274 Notes on the Viharas and Chaityas of Behar. [March, 



shortly after whose death this took place? This is what I shall try to 

 show. 



Within a circle of 30 or 40 miles round Gyah, I have traced the 

 following, of what I suppose to be the remains of Viharas, viz. Nagar- 

 juni, Koorkihar, (Bodh Gyah,) Bukrour, (Gyah proper,) Murghat, Chil- 

 lor, Booraha, and Gooncherit, Pawapuri, Burgaon or Koondilpoor, Behar, 

 Raja-griha, Giryek, Patna, or as I find it called in an inscription, " Pata- 

 liputra," Poonaha and Dharawut : here are seventeen, of these places 

 I have visited eleven ; the great antiquity of five of them is unquestion- 

 able ; of those named which I have not seen, there are five, also doubt- 

 less ; therefore we may assume that we know of ten out of the eighteen 

 of Sakya's time. 



Behar, or more properly speaking " Magda," is acknowledged ever 

 to have been the chief seat of the Buddhist religion, and of its heretical 

 offshoots ; the exact extent of this kingdom is unknown — and I fear 

 must ever remain doubtful, though it would seem to have included (to 

 the north) Benares, Allahabad and Ajudhia (or Oude) and to have ex- 

 tended to Ganjam, (Kalinga Desa) to the south, and Arracan to the south- 

 east, at least the inscriptions, cave temples and the mention made in 

 the Buddhist works would seem to warrant such a conclusion, though 

 the former clearly point to the king of Magda having supreme power 

 over all India from Caubul to Ceylon. Such must have been the case 

 in Asoka's time and in that of Chundra Gupta. The 83,000 temples 

 supposed to have been built by the first named were scattered all over 

 India, and raised or repaired by command at one and the same time, 

 upon the occasion of his conversion to the Buddhist faith. Of these per- 

 haps the Tope of Manikyala, the caves of Bamiyan and of western 

 India formed part ; however I have here to treat of the " Vihars around 

 Raja-griha," ten of which I have shown to have been traced with toler- 

 able certainty. 



I have given the names of seventeen sites : I will now describe those 

 I have visited. 



First of all Bodh Gyah. The extensive mound of brick, mud and 

 hewn stones bear evidence of there having been perhaps more than one 

 establishment, and that a great Chaitya or tope existed, the masonry 

 of which was of brick and stone, the latter from the same quarry as 

 all the pillars, bearing inscriptions in the ancient Pali, and supposed to 



