Archeological Survey Report. exvii 
tery. In the centre room on the south side there is a “ square, 
elaborately corniced block,” which Mr. Thomas believed to have been 
the throne for a seated figure of Buddha. I incline, however, to the 
opinion that this was the seat of the teacher for the daily reading and 
expounding of the Buddhist scriptures. The cells on each side of 
these two central rooms are somewhat larger than those on the eastern 
and western sides of the court, and were therefore probably assigned 
to the senior monks. The common cells are 8} feet by 8 feet and 
each hag a separate door. 
272. The ground plan of this monastery is similar to that of the 
large caves at Bagh and Ajanta, sketches of which may be seen in 
Mr. Fergusson’s “ Hand-Book of Architecture,’ Vol. I. pp. 33, 34. 
The plan is in fact almost identical with that of the Bagh cave, the 
only difference being the want of cells in the cave monastery on the 
side opposite to the sanctuary, which was necessarily left open for 
the sake of affording light to the interior. The great cave at Junir 
is also similar in plan, but it is apparently of older date, as it wants 
the sanctuary opposite the entrance. 
273. The destruction of this large monastery would appear to 
have been both sudden and unexpected, for Mr. Thomas records that 
Major Kittoe found “the remains of ready-made wheaten cakes in a 
small recess in the chamber towards the north-east angle of th, 
square.” Mr. Thomas himself also found portions of wheat and other 
grain spread out in one of the cells. These discoveries would seem 
to show that the conflagration had been so sudden and rapid as to 
force the monks to abandon their very food. Such also is Mr. Tho- 
mas’s opinion, conveyed in the following vivid description: ‘The 
chambers on the eastern side of the square were found filled with a 
strange medley of uncooked food, hastily abandoned on their floors,— 
pottery of every-day life, nodes of brass produced apparently by the 
melting down of the cooking vessels in common use. Above these 
again were the remnants of the charred timbers of the roof, with 
;ron nails still remaining in them, above which again appeared broken 
bricks mixed with earth and rubbish to the height of the extant walls, 
some 6 feet from the original flooring. Every item here bore evidence 
of a complete conflagration, and so intense seems to have been the 
heat, that in portions of the wall still standing, the clay, which 
formed the substitute for lime in binding the brick-work, is baked to 
