1899.] 
Introduction. 
xxxi 
skull, and beneath it a large steatite vase,” containing ashes, coloured 
stones, beads, etc., also a fragment of a birch-bark leaf inscribed with 
“ Bactro-Pali ” (i.e., Kharosthi) characters. 26 The similarity of this find 
with that of tbe skull at Qara Yantaq is very striking. There is a 
passage in the account of the mission of the Chinese Buddhist Sung- 
yun to India in 518 A.D., which seems to bear on the subject of such 
sepultures. Speaking of tbe customs of Khotan, the account says: 
“ they burn their dead, and, collecting the ashes, erect towers over 
them. When the king dies, the} r do not burn his body, but enclose it 
in a coffin and carry it far off and bury it in the desert. They found a 
temple to his memory, and, at proper times, paj? religious service to his 
manes.” 27 This would seem to suggest, that Kok Gumbaz, Qara Yantaq 
and similar spots are ancient sites of the sepulture of kings and chiefs 
of Khotan. The discovery of the two minature figures of horsemen, 
(M. 3, Set I) in the same grave with the skull tends to corroborate 
this conjecture. 
The existence of early Buddhist culture in Khotan is thus amply 
borne out. Much more evidence on this point is afforded by the pottery 
and terracotta figures, and will be found noticed in that portion of the 
report which will deal with these objects. Here I will only note that 
the occurrence of the numerous figures of monkeys and elephants 
clearly points to an intimate connection of the culture of Khotan with 
that of India; for these animals are not found in Khotan, while they 
are indigenous in India. A very early connection of Khotan with India 
and China is also established by the discovery of Indo-Chinese and 
Indo-Scythian coins on the one hand, and coins of the Han Dynasty 
on the other. But further there are distinct traces of Grecian 
and Parthian influence. For the latter, it is true, there is only one 
piece of pottery (in M. 2), which bears ornamentation of a distinctly 
Parthian character. For Grecian influence such as prevailed on the 
western borders of India, in the earliest centuries A.D. and B.C., there 
is much more evidence. The style of Graeco-Buddhist ornamentation 
and sculpture is well marked on many pieces of pottery and sculptured 
stones. The syrinx, or musical instrument made of a series of graduated 
reeds, on which monkeys are represented as playing, is distinctly 
Greek or Grecian: that kind of instrument was not known in India or 
the Orient. Altogether the treatment of the monkeys, in their varied 
festive or amorous postures, curiously reminding one of Satyrs and 
Fauns, is instinct with the ideas of Greek or Roman culture. The 
Pegasus and Centaur, which are found represented on some seals, are 
See Ariana Antiqua, p. 94. 
27 See Beal’s Buddhist Records of the Western World , vol. I, p. lxxxvii. 
