570 Remarks on the nature and [Nov. 



WiiiSON, Mr. Hodgson, and other orientalists, that they are Dehgopes 

 or Bauddha mausolea, containing relics of, or offerings to Buddha or 

 Shakya. 



These two theories however may, I think, be reconciled in a very 

 simple manner. 



Are not dehgopes, or chaityas, in many instances at least, shrines built 

 over the remains of persons of the Bauddhafaith, and consecrated to their 

 saint ? If so, we have but to suppose the rulers of the Panjab, at the 

 periodof the erection of the topes before us, to have been of this religion, 

 and the desired amalgamation of opinions is effected. My friend M. 

 Csoma de Koros, in reply to my interrogation on the subject, expressly 

 treats them as mausolea of the dead, and thus describes the objects con- 

 tained in the modern dehgopes of Tibet : 



"The ashes of the burnt bones of the deceased person being mixed 

 with clay, and with some other things, (sometimes with powdered 

 jewels or other precious things,) worked into a sort of dough, being put 

 into moulds, are formed into little images, called Ji, J^, tsha, tsha, and 

 then deposited in small pyramidal buildings, or shrines, (S. Chaitya, Tib. 

 mchhod-rten, ff^fc'^dj vulg. Chorten,) without any great ceremony, and 

 without any thing precious in addition." 



Such being the custom with the remains of ordinary persons at the 

 present day, we can easily conceive that the quality of the caskets in- 

 tended to contain the ashes of princes or priests in the flourishing era 

 of their faith, would be of a superior description, and that coins and 

 other precious substances would in some instances be added. In the 

 Manikyala cylinder, the pounded gritty substance contained in the 

 brown paste was evidently such as M. Csoma describes : the larger 

 fragments of glass were, as before surmised, substitutes for precious 

 stones, and the brown paste itself is to all appearance compounded of 

 various vegetable matters now decomposed and carbonized, mixed up 

 with a portion of the ashes of the deceased, as evinced from the pre- 

 sence of ammonia and phosphate of lime. 



There is much similarity between these mounds, sometimes of masonry 

 and sometimes of rough stones and earth, and the remains described 

 by Mr. J. Babington, under the name of Pandor Kulis, in the third 

 volume of the Bombay Transactions. Those erections are also of two 

 kinds : one a mere enclosure of stones, surmounted by a circular stone of 

 an umbrella- shape, and thence called a Topi Kul ,- the other, formed of a 

 pit below the surface, in which a large jar is placed : the mouth of the 

 pit being covered over with a large circular stone, the earth and grass of 

 which give it the appearance of a tumulus or barrow : this species is 

 denominated Kodey Kul, and it always contains human bones in a more 



