1862.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 453 



My reason for believing that the continuance of the excavations 

 will well repay the cost of the work, is chiefly founded on the dis- 

 covery of the colossal copper image of Buddha ; and on the 

 unmutilated state of the other images and inscriptions. From these 

 discoveries, I conclude that the resident monks had only just time to 

 bury the colossal copper statue of Buddha, before making their 

 escape from the Vihdr, and consequently that numerous objects of 

 interest must have been abandoned by them. Mr. Harris does not 

 mention whether there are any traces of fire ; but I infer from the 

 perfect state of the copper statue, that fire was not the means of 

 destruction of the Sultanganj Vihdr. At Sarnath, Benares, all the 

 metal objects discovered by Major Kittoe and myself had been wholly 

 or partially fused, and the grain found in the cells was all charred. 



I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Harris for a copy of one of 

 the inscriptions discovered by him on the back of a small stone figure. 

 The inscription itself is of no value, it being only the usual Buddhist 

 formula, beginning with Ye Dharmma hetu prabhava, &c, but it is 

 otherwise of value, as the forms of the letters show that the figure is 

 of early date, most probably of the second or third century. 



I have delayed answering your letter in the hope of being able to 

 find some mention of this Vihdr either in Fa Hian or in Hioen 

 Thsang ; but I have been disappointed. The latter pilgrim describes 

 Champa, (the modern Bhagulpore) and it is probable that the Sultan- 

 ganj Vihdr is one of the " several dozens of monasteries" which were 

 then mostly in ruins. This is rendered still more probable by the 

 early date of the inscription noticed above. 



If I am right in my conjecture that the Sultanganj Vihdr is one 

 of the many that were in ruins in the seventh century when visited 

 by Hwen Thsang, it will only be the greater inducement to continue 

 the excavations, as the objects which may be brought to light will 

 belong to an early period of Buddhism, probably anterior to the 

 introduction of the five Dhydn Buddhas and Bhodi Satwas, who were 

 the principal objects of reverence at the time of Hwen Thsang" 1 s pil- 

 grimage. 



The characters of the inscriptions sent to me by Mr. Harris are 

 of the same age as those of the G-upta dynasty. The principal de- 

 terminative letters are the Y and the sr, which in the inscriptions 

 of later date, say of the 7th and 8th centuries, have changed to 



