1848.] Extracts of a letter from Capt. Kittoe. 539 



I found the people excavating, for bricks they said, but I believe, in 

 search of treasure, or of metal idols. I descended into one excavation 

 and removed a huge block of stone in which there were niches which 

 had evidently contained relics embedded in some ruinous substance that 

 had been partly charred by the fire, which had evidently destroyed the 

 building, for upon removing the stone which was much split I found 

 a chamber filled with ashes, and burnt bones, and I was told that every 

 place exhibited the same marks of destruction. From this village I 

 proceeded to Behar, where I passed several days. The Mahomedans 

 have destroyed every thing, even the stone pillar on which there are 

 inscriptions in the Gupta, as well as Chinese looking characters. These 

 I copied, and the former have been made out as satisfactorily as their 

 mutilated condition will admit of ; one is nearly verbatim the same as 

 that of the Bhitari pillar, translated by Priosep ; the other appears 

 to relate to the victory of Chandra Gupta over the Nandas, but it is 

 very imperfect. Surely these cannot be the same inscriptions sent by 

 Mr. Ravenshaw, and published by Mr. Torrens in the 9th volume, (I 

 think) of the Journal, with an alphabet ? You will have an opportunity 

 of comparing notes when my official report and journal is submitted 

 to government. I visited " the little hill" of Fa Hian ; on this are 

 numerous tombs of Mussulmans and the massive Mausoleum of Mulik 

 ben Ibraheem, who flourished during the reign of the first Feroz 

 Affghan of Dehli ; these tombs are all constructed on the sites of 

 Buddhist buildings no doubt, and with their materials. The citadel 

 of Behar is evidently an unfinished Mahomedan structure and decidedly 

 not Hindu, as conjectured by Buchanan and asserted by the people ; the 

 place has been nothing more than what the name implies, viz. a Vihara, 

 or perhaps many Viharas and Chaityas. There are a few very beauti- 

 ful fragments here and there. From Behar I went to Bargaon ; this 

 must have been a famous place, and I consider it to be the " Na lo" of 

 Fa Hian ; there are some splendid tanks some half a mile or more 

 iu length ; there are mounds innumerable and broken idols also, they 

 are all of the later times ; some are half Vishnuvite half Buddhist, some 

 are Surrowuc Jain, and some of the Naga type. There are linga and 

 several figures of Durga slaying Mohesh ; there is a Jain temple in the 

 village in the same state as those at Pawa Puri, it is to the south of 

 the tanks that there are the greatest masses of ruins ; there appears to 



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