1865.] Description of the Buddhist Ruins at Bakariya Kund. 3 



testimony of that keen and accurate observer, upAvards of thirty Kia 

 Ian or sacred monasteries, — to most or all of which, temples were pro- 

 bably attached — and with them about three thousand priests and 

 disciples were associated. It cannot be for an instant supposed, that 

 these monasteries, which were unquestionably built of strong material, 

 have all been swept away with the lapse of ages, and have " left not 

 a wreck behind." Indeed the existence of the Sarnath ruins, which 

 are mostly of the later Buddhist period, — some of which were seen by 

 Fa Hian in the fifth century, and nearly all by Hwan Thsang in the 

 seventh, is a strong argument for believing that portions, more or less 

 considerable, of some, perhaps of most of these edifices, are still 

 discoverable. We must not imagine that in any instance they are 

 existing in their original integrity, but on the contrary, that where they 

 exist at all, they have been appropriated by Hindus and Mohammedans, 

 and principally by the latter, for their own purposes, and that therefore 

 they have become blended with other buildings from which they must 

 be disintegrated. The use of numerous pillars in the cloisters of 

 Buddhist monasteries, which were mostly on a uniform pattern, greatly 

 aids the identification of the remains of this ancient period. 



A careful examination of Benares will reveal those portions of the 

 city which contain buildings, or parts of buildings, or sculptured 

 stones, or other objects of undeniable antiquity. Such ancient remains 

 are for the most part, we believe, only to be found in the northern 

 division of the city, and among the narrow streets on its eastern 

 border, running parallel with the Granges, in a thin band, as far as the 

 Man Mandil Observatory. 



Under the conviction that Buddhist remains were to be met 

 with in Benares, a search was made for some of them in the course of 

 the year 1863. On the very first day of the search the ruins at 

 Bakariya Kund were discovered, which we shall now proceed to 

 describe. 



These ruins are situated at the north-west corner of the city in the 

 Alaipore Mahalla, and are visible from the Raj Grhaut road leading 

 from the cantonments to the Ganges. The path conducting to the 

 tank or Kund leaves the main road a short distance to the west of the 

 •420th mile-stone. The tank commonly known as Bakariya Kund, is 

 about 300 yards distant from this road, and upon the summit of its 



