1866.] Buddhist Monasteries and Temples. 67 



forbidding. Mr. Home spent a few rupees in cleaning the building, 

 and in removing, as an experiment, the encrusted soot from some of 

 the carvings. Fortunately the Mohammedans or the British Govern- 

 ment authorities, we know not which, in their care for these beautiful 

 works of art, have embedded them in mortar from base to capital, 

 so that many of them might be restored. The removal of the en- 

 crustations, however, will have to be accomplished with the greatest 

 care, or else the surface stone, rendered friable by the heat to which 

 it has been subjected, will come away with the superimposed mortar, 

 thereby destroying the delicate edge of the carvings. We trust the 

 Government will not grudge a few hundred rupees for the thorough 

 cleaning of this fine specimen of Buddhist architecture. The inner 

 stone wall and the modern pavement should also be removed. 



Besides these remains, there were, until quite recently, hundreds of 

 stones lying about in the fort, bearing traces of great antiquity. In 

 the mutiny, many of these were collected, and were made use of for 

 the foundations of temporary barracks which were then erected. 

 These stones may have once belonged to the vihar just described, 

 when it existed in its integrity, but may also have been portions of 

 other contemporaneous buildings situated in its vicinity. 



During the mutiny, Mr. Tresham, by Government order, blew up 

 some ancient buildings standing near the vihar, and there are yet 

 the foundations of one, which defied all attempts at its destruction. 

 Mr. Home also remembers a chaitya which was removed to afford 

 space for barracks. 



Buddhist Chaitya No. I. 



A few hundred yards due north from the old gateway leading into 



the Raj Ghaut Fort is a mound of circumscribed extent, now used 



as a Mohammedan burial-ground, on the summit of which are the 



remains of an old Buddhist chaitya or temple. They consist simply 



1 of four pillars, richly carved with scroll-work, sustaining an ancient 



■ roof. At the corners of the shafts is the ordinary ornamentation 



■ resembling a chain of lotus seed-pods. The capitals are cruciform 

 and the bases are square with embellished faces. The ceiling is very 

 beautifully sculptured, and is composed of slabs over-lapping one 

 another, with the centre stone crowning the whole, according to the 



i**k.&c?zxu* 



