Epigraphia Indica Vol 02

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 14

PREFACE.
xi
upper surface of the lower stone is smooth, and cut on it, round the four sides of the casket chamber, are two lines of an inscription in characters similar to those of the Asoka inscriptions" (see Nos. i and ii, pp. 326, 327)
In the cavity, was a small globular black stone relic-casket. Around the casket, and mixed with some earth which filled the cavity, were the following objects:-2 small hemispherical hollow copper or bell-metal (1) cups, 1 inches in diameter: they fit into each other, and one bears traces of some sort of resin having been inside; on the apex of one is a gold bead,
inch in diameter; the other has had a gold bead also, which was found in the earth alongside; 1 copper finger ring and several bits of copper; 1 small bead; 2 double pearls; and the following articles in gold, weighing collectively tola and 13 grains (ie., 148 grains) viz., 1 single and 1 double gold bead; 7 small triangular pieces; 4 lotus flowers in thin sheets with eight bent petals, each 1 inches across; 2 trisûlas in thin plates each 1 inches by 1 inch; 1 hexagonal crystal with slightly convex sides, 2 inches by inch, pierced with a hole through its axis. On each of the sides of the prism is lightly traced an inscription in the same character as that on the stone (see No. x, p. 329).
"The two hemispherical vessels lay on the west side of the casket; the crystal prism, gold flowers and other articles on the east. The reliccasket is 4 inches in diameter by 4 inches in height. The lid fits by a groove into the lower portion. Inside was a cylindrical crystal phial 24 inches in diameter by 14 inches in height. It is moulded on the sides, flat on the top and bottom, and has its lid fitted in the same manner as the stone receptacle. Inside is a flat piece of bone, half an inch across, smooth on the one side and celled on the other: it seems to be a piece of a skull bone.
"In the stone casket, below the phial were,-9 small lotus flowers in gold-leaf; 6 gold beads over an eighth of an inch in diameter, and 8 smaller; 4 small lotus flowers in thin copper; 19 small pierced pearls; 1 slightly blue coloured amethyst beard; and 24 small coins or tokens of a light coloured metal, somewhat resembling bell-metal. They are plain on the reverse: and on the obverse have lotus flowers, trisúlas, feet with a snake coiled round, and other emblems more or less legible. They were laid on the bottom of the casket with the smooth sides down-in the form of a svastika, and had become fixed to the stone by oxidation. In the svastika, nine of the coins were in the central rectangle; three on each of the four arms, and the other three over the centre. The flowers and beads seem also to have been originally arranged symmetrically. An example of this symbo lical use of the svastika was found in the centre of the stupa at Pedda Ganjam.