lvi Archeological Survey Report. 
court-yard with small rooms on three sides, the residence of a Sanydsz 
who has recently settled at this place. The people call him Baba. 
He is about 30 years of age, and appeared to me very like a sepoy. 
He was obliging and communicative, and gave me both assistance 
and information. If he had been surly and disobliging, he might 
easily have raised religious scruples, and thus have thwarted me from 
making an excavation round the pillar, which I was particularly - 
anxious to do, as 1b was evident to me that the column had sunk 
considerably into the earth. The man had a few followers, and 
appeared to be very comfortable. There was plenty of food stored 
in his house, and a fine old well on the east side of the court-yard. 
140. The shaft of the pillar is a single block of polished sand- 
stone, 18 feet in height above the present ground level of the 
court-yard in which it stands, and 27 feet 11 inches above the 
surrounding fields. The difference between these two measurements, 
or 9 feet ll inches, respresents the accumulation of rubbish around 
the pillar above the general level of the country. I made an excava- 
tion all round the shaft until I reached water at a depth of 14 feet 
below the level of the court-yard, and of 4 feet 1 inch below the 
level of the fields. The water in the old well close by was standing 
at the same level. As the whole of the shaft exposed by the excaya- 
tion is polished, it appears to me certain that the pillar must have 
sunk into the ground at least 4 feet 1 inch in depth, and most pro- 
bably several feet more, as there was no appearance of any basement 
at the point reached by my excavation. The whole height of shaft 
above the water level is 32 feet. I was informed by an old man at 
Besarh that the saheb who excavated the Bakhra stupa left a Bengali 
to make an excavation round the pillar, and that just at the water 
level he found asquare pedestal in three steps. Before I began my 
own excavation, I was told that a previous excavation had been made 
down to the water level without revealing any inscriptions. I found 
however a few short records in the curious flourished characters, 
which James Prinsep called “shell-shaped,” and which Major Kittoe 
thought somewhat resembled Chinese. I believe that these characters 
belong to the 7th or 8th century. But at whatever period these may 
have been in use, it is certain that at least 4 or 5 feet more of the 
shaft must then have been exposed to view. The pillar now leans 
to the westward, and is from 4 to 5 inches out of the perpendicular 
