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496
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1902
. II. At Kallu Talao, Kumrahar or Kumbharaj, originally known as Némapar, I exposed more walls and rooms on the west side and the south-west corner, the fragments of the Aboka pillars appearing everywhere, - 80 much so that in one room the mud floor was fairly covered with smaller pieces of it. Assuming that the original position of the great pillar was somewhere between the exposed vihára (monastery) and the Dargah, I commenced excavating on the north side of the latter, towards which I was also working from the western portion of the vihara which I had exposed. No inscribed fragments were found. In the new digging at the Dargah I exposed two walls, running west to east.
III.
At the Chaman Taldo I drove two tunnels under the LATER WALL.
highest mound in order to follow the double wall, six feet in thickness, which comes from the west. It appeared to be large drain, once emptying its contents into the tank. Over and at right angles to it was built another double wall, at which place it
had gone to ruin. Wherever the latter structure had fallen down, DRAIN ELEVATION
all the bricks had been taken out and removed for subsequent building purposes, only a few bricks being left at the edges to tell its talo. East of and parallel to it was found another wall. On the east side I also followed the drain by driving a tunnel; but on this side the drain terminated after a short distance. The
two parallel tunnels, following the two sides of the drain, went LATER WALL
west about 25 foot, where I joined them. I also commenced excavating on the south and north sides of the mound, in order
to determine the nature of the original structure, of which the DRAIN SECTION.
débris is now turned into a Muhammadan graveyard. See sketcb-plan with rough measurements in Plate III. attached.
IV. In the garden of the headman of the village, where I reported in December 1896 the finding of & portion of a large wall, 10 feet below the present level of the ground I exposed brick terrace, about 200 feet east of it, at which place I found also two fragments of the Aboka pillar. About 20 years ago here was discovered a very interesting Buddhist statue, which is now worshipped as Durukhia Devt by the villagers of Nawatola.1
v.
On the south of the village of Kumrahar I discovered a log of sal-wood in a new well, 19 feet below the present level of the field. It was dug out in pieces, amidst sandy clay, bluish and whitish in colour, the silt found only in the bed of the Ganges. Most probably a portion of the wood-work to which it belonged is still in situ. The importance of this find will be understood, if it belonged to the ancient palisade of Pataliputra, described by Megasthenes. Since palisades have also been discovered on the north of Kumraher, as reported by Dr. Waddell, this village, with the extensive debris around it, represents the site of Pataliputra, as be assumes very rightly. There is a tradition, still remembered by the oldest of the villagers, that this was the town of NandalAll (evidently the Nanda king), about 3,000 years ago.
On the east of the village I dag a trial-trench in the compound of a Gawali's house, and found only a little fragmentary wall and terrace, about 8 feet below the surface. The excavated earth here. as elsewhere, consisted of brick and rubble. Terraces were also exposed at several places; bat working at their edges I could not trace any walls. This fact shows that the bricks of the walls have been removed long ago, perhaps about a thousand years before the prosent land surface was formed.
VI. On the south of the village and near the well, at which pusce I found the remains of an ancient block of sdl-wood, I saw slight signs of a wall in another well, known as KhArt KOA; and here
1 Drawn and described it in my second Bihar Roport in 1894,
