 extenfive and ancient buildings in the vicinity of a 

 temple called Sarnauth, at the diftance of about four 

 miles to the northward of the prefent city of Benares. 



In the innermoft of thefe cafes (which were difco- 

 vered after digging to the depth of eighteen bants, or 

 cubits, under the furface) were found a few human 

 bones, that were committed to the Ganges, and fome 

 decayed pearls, gold leaves, and other jewels of no 

 value, which cannot be better difpofed of than by con- 

 tinuing in the receptacle in which they mud have fo 

 long remained, and been placed upon an occaflon on 

 which there are feveral opinions among the natives in 

 that diiiricft. The firft, that the bones found along 

 with them, may be thole of the confort of fome for- 

 mer Rajah or Prince, who having devoted herfelf to 

 the flames on the death of her hufoand, or on fome 

 other emergency, her relations may have made (as is 

 faid not to be unprecedented) this depolit of her re- 

 mains as a permanent place of lodgment; whilfr. 

 others have fuggefted, that the remains of the deceafed 

 may have probably only been thus temporarily difpofed 

 of, till a proper time or opportunity flyould arrive of 



1 2 committing 



