74 Description of Ancient Remains of [No. 2, 



what it now is, and indeed was even with the soil of the Mahomme- 

 dan cemetery close by, in the midst of which are a few Buddhist 

 remains in the shape of pillars and architraves made up into a 

 Mahommedan sepulchre. What this so-called temple was, admits of 

 very little question, inasmuch as the boundary walls of the terrace 

 and of the neighbouring cemetery and garden exhibit a considerable 

 variety of isolated carved remains, sufficient to afford abundant attes- 

 tation to the supposition that formerly a large Buddhist structure, 

 most probably a monastery with a temple connected with it, stood on 

 this site, covering the whole extent of the ground elevated above the 

 tank on its northern side. Some of the carvings are in excellent pre- 

 servation, and are worthy of being removed to the archaeological 

 collection in the Government college grounds in Benares. There are 

 several pillars embedded in the brickwork, and also a stone seven feet 

 in length and one and a half in depth, which is deserving of special 

 remark, as on its face are projected four magnificent bosses, each ten 

 inches in diameter, with a projection of two inches from the surface 

 of the stone. These bosses must have formed part of the decoration 

 over the main entrance to the monastery. 



Below the upper terrace on which the Lat stands, is, as already 

 observed, a Mohammedan cemetery with a Rauza or tomb in the 

 middle. This building rests upon sixteen pillars, each being eight 

 feet two inches in height, and the architraves between their capitals 

 being one foot two inches in thickness. In addition, there are five 

 pillars in the verandah to the south. Some of the pillars are orna- 

 mented with scroll-work and the lotus plant, while their four corners 

 are deeply cut with representations of the lotus seed-pod. One pillar 

 has eight sides in its lowest division and sixteen in its upper, and has 

 also a band of four grinning faces connected together, and under them 

 a row of beaded garlands. The pillar is crowned with a round stone 

 projecting two inches, on the face of which is a curious assemblage 

 of thirty-two grotesque faces all round the edge of the stone, with 

 beaded garlands and tassels depending, issuing from their mouths. 



It should be mentioned, that if our conjecture, that the upper ter- 

 race has been only recently thrown up, be correct, then on the suppo- 

 sition that the fragmentary pillar on its summit is part of the original 

 pillar which in ancient times stood here, it would follow that the 





