liv Archeological Survey Report. 
a flight of steps leads down to the village of Besarh. This brick 
mound is the ruin of one of the stupas, or solid towers of Vaisali, 
of which so many are described by Hwen Thsang. ‘ Both within 
and without and all round the town of Vaisali,” says he, “ the sacred 
monuments are so many that it would be difficult to enumerate them.” 
He has however described a few of them, which were situated to the 
south of the town, one of which I have no doubt is the solid brick 
mound that now bears the tomb of the Musalman saint Mir Abdal. 
135. At a short distance to the south of the town, there was a 
vihar and also a stupa in the garden which Amraddrikd had present- 
ed to Buddha. Beside the garden there was another stupa erected on 
the spot where Buddha had announced his approaching Wirvdna (or 
death). Beyond this there was a third stupa, on the spot where 
the “thousand sons had recognized their mother.” A fourth stupa 
stood over the spot where Buddha was said to have taken exer- 
cise, and a fifth, erected on ancient foundations, commemorated the 
site on which he had explained certain sacred books. A sixth stupa 
held the relics of one-half of the body of Ananda, (N. B.—The 
other half was enshrined at Rajagriha). The bearing of these stupas 
from the garden of Amradirika is not stated ; but as the mass of the 
existing brick ruins lies to the westward of the southern entrance of 
the fort, the whole of these monuments must have been situated in 
that direction. Ofthe six stupas described by Hwen Thsang it is 
probable that only two were of any size, namely, that erected on the 
spot where Buddha had announced his approaching Wirvdna, and 
that which contained the relics of the half body of Ananda. It is 
much to be regretted that the presence of the Musalman tombs on 
the top of this ancient stupa effectually precludes any attempt at 
excavation, otherwise a shaft sunk down through the centre of the 
mound would probably reveal the purpose for which the monument 
had been erected. The stupa built by the King of Magadha in Ra- 
jagriha, over the other half of the remains of Ananda, is said by 
Hwen Thsang to have been a superb one. An annual fair is held at 
the Besarh stupa in the month of Chaitra, when many thousands of 
people assemble at the shrine of Mir Abdal. As the occurrence of 
this fair is regulated by the solar reckoning of the Hindus, and not 
by the lunar year of the Muhammadans, I conclude that the festival 
was established long before the time of the Musalman saint, I would 
