370 



On the Buddhist Memains of Sultanganj. 



[No. 4, 



who were sworn to celibacy and poverty, who shaved their heads 

 wore the simplest garments, and earned their subsistence by alms still 

 the Viharas of old were not without the possession of considerable wealth 

 and the proximity of a mud fort was always deemed a desirable source 

 of security. Hence it is that large mounds, the remains of former 

 mud forts, are generally met with in the neighbourhood of extensive 

 monasteries. At Sarnath a fort stood within five hundred yards of the 

 Vihara, at Buddhagaya one was situated within a stone's throw of the 

 great temple, and at Kusia and elsewhere the like may be seen within 

 very short distances. It was to be expected therefore that at Sultan- 

 ganj there should be a fort within hail of the monastery, and according. 

 ly we find one to the west of it at a distance of about three quarters 

 of a mile— a square mound of about 400 yards on each side raised to 

 the height of about 20 feet from the plain, and now the site of an 

 indigo factory. To the south of it there is a large tank which yielded 

 the earth of which the mound was formed. 



Another peculiarity in which the Vihara at Sultanganj bears a 

 close resemblance to Buddhist monasteries in other parts of India, is 

 the great abundance of the little fictile bell-shaped structures called 

 chaityas. They occur either in alto-relievos as No. 22, or in bass-reliefs 

 stamped on small tiles, as No. 23. The former generally have the Bud- 

 dhist creed enclosed within or stamped at bottom, and the latter the 

 same stamped below the figure of the Chaitya. The type seems to 

 have been conventional and common all over India. Mr. E. Thomas 

 found the exact counterparts of these at Sarnath, General Cunningham 

 noticed them at Bhilsa, and I have seen some brought from the ruins of 

 Brahmanabad in Guzerat and now in the possession of Lady Frere. A 

 short time ago Colonel Phayre sent a few tiles to the Asiatic Society 

 from Burmah which, though shaped differently, and intended to 

 hold the figure of Buddha in the centre, have the chaityas and the 

 inscriptions so exactly alike that they may easily pass for relics from 

 Sarnath or Sultanganj. The inscriptions on all these are in the 

 Kutila type which had a long range of four centuries from the 8th to 

 the 11th ; the monuments on which they are found, must have 

 therefore existed at least down to the 7th, 8th or even the 9th or 10th 

 century. The Kutila characters, however, could not have been current 

 in some of the countries where they are met with, such as Burmah and 

 Guzerat, and must have therefore been adopted as mystic or sacred 



