1865.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 153 



" Commencing with the lower chamber, the walls were found to have 

 two coatings, the first or original one is composed of two layers, and 

 is, when stripped of the superior one, blackened with age and smoke, 

 and had been painted. 



" Ascending to the middle chamber, the wall is found to have two 

 coatings, but each coating is in one layer, the lower one is thin and hard 

 and had been painted ; it therefore corresponds with the original coating 

 on the out-side, and the wall of the lower chamber corresponds with 

 the outside, wall in the same way. 



" The upper chamber had also two coatings but only one is now 

 remaining, but the floor shows the double coating in good preservation. 



" The porch, in front of the middle and lower chamber, has two coat- 

 ings, but in this case the lower one is not of the same character as the 

 original coating of the other parts of the building, it is softer, and it 

 is highly ornamented in quite a different style to any other part, but 

 the original coating is found on the wall of the temple covered by the 

 side walls of the porch, without any second coating. 



" The deductions which may be drawn from the foregoing facts are : — • 



1st. That lower chamber, with its arched roof, is of the same age as 

 the lower part of the temple. 



2nd. That the middle chamber, with its arches, is of the same age 

 as the main building. 



3rd. That the porch was built at a later period. 



4th. That some considerable time after the temple and porch had 

 been built, the whole was replastered, with the exception of the outer 

 wall of the terrace ; why this was not plastered, it is difficult to say, 

 most probably on account of the ornamentation, or was it, even then, 

 covered by the accumulation of rubbkh?" 



Babu Rajendralala Mitra said, that when at the June meeting of the 

 Society he expressed his opinion regarding the antiquity of the Buddha 

 Gaya arches, he little expected that it would be so soon verified by the 

 independent research of so able and experienced an officer as Mr. 

 Peppe. That gentleman had before him all that had l^een said by Mr. 

 Home and the Babu on the subject, and was thereby fully prepared 

 to direct his attention to those points which required the most careful 

 scrutiny. His opinion, therefore, regarding the contemporaneity of 

 the arches with the shell of the temple, may be taken to have settled 



