Archeological Survey Report. | lxv 
son’s name of Mathiah serves only to mislead, I propose to call the 
site of this pillar Lauriya Navandgarh, by adding the name of a 
very remarkable deserted fort which stands just half a mile to the 
south-west of Lauriya. The village of Mathiah lies no less than 3 
miles to the south of the pillar, and is besides both smaller and of 
less consequence than Lauriya, The name of this Lauriya is printed 
in Roman letters in the Indian Atlas Sheet No. 102, and even the 
“stone pillar” itself is inserted in its proper place to the north-east of 
the village. The deserted fort of Navandgarh is omitted, but it will 
be found in the Calcutta Map, on the 8-mile scale, as Naonad-garh. 
The mound is from 250 to 300 feet square at top, and 80 feet in 
height. On account of its height it was chosen as one of the stations 
of the Trigonometrical Survey, and for the same reason it commands 
a most extensive and beautiful view of the well wooded country 
around it. 
160. The remains at Lauriya Navandgarh are particularly inter- 
esting, as they are very extensive, and at the same time quite differ- 
ent in character from any others that I have examined. The remains 
consist of three rows of earthen barrows or huge conical mounds of 
earth of which two of the rows lie from north to south, and the 
third from west to east. The stupas hitherto met with have been 
made either of stone or of brick; but the earliest stupas were mere 
mounds of earth, of which these are the only specimens that I have 
seen. I believe that they are the sepulchral mounds of the early 
kings of the country, prior to the rise and spread of Buddhism, and 
that their date may therefore be assumed as ranging from about 600 
to 1500 B.C. The word stupa meant originally only “a mound of 
earth,” and this is the rendering given to the word by Colebrooke in 
his translation of the Amarakosha. In the time of Asoka all the 
stupas were certainly built either of stone or brick, as recorded by 
Hwen Thsang; and although he is silent regarding the material of 
the earlier stupas of Ajatasatru and other contemporaries of Buddha, 
yet, as he makes no mention anywhere of earthen stupas, I presume 
that all the Buddhist monuments were either of brick or stone. The 
earthen barrows I would therefore refer to an earlier period, as the 
stupas or sepulchral mounds raised over the ashes of the rulers of 
the country, the larger mounds belonging perhaps to the greater or 
more famous monarchs who had assumed the title of Chakravartti 
Kk 
