820 March between Mhow and Saugor, 1838. QOct. 



rode the horses (many of which are richly housed in the native fashion) 

 the legs and spears, and a few heads which lie at the feet of the 

 chargers, alone remain. Not one body was to be found, which renders 

 it probable that these fragments have been brought from some other 

 place. We eagerly inquired of the villagers where they came from, 

 their names, their history, and whether there were any more such 

 statues in the neighbourhood : no one was able to give us the slightest 

 information. At last to our reiterated questions, and promises of reward 

 to whoever would shew us any temples — any Deos — a lad replied that 

 he would be our guide to a big god. We toiled after him over seve- 

 ral fields, doubting, guessing, and hoping, till he stopped and pointed 

 with a grin (I really believe the half-idiot-looking rogue knew that he 

 was taking us in) to what in our zeal we had quite forgot — the circle 

 of little stones, the Burra Deos. Though we were thus unsuccessful, I 

 am by no means satisfied that a more extended investigation than our 

 time permitted, would not have brought to light some temples or mo- 

 numents with which these figures were associated, and which might 

 afford some clue to their object and history.* We only saw one 

 other statue of a horse in this neighbourhood, that of which mention 

 has already been made in the Society's Journal.t It stands uncon- 

 nected with any other sculpture on the hill from which it has been 

 cut, at a village a mile south-south-west from Sanchi. Supposing these 

 horses to have been originally placed in their present position, several 

 explanations of their history offer themselves, but none that seem to me 

 sufficient ; thus, for instance, in Mussulman astanas, hundreds of small 

 horses with riders are heaped together in honor of Alexander ; but 

 the horses thus offered, are rudely made of burnt clay, while those be- 



* Accompanying is a drawing of one of the images, which we brought away, as the 

 villagers pay them no respect. The walled inclosure rather resembled the ruins of a hut 

 than a place built expressly to receive them. 



f Journal Asiatic Society 3; 489, where the m of the plan should point S.S.W. in- 

 stead of S.E. It was buried in earth, all but the head and upper part of the back, and 

 had been so, said the oldest inhabitants of the village, as long as they could remember. 

 Two men cleared out its grave in about 12 hours, and brought to light a rudely fashion- 

 ed, unornamented figure 12| feet from head to tail, about 10 feet high, with a head 2} 

 feet long. The neck and belly are clumsily supported on two columns (if I may so 

 call them) of this shape Z2k. which are cut out of, and still adhere to, the same block of 

 stone from which the horse is carved. On the recess were scratched, rather than en- 

 graved, two marks ^ ^j The other image at the same place, alluded to in the Journal, is 

 modern and Braminical. 



