1865.] Report of the Archeological Survey. 259 
the figure was removed with much difficulty, on account of its great — 
weight, and the floor of the temple had been cleared, it was seen that 
the pedestal of the statue was still standing erect in its original posi- 
tion. The floor was paved with large stones, and immediately in front 
of the pedestal there was a long flat slab 3? feet by 14 foot, with a 
pair of hollow foot-marks in the centre and two sunken panels on each 
side. At the back of the incised feet towards the pedestal there was a 
rough hollow, 34 feet long by 4 inches broad, which, judging from 
what I have seen in Barma, must once have held a long stone or metal 
frame for the reception of lights in front of the statue. But all this 
arrangement was certainly of later date than the statue itself, for on 
opening up the floor it was found that the Buddha-pad slab concealed 
the lower two lines of an inscription, which fortunately had been thus 
preserved from injury, while the third or uppermost line had been al- 
most entirely destroyed. 
841. The statue is a colossal standing figure of Buddha the 
Teacher, 7 feet 4 inches in height. His left hand rests on his hip, and 
his right hand is raised in the act of teaching. The right shoulder is 
bare as in all Buddhist figures, and there is the usual aureole or nimbus 
round the head ; close to the neck there are two small holes cut through 
the nimbus which, being larger in front than behind, were evidently 
intended for metal cramps to fix the statue to the wall. Unfortu- 
nately the head is broken, as well as both arms, but the body of the 
figure is uninjured. The attitude is stiff and restrained, the two feet 
being exactly in the same position and somewhat too far apart. The 
statue is of spotted red sandstone, such as is found in the quarries near 
Mathura and Fatehpur Sikri; and as we know from recent discoveries 
that the sculptor’s art was in a very flourishing state at Mathura dur- 
ing the first centuries of the Christian era, I feel satisfied that the 
Srdvasti colossus must have been brought from that city. The inscrip- 
tion is imperfect at the beginning, just where it must have contained 
the date. It now opens with the figure 10 and some unit of the 
- Gupta numerals, which must be the day of the month, and then fol- 
low the words etaye purvvaye, which, as Professor Dowson has shown, 












must mean “ on this happy occasion,” or some equivalent expression. 
Then come the names of the donors of the statue, three mendicant 
monks named Pushpa, Siddhya-Mihira, and Bala-Trepitaka. Next 
33 
