1865.] Report of the Archeological Survey, 155 
Report of the Proceedings of the Archeological Surveyor to the Govern- 
ment of India for the Season of 1862-63.—By Major-General 
A. Cunnineuam, Archeological Surveyor to the Govt. of India, 
[Received 3rd Feb., 1865. ] [Read 1st March, 1865. | 
(Continued from Vol. XXXITI. page Ixxxvii.) 
IL—MATHURA, 
159. In the Brahmanical city of Mathura, in A. D. 634, the 
temples of the gods were reckoned by Hwen Thsang at five only, 
while the Buddhist monasteries amounted to 20, with 2,000 resident 
monks. The number of Stwpas and other Buddhist monuments was 
also very great, there being no less than seven towers, containing 
relics of the principal disciples of Buddha. The king and his minis- 
ters were zealous Buddhists, and the three great fasts of the year 
were celebrated with much pomp and ceremony, at which times the 
people flocked eagerly to make their offerings to the holy Stupas 
containing the relics of Buddha’s disciples. Each of them, says 
_ Hwen Thsang, paid a special visit to the statue of the Bodhisatwa 
whom he regarded as the founder of his own school. Thus the follow- 
ers of the Abhidharma, or transcendental doctrines, made their offerings 
to Sdriputra ; they who practised Samddhi or meditation, to Mudga- 
laputra ; the followers of the Sautrdntikas, or aphorisms, to Purva 
Maitreyani Putra ; they who adhered to the Vinaya or discipline, to 
Upali ; the Bhikshuni or Nuns, to Ananta ; the Anwpdsampannas, or 










novices, to Rahula (the son of Buddha) ; and they who studied the 
“ Greater means of advancement,” to the great Bodhisatwa Manju 
Sri or Avalokiteswara, who plays such a conspicuous part in later 
Buddhism. But notwithstanding this apparently flourishing condition 
of Buddhism, it is certain that the zeal of the people of Mathura 
must have lessened considerably since A. D. 400, when Fa Hian 
reckoned the body of monks in the 20 monasteries to be 3,000, or 
_ just one-half more than their number at the time of Hwen Thsang’s 
- visit in A. D. 634. 
160. Fa Hian and his companions halted at Mathura for a whole 
month, during which time “the clergy held a great assembly and 
discoursed upon the law.” After the meeting they proceeded to the 
Stupa of Sdriputra, to which they made an offering of all sorts of 
20 
