1866-3 Buddhist Monasteries and Temples. 79 



Attached to the mosque is a corridor, built a few years later, on 

 the inner wall of which is the following inscription : — 



In noticing the remains of the Kirt Bisheshwar temple, we are 

 aware that they do not come under the designation of " old" or 

 " ancient," as applied to other remains described in this paper, and 

 yet, as they are not without interest, we have given them a place in it. 



Buddhist Chaitya — No. IV. 

 ChauJchambha Mosque. 



The long Chauhhambha street in the city of Benares, in or about 

 which most of the great bankers have their houses of business, takes 

 its name from four low massive pillars of modern erection, standing 

 in the lowermost story of a lofty building, the weight of which they 

 entirely sustain, situated towards its north-eastern extremity. There 

 is a narrow court running out of this street, which terminates in a 

 small enclosure, on the further side of which is a mosque. The 

 entire enclosure has a very remarkable appearance, and, for the 

 archaeologist, is a place of considerable interest. The entrance is by a 

 doorway let into a huge breastwork or wall formed of blocks of stone, 

 which is twenty feet long, thirteen feet high, and four feet thick, 

 and is constructed for the most part systematically, as is evident 

 from the ornamentation on one stone answering to that on the stone 

 contiguous to it. Over the doorway is an inscription in Arabic. 

 But with the exception of this doorway and the castellated appear- 

 ance crowning the wall, there is nothing Mohammedan in its archi- 

 tecture. 



The mosque and corridor adjoining it are supported by twenty-four 

 pillars, of which six are double. The capitals are of the simple 

 cruciform pattern, and their outer limbs are decorated with the dwarf 

 bell ornamentation. To the south of this building is a staircase 



