228 
P. N. Bose —Note on some earthen pots. 
[No. 8, 
tiling approaching satisfaction. I shall, however, throw together a few 
notes in the hope that they may be of some service to the archaeologist. 
The shape of the earthen vessels is quite peculiar, and the potters of 
the district have long since ceased to make anything like them. When 
we consider, besides, the thickness of the alluvium covering the wells, and 
of the pottery-bed below the bungalow, as well as the age of modern 
Mahesvara itself which is built upon these deposits and is at least some four 
centuries old, # we can have no doubt about the antiquity of the inhumed 
town. That there was an ancient city of the name of Maliesvarapura or 
Mahesa-Mandala, there is fair historical evidence to prove.f It is possible 
that the relics now discovered mark the site of that city. 
Cautley in his account^ of an ancient town discovered near Saharan- 
pur speaks of a well near the site of that town from which “ a great 
quantity of gliards or waterpots were taken out whole, as if,” says he, “ they 
had fallen into the well and sank.” He does not, however, describe them 
or their contents, nor does he tell us how they occur. Their large number, 
and the circumstance of their having been taken out whole, make their 
occurrence by mere accident extremely improbable, and incline me to suspect 
that they were, like the earthen pots under notice, placed in the well by 
human hands, and for one and the same purpose. But what could this 
purpose be ? In the present instance certainly, the wells could not have 
been village wells, for in that case there would not have been so many of 
them close together especially so near the river. Nor could they evidently 
have been meant for irrigation purposes. The most eligible hypothesis 
that has presented itself to me is, that the gliards were dedicated to the dead, 
some with the ashes after cremation, and others with cooked cereals and 
meat. The ashes would explain the presence of bits of charcoal in the 
marly contents of the gliards. The vesicular texture of these contents, and 
the peculiar lining encrustation of the vesicles could be satisfactorily 
accounted for by the mixing up of the cereal grains with marl brought 
into the pots by infiltration and their subsequent decomposition. The 
evolution of gases during this process would, as observed by Mr. Mallet, 
* The inscriptions at Kklesvara and M&tamgesvara, the two oldest temples at 
Mahesvara hear the dates Sarnvat 1622 and 1623 respectively. An inscription in 
a mosque near the fort deciphered to me by a Munshi gives 800 Hijra as the date 
of its erection. 
f Mahesvara has been identified by Cunningham with the Mohishifalopulo of 
Hiouen Thsang. (“ Ancient Geography,” p. 488.) The 1 Mahisa Mandala’ to which a 
Missionary was sent by Asoka in B. C. 240 (Tumour “ Mahawamso,” pp. 71-73) is 
probably present in the names Mahesvara and Mandalesvara which are only four miles 
apart. 
X Journal of the As. Soc. of Bengal, Vol. III. for 1834, p. 225. 
