JOURNAL 



OP THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. IV.— 1851. 



Brief notice of the Sil Hciko or stone bridge in Zillah Kdmrttp. — By 

 Major S. T. Hannay. Communicated through Major F. Jenkins, 

 Agent to the Governor General, by Captain E. T. Dalton, 

 B. N. I. Assistant Commissioner, Assam. 



This bridge, a remnant of ancient times in Kamrup, is situated 

 about eight miles N. W. of Northern Gowhatty, on the high alley 

 which, no doubt, formed at one time the principal line of land commu- 

 nication with ancient Gowhatty (Pragjyotisha) and Western Kamrup, 

 and is built across what may have been a former bed of the Bor Nad- 

 di, or at one particular season, a branch of the Brahmaputra ; appear- 

 ances now indicating a well-defined watercourse, through which, judg- 

 ing from mark3 at the bridge, a considerable body of water must pass 

 in the rains, and at that season from native accounts, the waters of the 

 Brahmaputra still find access to it. 



The structure is of solid masonry, built without lime or mortar, of 

 the same massive and enduring material (gneiss and granite) found in 

 the neighbouring hills, and which appears to have been used so largely 

 in the construction of the more ancient temples of central and lower 

 Assam. There are no arches, the superstructure being a platform 

 with a slight curve 140 feet long and 8 ft. in breadth, composed of 

 slabs of stone, six feet nine inches long and ten inches thick, num- 

 bering five in the whole breadth, resting on an understructure of six- 

 teen pillars, three in a row, equally divided by three large solid but- 

 tresses ; with a half buttress projecting from a circular mass of masonry 

 forming the abutments at each end of the road, there being in the 

 whole length 21 passages for the water. 



No. XLVII.— New Series. 2 q 



