274 P. S. Growse — Bulandshahr Antiquities. [No. 4, 



niadans have long since made a clean sweep of the district and razed to 

 the ground every building, whether secular or religious, that had been 

 erected by its former Hindu rulers. I have now been over every part of 

 it, and the few fragments shown in the accompanying Plate X are posi- 

 tively the sum total of all the antiquities that I have noticed. The 

 six short pillars are of the mediaeval Hindu period and may be ascribed 

 to one of the Dor Bajas, about the year 1000 A. D. They had been 

 buried under the steps of a small mosque on the highest part of the old 

 town of Bulandshahr. In digging the foundations of a house on the 

 opposite side of the same street was found the curious stone sculptured 

 with three miniature temples. These are of different design, and if found 

 separately, I might have been inclined to refer them to different architec- 

 tural periods. But similar forms may be seen in conjunction on the 

 front of the temples at Khajuraho, which are known to be of the tenth 

 century A. D., and the very archaic type of one of these designs must be 

 attributed to religious conservatism. The high mediaeval column is one 

 of a pair found a few years ago on the margin of what was formerly a 

 large masonry tank outside the walls, said to have been constructed by 

 Raja Hardatt, or one of his descendants. The companion column was 

 sent off to Merath, 40 miles away, by the Muhammadan gentleman into 

 whose possession it had come, to be worked up into a house he was 

 building there. The one shown in the plate I rescued from his stables, 

 where it had been thrown down on the ground and was used by his grass- 

 cutters to sharpen their tools on. The circular pillar with the coil of 

 human-headed snakes at the base is, as already mentioned, from Ahar ; as 

 also the mediaeval door-jamb and the block, that supports it, carved with 

 rows of temple facades in the style of the Nasik caves. This last is pro- 

 bably the oldest of the group. The second door-jamb found in the court- 

 yard of the mosque at Bulandshabr is comparatively modern. More 

 intimate local knowledge may possibly bring to light a few other ancient 

 remains, but they are not likely to be numerous ; for stone, which had 

 to be brought from a considerable distance, has always been very sparingly 

 used in the neighbourhood, while brick is a material, which however well 

 worked must ordinarily cease to possess either interest or beauty when 

 reduced to ruin. The only other ancient inscription, of which I have 

 heard as belonging to the district, is the one of which a transcript and 

 translation by Dr. Rajendralala Mitra were given in Vol. XLIII of the 

 As. Society's Journal. This is dated in the reign of Skanda Gupta, in the 

 year 146, which, if the Saka era is intended, would correspond with 

 224 A. D. It was dug up at the village of Indor, in a fchera of unusual 

 elevation and extent, which adjoins the high road between Anupshahr 

 and Aligarh, about 10 miles from the former town. In the inscription 



