1864.] 



On the Suins of Buddha Gay a. 



177 



they were, certainly knew the art of constructing an arch, and the one 

 before us was a very good specimen of it. The entrance gate to the 

 courtyard of the temple has a similar arch over it, though there it 

 has no superstructure to sustain, and seems to have been built more 

 as an ornament than otherwise. It may not be amiss here to observe 

 that by the selection of the pointed, instead of the semicircular, arch? 

 the builder has displayed a correct appreciation of the superiority of 

 the former in regard to its weight-bearing capabilities. 



In a line with the gate, and to its north, there formerly stood a range of 

 small temples, which have since fallen in, and been entirely buried under 

 rubbish. Capt. Mead has laid bare five of these, and in one of them I saw 

 a colossal figure of Buddha seated on a lotus throne, with the hands 

 resting one upon the other on the lap. This position is called the 

 Dliyana Mudrd or the " meditative position," and it was thus that 

 S'akya passed his years of mental abstraction under the great pipul 

 tree. There is an inscription on the throne which records the dedi- 

 cation of the figure by one Boddhikhsana of the village of Dattagalla* 

 the writer being Upavyayapurva an inhabitant of Masavagra. The 

 character of the writing is the Gupta of the 4th century. The letters 

 have been carefully cut and well preserved. # 



Beyond these temples Capt. Mead has excavated a trench from east 

 to west, laying bare a line of stox,e railing which formerly enclosed the 

 courtyard of the great temple, running close along the base of the 

 terrace around the sacred tree. It was formed of square granite pillars, 



* The inscription comprises three slokas in the fascile octosyllabic anushtup, and 

 runs as follows. 



*4*PrPC*T^K %en7KT^rriT II 



Translation. " Salutation to (Buddha) whose mind is ever directed towards 

 the control of his passions, and who is kind to all crea.ted objects, and this 

 with a view to overcome the resources of Mara lodged in blissful gardens of 

 unlimited expanse. (?) 



Bodhikahana, the pure-hearted, of the village of Dattagalla having his mind 

 devoted to the dispensation of Buddha, dedicated this (statue) for the removal 

 of all kinds of bondage from his parents and relatives, Upavyayapurva of the 

 village of Masavagra wrote this." The author could not condense in the verse the 

 word "wrote," so he has given it in initial after it. The third and fourth feet 

 ot the first verse are not intelligible. 



