452 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 4, 



events of that interesting period. Captain Lees has undertaken to 

 edit the work ; it will occupy about seven Fasiculi. 



The report was adopted. 



Communications were received — 



1. From Major J. T. Walker, extracts from a report from the 

 Superintendent, Great Trigonometrical Survey, to the Secretary to 

 the Government of India, Military Department. 



2. From Babu Eajendralal Mitra, a paper on two ancient San- 

 scrit Inscriptions from Central India. 



3. From Herr E. Schlagintweit, a paper entitled " Translation 

 and Tibetan text of a Tibetan address to the Buddhas of confession." 



4. A letter from Colonel Cunningham on the Buddhist discoveries 

 at Sultanganj. 



Mr. Bay ley read the above. It was as follows : — 



Nynee Tal, 1th Sept. 1862. 

 To the Secretary, Asiatic Society. 



Dear Sir, — In reply to your letter regarding Mr. Harris's dis- 

 covery of some Buddhist remains near Sultanganj, I beg to say that 

 there seems to me every probability that the complete excavation of 

 the ruined buildings would well repay the cost of the work. I have 

 received from Mr. Harris a plan of the ruins, as far as they have 

 been excavated, and I am able to state decidedly that they are the 

 remains of an ancient Vihdr, or Buddhist chapel-monastery. The 

 Vihdr always included a temple or shrine, containing a figure of 

 Buddha ; and in the present case the enshrined figure has already 

 been discovered. Around the shrine were the cells of the resident 

 monks, who conducted pilgrims to all the holy spots, and retailed 

 the legends connected with them. Six cells have already been un- 

 covered by Mr. Harris. These six cells cannot form more than one- 

 sixth or perhaps only one-eighth of the whole number. The cells are 

 always disposed on the four sides of a square ; and I would therefore 

 recommend that the first operation should be to dig a narrow trench 

 along the course of the inner wall, in order to determine at once the 

 shape and extent of the mass of buildings. 



In Mr. Fergusson's .Hand Book of Architecture you will find 

 several plans of Vihdr caves, excavated in the solid rock. In all 

 these examples, the cells necessarily occupy only three sides of the 

 square, the fourth side being required for the admission of light. 



