1865.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 201 



the banks of the Jumna, stands a grove of mango trees which is said 

 to mark the site of an ancient temple. It was from this spot that I 

 removed the sphinx which now lies in front of the Umbaree bungalow. 

 This spot is about 4 miles from the inscribed rock. 



" The people have a tradition that a large city once stood not far from 

 the village of Pirtheepoor, which stands on the road from Dehra to 

 Khalsi, and about 10 miles from the latter. It also stands about mid- 

 way between Paota and Khalsi, and the road between them runs by it, 

 so that any one visiting those places could easily stop near Pirtheepore 

 and devote a day to researches in its neighbourhood. Some five or six 

 years ago a number of coins were dug up from a field in its vicinity. 

 About a mile from the village is a well, lined with blocks of cut stone, 

 and no mortar appeared to have been used in setting them. About 

 3 feet from the brink a stone is let in, much larger and smoother than 

 the others, and with an inscription on it. So far as I could make out, 

 however, the characters wera Sanscrit. The whole of this portion of 

 the Doon, that lying immediately above the banks of the Jumna, 

 would seem to offer a most interesting field for research. The road 

 from Thanesur to the great monastery, if not the capital city, of which 

 the Khalsi boulder marks the site, must have lain through the midst 

 of it. 



u With this great monastery at one end of the Dehra Doon and the 

 shrine of Myapoor at the other end, it is probable that a line of com- 

 munication between the two existed within the Doon itself. 



" The cultivated portions of the valley lie almost entirely along its 

 Himalayan slope. The principal villages stand on the summit of this 

 slope or on the tops of the lower spurs above it. The line of commu- 

 nication may have run along here. It is probable that the point 

 where the Granges enters the valley of the Doon was a place of pilgrim- 

 age then as it is now ; just as the point where it leaves the Doon was 

 a place of pilgrimage then and is so now. All these points of great 

 natural interest in the courses of the two great rivers, the points where 

 they entered and left the valley of the Doon, were also probably places 

 of religious interest, sacred spots and the resorts of pilgrims. The 

 spots still retain their holy character on the more sacred river, the 

 Ganges. Supposing it to be so, the pilgrim who had come from Thane- 

 sur to Paota, would proceed from there to the town or monastery 



