iv Archeological Survey Report. 
present temples have been erected on former sites and with old materi- 
als. Statues, both Buddhistical and Brahmanical, are found in all 
parts of the old city, and more especially about the temples, where 
they are fixed in the walls, or in small recesses forming separate 
shrines in the court-yards of the larger temples. I have noted the 
names and localities of all these statues. 
3. The inscriptions at Gaya are numerous; but owing to the 
destruction of the ancient temples, there are but few of them in situ, 
or attached to the objects which they were originally designed to 
commemorate. I have taken copies of all the inscriptions, of which 
the most interesting is a long and perfect one, dated in the era of the 
Nirvan, or death of Buddha. I read the date as follows : 
Bhagavati parinirvritte Samvat 1816 Kartike badi 1 Budhe 
that is, “in the year 1816 of the emancipation of Bhagavata on 
Wednesday, the 1st day of the waning moon of Kartika.” If the 
era here used is the same as that of the Buddhists of Ceylon and 
Burmah, which began in 543 B, C., the date of this inscription will 
be 1816—543=A. D. 1273. The style of the letters is in keeping 
with this date, but is quite incompatible with that derivable from the 
Chinese date of the era, The Chinese place the death of Buddha up- 
wards of 1,000 years before Christ, so that according to them the date 
of this inscription would be about A. D. 800, a period much too early 
for the style of character used in the inscription. But as the day of the 
week is here fortunately added, the date can be verified by calculation. 
For the reckoning of Hindu dates I have prepared elaborate Tables 
which render the operation a comparatively easy one. From: these 
Tables I deduce the date of the inscription to correspond with Wed- 
nesday, the 17th September, A. D. 1842. This would place the 
Nirvdna of Buddha in 477 B. C., which is the very year that was 
first proposed by myself as the most probable date of that event. 
This corrected date has since been adopted by Professor Max Miller. 
4. Some of the inscriptions, though less interesting, are still 
valuable for the light which they will throw upon the medizval period 
of Indian history. Several Rajas are mentioned in them ; and in one 
of them the date is very minutely detailed in several different eras. 
5. The most noteworthy places at Gaya are the temples of Vishnu- 
pad, or “ Vishnu’s feet ;” of Gadddhar, or the “ mace-bearer,” a title of 
