88 Ancient Remains at Saidpur and Bhitari. [No. 2, 



was given by this monarch " to the followers of Dharma in the great 

 monastery." It is difficult to believe that he would have extended 

 his patronage to this Buddhist monastery, had he not cherished the 

 Buddhist faith. We are strongly inclined therefore with General 

 Cunningham to the opinion that Chandra Gkipta and Kumara Gupta, 

 father and son, were Buddhists. The ninth king of this dynasty, 

 Buddha Gupta, corrected the rabid Hindu tendencies of his predeces- 

 sor Skanda Gupta, and in his turn became a zealous disciple of Buddha. 

 Respecting the remaining kings of this dynasty, it is not known of 

 what creed they were ; but it is not a little remarkable that Siladitiya, 

 the great king of Malwa, who vanquished the Guptas and took pos- 

 session of their vast empire, was attached to the Buddhist religion. 



The conclusion, therefore, at which we arrive, is, that ancient 

 Bhitari was alternately in the hands of Buddhist and Hindu monarchs 

 during the Gupta period, who severally embellished it, according to 

 their distinctive religious views. The twofold character of the dis- 

 covered remains tends to the corroboration of this opinion, and we 

 have no doubt that further research would only more fully confirm it. 

 It is remarkable that the sculptured fragments of a shell grasped by 

 a hand, and also of a skull, the former a symbol of Vaishnavism, and 

 the latter of the Tantric form of Shaivism, should both have been 

 found among the same ruins, showing that both these rival sects of 

 Hinduism were once prevailing there. We hope that excavations on 

 a more extended scale than has yet been attempted, may one day be 

 carried on both within the elevated Bhitari enclosure itself and amongst 

 the outlying mounds. 



The iconoclastic zeal of the Mahomedans is too well known to need re- 

 mark ; and as the value of the monolith at Bhitari on account of the 

 historical information it affords regarding the Gupta dynasty is indis- 

 putable, it is of considerable importance that the Government remove 

 it to another place, say the Queen's College, Benares, for greater 

 security, to which it would be an interesting architectural ornament ; 

 the more so as we have laid out an archaeological garden in the grounds 

 of that institution. 



Note. — We subjoin a Lithograph, (Plate XVII.) of a very curious group found 

 at Bhitari and supposed by us, in consequence of other similar groups at the 

 Yishnupad at Gay a and there described as such, to be a portion of the "Nan* 



