Indian Antiquary Vol 38

SR No.: 032530
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 362
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 35 MB

Page 169

JUNE, 1909.)
ASOKA NOTES.
157
Below the foundation wall, I discovered a large fragment of a Maurya pillar about three feet in diameter. I also found several smaller fragments, especially on the floor of the western cells, which appear to have been paved with them.' Continuing the diggióg he found a curious passage between two walls, 2' 1' and 3 8'in breadth. It is 21' 4" south of the northern range of cells. East of this narrow passage is a sort of flight of steps, made of large bricks. Here also fragments of the Abôka pillar were found.'
He also picked up close by a copper coin of Chandragupta II (cir. A. D. 400) of the bust' type, with Garuda reverse. 47 feet to the south he traced other walls, and then drove a tunnel, in which he found several fragments of the Asoka pillar. But on the north of the [Muhammadan] tomb the stone fragments increased in number and size, of which three were between 2 and 3 feet in length and diameter. Below a stratum of yellowish or rather reddish soil, and about 10 feet deep, I came a cross & layer of blackish earth, composed of ashes, embers, and bits of lime [P], between 1 and 2 feet in depth. In this blackish stratum the fragments of the pillar were invariably found (see photograph, Plate IX a). I then began tunnelling the black stratum at the sides of the pit I had dug, especially towards the north and cast, and brought to light innamerable fragments, large and small. In the northern tunnel I alighted on a heap of the stone fragments, of which some were more than 3 feet in height and diameter. The polished suriace of all these fragments looked quite fresh and new. But no inscribed portion could I discover after all my attempts to search, which fact reminded me that the Chinese pilgrin (Hinen Tsang) did uot mention the prison' [hell '] pillar as inscribed.'
These interesting details prove that the Babû discovered the actual site of one of the Asika pillars at Pafaliputra, or more accurately at Ne-le to the south of the city, which appears to be the prison' or hell' pillar mentioned by Hiuen Tsang, and perhaps one of the two pillars described by Fa-hien. It is also clear that Mukherji was right in inferring that the monument had been deliberately destroyed by heaping up combustibles around it and so causing the stone to split by heat. During the great Benares riot of 1809 the Mubaminadans destroyed the pillar known as Lat Bhairo by the same method. The considerable depth at which the fragments were found indicates that the Patna catastrophe was of early date, and it may well be that the act of vandalism was the work of Raja Sasanka (cir. A.D. 600) as suggested by Mukharjt. But it is also possible that the destroyers were the Muhammadan invaders about A.D. 1193.
The Baba's account of the second Ne-le or Kumrah9r monolith is much briefer. He merely says that he traced ancient masonry near an old well called Khari Kuiyañ to the south of Kumråhår, and at a depth of about 15 feet was glad to discover a fragment of a Maurya pillar (p. 20).
Although the connection with Fa-hien's narrative is slight, I may quote Mukharji's account of the fine sandstone capital of the Maurya period, which was dug up olose to the railway on & bit of waste ground called Bulandibagh (High-grove'), and which I saw lying there. It is in yellowish sandstone, and very large in size, the different faces showing ornaments of honeysuckle, guillochea and other decorated bands' (p. 22). This remarkable object was figured in his unpublished Plate XLVII. So far as I remember, it was about 4 feet in diameter, and square.
In the fields at Lohinipur, near the Bankipore railway station, he found 'two Maurya pillars of the Aska style' a so-called Buddhist railing,' etc. Five posts of the railing, which was plain, were in situ. At a short distance to the south-west, at a depth of about 11 feet, he discovered several large fragments of a Maurya pillar, more then 8 feet in diameter (Plate XXXIV). Again, some 250 feet to the west of that object, his spade slighted on the top of the capital of the Aboka pillar, with a diameter of 3' 7". The capital appeared to be of a flattened vase form, in the centre of which was a hole for the reception of the mortise of the lion or
* Guilloche is an ornament consisting of band of twisted lines or strings.