Indian Antiquary Vol 28

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 76

62
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1899.
It is clear that we gain important evidence in favour of our chain of identifications in Bunēr by being able to link also its western end with an ancient site of certain identity. The positions we have been led to assign to the Mahāvana convent and the Stūpa of the Dove. ransoming' can thus each be independently tested by the bearings and distances recorded to known outside points. The positions hence mutually support each other.
We have made here the attempt to interpret the extant notices of ancient Banēr by means of the now available materials. It might be urged against it that these materials are still too (anty to permit of safe conclusions, and that in particular the rapidity with which the survey of antiquarian remains bad to be effected on this occasion, was not likely to bring to notice all important sites deserving consideration. In order to allay such doubts it may be useful in conclusion to refer to an earlier record. It shows that however hurried to my regret the examination of the territory has been, yet no inportant remains above ground which were within reach, are likely to have wholly escaped observation.
General Court's notes on Bunār. - I refer to the curious information collected regard ing Bunērand the neighbouring regions by General A. Conrt, one of the French Officers in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's service. It is contained in a paper which was published by him in the Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal of 1889.85 I did not see it until after my return from Bunēr. It contains, apart from purely geographical notices regarding the mountain territories to the north of the Peshawar District, a series of conjectures as to the sites connected with Alexander's campaign in these regions, and what is far more useful and interesting, a list of the ruins and in particular Stūpas found in them. From the foldess of the latter notes and a statement of General Court himself it is evident that they were the result of careful and prolonged enquiries carried on through native agents during the time that he was in the charge of the Sikh Forces in Peshawar. General Court had already before that time testified his interest in antiquarian research by the systematic excavation of the Manikyāla Stupa and the valuable nanismatic materials ho collected for Mr. Prinsep and other scholars. We can, therefore, scarcely be surprised at the thoroughness with which he had endeavoured in this instance to collect all information obtainable from native sources regarding the extant monuments of those territories.
If we compare the entries in his lists of rnined cities' and of cupolas '86 as far as they relate to Swit, with the ancient sites and buildings which have attracted pre-eminently our attention since that valley has been rendered accessible, we find almost all important remains still above ground duly noticed. The temple of Talāsh with its elaborate relievos, the Stūpas of Adinzai, the ruins of Barikāt, the great Stupa of Shankardār, the mounds around Manglaur, - these and other striking remains find all due mention, though their names appear more than once strangely disguised in the General's spelling.
Having observed this laudable accoracy of the information recorded regarding Swāt, I naturally turned with & good deal of curiosity to General Court's notices regarding Bunēr. Might they not tell of ancient remains of evident importance which I had failed to notice? I was boon reassured on this score. I found that of the old sites named by General Court's informants in Banēr proper, all, with one doubtful exception, had actually been visited by me.
Notices of stūpas. - Among the cupolas, 57 i. e. Stūpas, which are specially singled out for notice, we find those of Henia poor, one of which is near the village of Fooraseuk, and the other under Mount Jaffer." It requires no great amount of philological acumen to recognize here in the General's (or his English translator's) Fooraseuk' our Tursak, and in his
5 Seo Collection of Facts which may be useful for the comprehension of Alexander the Great's exploits on the 11.xlenn Hanks of the Indus, by M. A. Court, Ancient Elève de l'École Militaire de Saint-Cyr, J. 4. 8. B., 1889, p. 306 894.
26 See pp. 307 29. and 311, loc. cit.
37 The word 'cupola' is evidently intended as a rendering of the term 'Gumbaz' (dome) which is uniformly a lot in these regions to all ruined Stupas and dome-shaped buildings; see p. 19.