570 



The Pillar Towers of the British Islands. 



[No. 5, 



In Hindustan and other countries where the Buddhist religion prevailed, 

 we must expect to find them still remaining. Such is the fact ; and a 

 few of them may now be mentioned. Lord Valencia, gives the drawing 

 of two round towers, he saw near Bhaugulpore in Bengal,* which re- 

 semhle those in Ireland : the door being elevated above the surface of 

 the ground, and the tower provided with four large windows near the 

 summit, and a stone roof.f Captain Smith has delineated another 

 such Tower, which he found at Cole near Allyghur.J These Towers 

 were never common among the peaceful inhabitants of Bengal, and 

 many were most probably destroyed by the persecuting Brahmans and 

 fanatical Mahommedan conquerors of Hindustan. 



The Buddhists of Hindustan were originally separatists from the Hin- 

 du religion, having rejected caste, and the sacred books of the Hindus ? 

 &c, while they adopted a pure system of morals, and believed that no 

 good work was equal to that of spreading their religion to the uttermost 

 extremity of the world ; and such was the enthusiasm of these Asiatics^ 

 that in, a few centuries they converted a large portion of the inhabitants 

 of Asia to their faith. They even penetrated at an early period to 

 Africa and Europe ; extensive traces of their presence are still found in 

 the British Islands, and a Buddhist community still exists in European 

 Russia. § 



In these distant countries, and among such different races of people* 

 they found it necessary to vary their forms and ceremonies, to suit the 

 fancy and circumstances of the people among whom they resided; 

 this explains the contradictory nature of a few of their precepts, and 

 the obscurity of some of their doctrines. 



On reaching Europe, the enthusiastic Eastern missionaries soon 



* Travels in India. 



f These Towers are often referred to, but I have in vain made various 

 efforts, when in the neighbourhood, to procure drawings of them.^ They 

 are the same referred to by the Marquis of Hastings in his private journal. 

 He states there are two insulated Towers near Bhaugulpore, which have some 

 resemblance to the Bound Towers of Ireland ; but " they are not above half the 

 height. The door was on a level with the ground. Evidently those which I 

 saw to-day were of no considerable antiquity. 5 J# These cannot be considered as 

 examples of the Pillar Towers ; and as the late Magistrate of the Bhaugulpore 

 district could not find any trace of them, I suspect his Lordship must have made 

 a hurried sketch, or the engraver took great liberties with the drawing which 

 he got. The late distinguished Jurist E. A. Samuells, C. B., long the able 

 Magistrate of the Bhaugulpore district, could not find any traces of them. 



% In William Benham's Iberia Celtica, v. 2, p. 200. 



§ In Chambers's Journal for August, 1858. 



* Y©1. I. p. 95. 



