ixil Archeological Survey Report. 
believe only to such places as possess either a temple or some other 
holy buildings. Of Raja Ben the people have no tradition, except 
that he was one of the five Supreme Emperors of India, and he is 
therefore called Raja Ben Chakravartti. The piece of water imme- 
diately to the south of the stupa is also named after him, kija Ben 
ka Digha, or Raja Ben’s Tank. I know only of one Raja Vena, 
whom the Rishis are said to have inaugurated as “ Monarch of the 
earth,” but whom they afterwards slew because he would not allow 
them to worship Vishnu, “ Who,” exclaimed he, “ is this Hari whom 
you style the lord of sacrifice?” From Vena’s right arm, when 
rubbed by Brahmans, was produced a son named Pirthi, who accord- 
ing to the Vishnu Purana also become a Chakravartiti Raja. This 
Vena Chakravarttl is most properly the great Raja Ben to whom the 
tradition refers. 
158. Now it is remarkable that according to the acconnt of Hwen 
Thsang, this stupa was also referred to a Chakravartti Raja by the 
Buddhists of the 7th century. He states that at somewhat less than 
200 li (that is, less than 33 miles, or say about 30 miles,) to the 
north west of Vaisali, which is the exact position of the Kesariya 
stupa, there was an ancient town which had been deserted for many 
ages. It possessed a stupa built over the spot where Buddha had 
announced that in one of his former existences he had been a Bodhi- 
satwa, and had reigned over that town as a Chakravartii Rdja, named 
Mahéddeva. It can hardly, I think, be doubted that the tradition of 
Raja Ben preserves the very same story which is recorded by Hwen 
Thsang. That the stupa was intended to commemorate a Chakravartti 
Raja might also have been inferred from its position at the meeting 
of four principal roads. “ For a Chakravartti Raja,” said Buddha 
addressing Ananda, “they build the ¢hupo at a spot where four prin- 
cipal roads meet.” Now to the south of Kesariya, within one quarter 
of a mile of the stupa, the two great thoroughfares of the district 
cross each other, namely, that from Patna northward to Bettiah, and 
that from Chapra across the Gandak, north-eastwards to Nepal. 
154. On the east side of the Kesariya stupa a gallery has been 
excavated right to the centre of the building. This is said to have 
been done upwards of 40 years ago by one Kasi Nath Babu, the 
servant of a Colonel saheb. As the name of “ Lieutenant-Colonel 
Mackenzie, Madras Engineer, 1814,” is inscribed on the Bakhra 
