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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1878.
Assistant to the Director General in his valuable probably inverted at the time the stones were efforts to collect information regarding all placed in position. Thus Nos. 1 and 4 of the matters of antiquarian interest scattered over Sarnath series are evidently the same symIndia.' I have therefore observed his instruc- bol, one or other of which has been turned tions, and now send you the result.
upside down. Masons' Marks at Sarnáth.
A rough attempt has been made to gronp the The first group of sketches on the accompany- marks according to classes: thus Nos. 1 to 7 ing plate contains some of the marks to be seen show the triangle,' a favourite masons' mark, and on the sandstone blocks of what is known as the one which can easily be cut with a chisel on "Dharmek Stúpa," at Sarnath, near Banaras. soft sandstone. These marks are, if I rememThese interesting remains have often been de- ber right, the most common at Sarnath. scribed, and chap. III. of Fergusson's History The next group, comprising the marks from of Indian Architecture contains two engravings 8 to 18, consists of symbols formed of rectangles." of the stúpa.
In most of the remaining marks two symbols Wilford, in As. Res. vol. ix. quoted by Fer- will be noticed, as indicating, perhaps, that two gusson, gives the tradition that the stupa was masons shared in the working of the stone. erected by the sons of Mohipala, and destroyed The most noticeable of the marks are those or (as suggested by Fergusson) interrupted, by figured at the commencement and at the end of the Muhammadans in 1017, before its completion the Sarnath group (No. 1). Thus, Nos. 1 to 4 (History of Indian Architecture, p. 68). General (No. 4 being No. 1 inverted) will be found to Cunningham, on the other hand, infers from the resemble the symbol of Dharma given in Fig. characters of an inscription found within the 6, pl. 32 of Canningham's Bhilsa Topes. stúpa that the building belongs to the sixth No. 49 is the well-known svastika, a favourite century of our era. Perhaps the marks, some symbol on Buddhist remains. And here it may of which appear to be letters similar to those be noticed, en parenthèse, that M. Bertrand, the of the Bhilsa inscriptions, may be of help in Director of the National Museum at St. Germaindetermining the question of the date of the en-Laye, recently sent me a model of a small work. The outer facing of the building has in altar found in the Pyrenees on which is the many places been stripped off by decay, or by svastika exactly similar to No. 49. Muhammadan iconoclasts, leaving exposed the No. 50 is probably intended to represent the solid blocks of sandstone of which the lower Buddhist sacred tree; whilst No. 51 is perhaps part of the stápa is built.
meant for the platform and tree so common It is on these inner blocks that the masons' on Buddhist coins. On a visit lately to marks, here figured, are found. Each stone Ajudhiâ (Faizabad) I obtained a large number has most probably on one of its sides a mark of these coins, the rough tree symbols of which of some sort or other, made by the mason bear a resemblance to the marks given at or the contractor, for ready recognition, after No. 51. the stone was quarried or shaped. Only such In Nos. 52 to 61 several of the letters found marks as are on the outside faces of the stones in old inscriptions will, I think, be recognized. exposed are to be seen; and those now noticed Thus 52 and 53 are the t (turned sideways) of do not, perhaps, represent one-thousandth Asoka's edicts, as given by Prinsep at p. 53, part of the marks on the stones composing the vol. II. of his Essays on Indian Antiquities, editbuilding. The same marks recur often, sug ed by Thomas. The second symbol of No. 54. gesting that the stones on which they are is the n of the same alphabet. cat are the work of the same mason. The No. 55 is also an ñ from the same plate of characters or symbols are generally about four Prinsep. The first figure of No. 56 is v, inches in length, and from two or three inches but the symbol is inverted on the stone. in breadth. The sketches in the accompanying It may be noticed that this letter resembles plate show them in the position in which they the symbol of Mahadeva to be seen drawn in ere seen in situ, but many of them were most many places in Banaras, and which Mr. Camp* The PAli letter T.-ED.
_ No. 8 may possibly be , and No. 14, T:- vol. IV. p. 804, plate, fig. 6.-ED.
