3. Notes on Certain Archzological Remains at Tezpur 
(Assam), 
By Proressor PaADMANATHA BHATTACHARYYA 
VipYAVINODA, M.A. 
r in Sanskrit meaning also ‘‘ blood ’’ 
bh: is Ten” in Assamese. I do not think, however, that 
the capital of so mighty a prince as Vana bore such an inaus 
picious name as ‘‘ blood-city ”’ rather inclined to 
beli that ‘Sonita’ as an e here m r a) 
tiv: 
that its meaning is ‘ FeSO cateka of what is signified 
by the Assamese version.! 
The remains of a long destroyed stone building are still 
seen just close to the Deputy Commissioner’s 
Brahmaputra. This building, according to the tradition, was 
the fort of Vana. Whatever it might have been, only some 
blocks and columns and a few fragments of the cornice are now 
seen there. On one or two stone blocks I noticed yrunnyea 
figures in Devanagara imprinted. Even now we find chalk o 
ink marks on wooden planks and iron bars, in the inthe 
language of the artisan when such materials are to be fitted 
pes some structure. This small fact shows that in that very 
mote period of antiquity, when this stone building was 
Seamtrniad: the language of the people was Sanskritic? if not 
1 Srijut Hem Chandra Gosdin, Extra Assistant Commissioner at 
ezpur—an authority on the Assamese wbscittnbes tas kindly given me 
owing ti point :-— 
** The town was called and known as Br * till the British 
occupation of the country. A certain uty Commissioner 
changed it into ‘ Tezpur’ to seins it are Assamese, it is 
' , 
As to the name ‘ Sonitapur’ the same on. writes 
‘* According to local traditions a large number of easels were caopoe 
in the battle that was fought betw a pian « nd Srikrish 
much so that the waters of the Brahmaputra became quite rad 
with blood. ” 
This popular er falls to 6 ground. when we remember 
that the city had h other name the Puranas while spoken of 
even before that bloody battle was doughs. It is the nature of the 
common its ple often to misinterpret a name and then invent what is 
-_ : ts k-tale to support it. 
might be also noted that the rock inscription in the river 
bed Blo below Tezpur is in a character which, although not Deva anagri, 
in evidently closely allied to it. The lat e Professor Kielhorn partly 
