540 Extract of a letter from Capt. Kittoe. [June, 



have been five large towers or temples, one or more of the mounds 

 should be excavated. They appear to have had chambers vaulted in 

 a very clever though primitive manner, which is termed " Vang," ^'jj, 

 in the Gussurawa inscription. The bricks are overlapped like an 

 inverted staircase till they meet at a point in the centre. 



I observed a chamber that had been lately excavated, from which 

 ashes, charcoal and bones were cleared in large quantities again, showing 

 the place had been destroyed by fire; weapons are occasionally found 

 among the ashes. 



From Bargaon I went to Raja Griha ; I found nothing new there 

 except the remains of an ancient temple to Maha Deva on the crest 

 of one of the hills, called Abhaigiri ; I saw remains of small towers on 

 this hill, but the Jains have appropriated every site and built very 

 indifferent temples on them. I took a bird's eye sket ch of the town 

 of Raja Griha ; the tower at the western gate has evidently been pur- 

 posely destroyed and excavated so that to renew the operation would 

 be fruitless. I heard of the ruins of a temple some miles off in one 

 of the recesses of the hills, but the heat prevented my visiting it because 

 I could not go by night through the thick thorny jungle"; it is said to 

 have been a brick building. I had been daily suffering from exposure 

 and was too unwell to prolong my tour, so I returned to Gaya, and after 

 fruitless attempts to get the Gayawals to allow me to copy those inscrip- 

 tions that yet remained to be done, I broke up my camp, first of all 

 arranging for the despatch of my collection of sculptures. 



The day before leaving Gaya I went to Buddha Gaya to return the visit 

 paid me by my friend the Mohunt ; I here saw the inscribed slab which 

 is used as a door site ; it is uninjured and the Mohunt has promised to 

 remove it and send it to me ; it is Buddhist and of a later date than that 

 of Gassurawa. I returned to Benares by dwak, and thus ended my 

 first official tour as Archaeologist for 1848. My next must be to 

 Gorakpur and thence to Patna to explore the many sites of cities in 

 that direction. 



I have now given you a tolerable idea of my doings ; for more minute 

 particulars you must wait for my official report and drawings. 



