1870.] Notes on Archeologieal Remains at Shah hi Dheri. 89 



Notes on ArcTieoT'ogiml Remains at Sheik 7ci Dheri and the site of 

 Taxila. — By J. G. Delmerick, Esq. 

 [Received 18th April, 1870. J 

 {Vide Proceedings for June and July, 1870.) 



I have the pleasure of sending you a photograph of certain heads 

 and images recently dug up-near Shah Id Dheri/ 



The images are of stone, but the heads are of common plaster, 

 and are evidently those of Buddha ; for they closely resemble the 

 figure of Buddha as depicted on the cover of Beale ? s new transla- 

 tion of Fa Hian's pilgrimage. 



Shah ki Dheri is about three miles from Kala Serai on the La- 

 hor and Peshawar road. Near it are. still to be seen the remains 

 of fortifications several miles in circumference. The area enclosed 

 within the walls is known to the people as Kot Atial* The soil 

 is rich and is covered with mounds and the debris of ancient habi- 

 tations. 



Indo-Scythic and Indo-Bactrian coins are commonly turned up 

 by the plough, and on former occasions very interesting Bactro- 

 Buddhist relics have been brought to light by actual digging of the 

 mounds. 



In 1859, a plate or plates of copper covered with Bactro-Pali in- 

 scriptions were found by Nur, a khddim or servant in the masjid 

 of Ghila adjoining Shah ki Dheri. Nur presented this plate to the 

 late Mr. A. A. Roberts, then Commissioner and Superintendent of 

 the Kawal Pindi Division. 



Again in 1861, the same Niir found a stone trough, a crystal 

 figure, representing a duck or a turtle and a gold leaf bearing a 

 short Bactro-Pali inscription, all of which are fully noticed and de- 

 scribed in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, No. 2 of 1862. 



* Probably Atelites. " According to De Guignes, their name was properly 

 u Te-le or Tie-le to which, from their inhabiting the banks of the Oxus, the 

 " syllable db, " water" was prefixed. They are commonly confounded under 

 " the denomination of Indo-Scythi with their predecessors, the Sakas, and 

 " Yu-Chi ; as is done by Gibbon when he observes that the Indo-Scythao 

 n reigned upon the confines of India from the time of Augustus to that of 

 " Justin the Elder, A. D. 530" (vide note 3, page 388 of Wilson's Ariana Anti- 

 qua). 



12 



