286 Notes on Boodh Gya. [No. 4, 



In fact, together with the arched, plastered and painted chamber, 

 they may and probably were all erected by Arnara Sinha, when he 

 thoroughly restored the temple. 



The enormous thickness of the walls and the goodness of the mortar 

 would allow of large breaches being made with impunity ; whilst the 

 insertion of the great beam over the lowest arch gives colour to this 

 theory. The two interior arched chambers, with the semicircular 

 recessed end of the lower, appear to me to have been subsecpiently 

 put in. The plaster of the upright wall on the inside above the flooring 

 of the upper room shews how the other work would seemingly have 

 been built on to it. 



The outer plastering also, when removed from 

 the capitals of the little columns in relief, shews 

 ornamental work below of a very primitive type : 

 whilst the original brick-work is substantial in the 

 extreme. 



The entrance to the basement of the tower was 

 doubtless a somewhat narrow, but extremely lofty rectangular doorway 

 with stone jambs and a stone architrave. If this were the case, the 

 insertion of an arch were extremely easy, and this would correspond 

 with the — in many points similar — temple of Kooch. 



The only difference is that the last named temple is smaller — hence 

 many inferences may be drawn therefrom as it was probably a copy of 

 the great tower. 



I would, therefore in conclusion, with great deference suggest that 

 the arches are all of them of the date of Arnara Sinha, or about 500 

 A. D., whilst the original building dates back perhaps to 200 B. C. 



The country around Boodh Grya, as it is well known, is studded 

 with Boodhist remains of every age, which would well repay careful 

 study, and I shall be very glad if these notes provoke others, as those 

 of Babu Rajendralala Mitra did me, to make a pilgrimage to this 

 very ancient and interesting district which has never yet been explored, 

 except in the most partial manner. 



April 20th, 1865. 



