INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 337 



places were the great forts of Kalanjara and Ajaygarh, the strong- 

 holds of the Chandels of Mahoba and their religious capital of 

 Khajuraho, which possesses the most famous collection of 

 magnificent temples in Upper India. Two important inscriptions 

 were also found, one at Lakhima, dating from shortly after the 

 death of Skandagupta, and the other, still older, found on the 

 Grinja hill, about 40 miles to the S.W. of Ailahabad, and dating 

 apparently from the Seleukidan era, A.D. 140.* 



In 1885 General Cunningham resigned his post as Director- 

 General of the Archaeological Survey. He bad served no fewer 

 than 54 years under Government, having been appointed Lieutenant 

 in the Bengal Engineers on the 9th June 1831/j- He was present 

 at the battle of Punniar in 1843, and at the battles of Chilianwala 

 and Gujrat in 1848-9. Cunningham was twice employed in Ladak, 

 and his valuable work on that country is still a standard authority 

 on the subject. In 1861 he was appointed Archaeological Surveyor 

 by Lord Canning, as mentioned above {see page 326), and, with a 

 brief interval of four years (1866 — 1870), he was continuously 

 engaged on these important duties up to his retirement. General 

 Cunningham thus summarized his own labours : — 



" I have identified the sites of many of the chief cities and most famous places of 

 ancient India, such as the Rock of Aornos, the city of Taxila, and the fortress of 

 Sangala, all connected with the history of Alexander the Great. In India I have 

 found the sites of the celebrated cities of Sankisa, Sravasti, and Kausambi, all 

 intimately connected with the history of Buddha. Amongst other discoveries I may 

 mention the Great Stupa of Bharhut, on which most of the principal events of Buddha's 

 life were sculptured aud inscribed. I have found three dated inscriptions of King 

 Asoka, and my assistants have brought to light a new pillar of Asoka, and a new text 

 of his Rock edicts in Baktrian characters, in which the whole of the 12th edict, which 

 is wanting in the Shahbazgarhi textj is complete. 



" I have traced the Gupta style of architecture in the temples of the Gupta kiugs 

 at Tigowa, Bilsar, Bhitargaon, Kuthera, and Deogarh, and I have discovered new 

 inscriptions of this powerful dynasty at Eran, Udayagiri, and other places. 



i; In illustration of my explorations and discoveries, I have published the following 

 works : — 



" 1. The Temples of Kashmir. 



" 2. The Bhilsa Topes or Buddhist Monuments of Central India. 



" 3. Ladak, Physical, Statistical, and Historical. 



" 4. Geography of Ancient India. 



" 5. Coins of Alexander's Successors in the East. 



* Vol. XXL, Parts I. and II. Archaeological Survey of India, 

 j" He was son of Allan Cunningham, the well-known poet and man of letters. 

 j The twelfth edict has since been discovered at Shahbazgarhi, and published in the 

 " Epigraphia Indica." 



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