xeV1 Archeological Survey Report. 
tion amongst the common people is from Raja Banar, who is said 
to have rebuilt the city about 800 years ago, 
227. The Buddhist remains of Benares are situated nearly due 
north, and about 33 miles distant from the outskirts of the city at 
a place popularly known by the name of Sdrndth. This name, which 
is usually applied to the great Buddhist tower, or stupa, belongs 
properly to a small Brahmanical temple on the western bank of the 
lake, while the great tower itself is called Dhamek. An annual fair 
is held close to the temple of Sarnath, and there is an indigo 
factory only 200 yards to the north of it. The name of Sarnath 
was accordingly well known both to the natives and to the English, 
and when the neighbouring ruins first attracted attention, they were 
always referred to by that name. ‘The earliest mention of them is 
by Jonathan Duncan in 1794, in his account of the discovery of two 
urns by Babu Jagat Singh “in the vicinity of a temple called 
Sarnath.” It is possible that Duncan here refers to the Brahmanical 
“temple;” but in the subsequent notices by Wilford and James 
Prinsep, both of whom had resided for many years at Benares, the 
name of Sarnath is always applied to the great tower. The same 
name is given to the tower in an engraving which was published 
in 1834 in Captain Elliot’s Views in India, published by Fisher 
and Co. : 
228. Sdrndth means simply the “ Best Lord,” which title is here 
applied to the god Mahadeva, whose symbol, the lingam, is enshrined 
in the small temple on the bank of the lake. I believe, however, that 
the name is only an abbreviation of Séranggandtha, or the “ Lord of 
Deer,” which would also be an appropriate epithet for Mahadeva, who 
is frequently represented as holding a deer in his left hand. As the 
lake in front of the temple is still occasionally called “ Sdrang Tal,” 
my conjecture that the true name was Sdrangga Ndth seems a very 
probable one ; but I would refer the epithet to Buddha himself, who 
in a former existence was fabled to have roamed the woods in this 
very spot as the king of a herd of deer. But this spot was specially 
esteemed by the Buddhists on account of a curious story which is 
given at some length by Hwen Thsang, and which, as illustrative of 
the Buddhist tenderness for life, I will now relate—“ The Raja of 
Benares, who was fond of sport, had slaughtered so many deer that 
the king of the deer remonstrated with him, and offered to furnish 
