252 Report of the Archeological Survey. [No. 4, 
ancient cities; and though I was unable to trace any remains of walls 
except in one place, yet the very presence of the bricks is quite suffi- 
cient to show that the earthen ramparts must once have been crowned 
by brick parapets and battlements. The portion of the parapet wall, 
which I discovered still standing in the middle of the river face, was 
10 feet thick. The whole circuit of the old earthen ramparts, accord- 
ing to my survey, is 17,300 feet, or upwards of 34 miles. Now this 
is the exact size of 20 li or 34 miles which Hwen Thsang gives to the 
palace alone ; but, as the city was then deserted and in ruins, he must 
have mistaken the city itself for the palace. It is certain at least 
that the suburbs outside the walls must have been very limited indeed, 
as the place is almost entirely surrounded with the remains of large 
religious buildings, which would have left but little room for any 
private dwellings. I am therefore quite satisfied that the city has 
been mistaken for the palace; and this mistake is sufficient to show 
how utterly ruined this once famous city must have been at so distant 
a period as the 7th century, when the place was visited by Hwen 
Thsang. As Fa Hian describes the population as already very incon- 
siderable in A. D. 400, while the Ceylonese annals speak of Khira- 
dhara, King of Sawatthipura between A. D. 275 and 302, the great 
decline of Sravasti must have taken place during the 4th century, and 
we may perhaps not be far wrong in connecting it with the fall of the 
Gupta Dynasty in A. D. 319. 
329. Srdvasti is said to have been built by Raja Sravasta, the son 
of Yuvandswa of the Solar race, and the tenth in descent from Surya 
himself. Its foundation therefore reaches to the fabulous ages of 
Indian history, long anterior to Rama. During this early period it 
most probably formed part of the kingdom of Ayodhya, as the Vayu 
Purana assigns it to Lava, the son of Rama. When Sravasti next 
appears in history, in the time of Buddha, it was the Capital of 
King Prasenajit, the son of Maha Kosala. The King became a con- 
vert to the new faith, and during the rest of his life he was the firm 
friend and protector of Buddha. But his son Virudhaka hated the 
race of the Sakyas, and his invasion of their country and subsequent 
massacre of 500 Sakya maidens, who had been selected for his harem, 
brought forth the famous prediction of Buddha, that within seven days 
the King would be consumed by fire. As the story has been preserved — 

