30G Proceedings of tit e Asiatic Society. [No. 3, 



At Kesariya there is a middle age tope of cylindrical form, stand- 

 ing on the ruins of an ancient hemispherical tope. The tope is 

 attributed to Rajah Ben Chakravartti. 



The two pillars bearing Asoka's inscriptions stand to the north 

 and south of Bettiah. Hodgson's names of Radhia and Mathia 

 serve only to mislead. Each of the pillars is called Laor (Lowr) and 

 the adjacent village in each case is called Laoriya. The southern 

 Laoriya is a small village, but it is close to the celebrated Hindu 

 shrine of Ara Raj Mahadeo, and is two miles distant from RarJiia, 

 a small village to the west. The northern Laoriya is a large village. 

 It is, however, to the north of Bettiah, a little west, instead of to the 

 west a little north as stated by Hodgson, and it is at least fifteen 

 miles from the Grunduk instead of being on its bank. From Prinsep's 

 notice, I infer that Hodgson's information was derived from a na- 

 tive Munshi who wrote in Persian. The native evidently shirked 

 the Phallic name of Laoriya and substituted the names of other vil- 

 lages. Mathia is a tolerably large village two miles to the south- 

 west of the northern Laoriya. The pillars themselves are objects of 

 worship. I copied the two inscriptions which are generally in very 

 good order. About half a mile to the south-west of the northern 

 pillar there is a gigantic mound at least eighty feet high, and about 

 four hundred feet in diameter at top. This is the ruined fort of 

 Navand-garh, a name by which I would purpose to call the northern 

 pillar, while the southern pillar ought perhaps to be called Ara-Raj. 

 North and South Laoriya are the simplest names, but perhaps Nav- 

 and-garh Laoriya and Ara-Raj Laoriya might be preferred. Under 

 any circumstances Radhia and Mathia must be given up. 



Immediately to the west of the northern pillar there are numer- 

 ous earthen mounds, some of them from forty-five to fifty feet in 

 height. These I take to be earthen Topes or Barrows, the most an- 

 cient form of the Stupa. Two or three of these should be carefully 

 excavated. I dug up two of the numerous smaller mounds without 

 any result. But, as both Major Pearse and Mr. Lynch have found 

 relics in superficial excavations, I feel satisfied that the larger 

 mounds on which brick buildings of some kind have once existed 

 would well repay excavation. 



At Kasiya I opened the cylindrical tope on the mound, This 

 tope is a middle-age one, and the mound itself is the ancient tope. 

 There is a second ruined brick mound to the eastward on the bank 



