2 
H. H. Godwin*Austen —On the Ruins of Dimapur. [No. 1, 
occurring was dripping wet, leeches swarmed, as well as several species of 
gadlly, and the air was close and smelled with decaying vegetation. The 
place is a favourite lair for tigers, who find the old, wet, grassy tanks 
pleasant spots in the heat of the day, and Captain Butler had not long 
previously lost a grass-cutter who was carried off, while grass was being 
loaded on the elephants. The plans, with drawings of the pillars, and more 
detailed examples of the style of sculpture will, I hope, prove of interest to the 
members of the Asiatic Society, and perhaps lead to a notice of other similar 
remains in the A'sam valley, with the history pertaining to them, 
A general account here of Dimapur will better convey an idea of the 
present position of the ruins, before I notice them in detail and shew 
how great a change has come over the place, since the days when we must 
imagine it a large and prosperous town, extending with its tanks over 
nearly two square miles of ground. The present position of Dimapur is on 
the right bank of the Dunsiri, where we have a stockade and a few men of the 
Naga Hills Police Force. There are a few houses round about it, and owing 
to the greater security our late occupancy has brought about, the place is 
gradually increasing in size. The soil in the vicinity is rich, and traces of 
former cultivation are still to be made out near the large tanks, but are now 
all overgrown with forest; it is this portion which the Mikirs and others of 
Dimapur are now clearing and taking up again. With the exception of these 
small and recent clearances, all else, the ruins included, is covered with 
primeval forest larger and denser on the left bank perhaps than the right. 
The latter is higher than the former near the site of the stockade, and is 
about 25 feet high, of strong sandy clays. To the east of the stockade is 
the first tank, about 270 yards square, with a fine broad solid embankment 
about 25 yards at top, sloping gradually outwards, steeper slightly on the 
inner side. On the top of the embankment, Captain Butler has built a fine 
timber bungalow, overlooking the water, a very pretty site, with the distant 
Naga hills shewing on a clear day above the great forest trees of the oppo¬ 
site side. A second tank is passed a short distance south on the road to 
Samaguting, and is perhaps a little larger in extent; others, Captain Butler 
informed me, he had seen in the vicinity. Our time did not admit of looking 
them up, and it is tedious work forcing a way with elephants into the dense 
jungle, and takes a long time. The old town is situated on the left bank, 
the lowest. It was bounded on the north by a brick wall, 900 yards long; 
on the south, by the Dunsiri ; the western wall was followed for 950 yards 
from the N. W. angle, but must be quite 1400 yards up to the river ; the 
eastern wall is 700 yards long, with an obtuse salient angle; the fine solid 
brick gateway (still standing) is situated on this side, 150 yards from the 
N. E. angle. The sculpture and stone ruins are about the same distance on 
the left, after passing through the entrance arch. Numerous small tanks 
