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Lord Mahāvira and His Times flute-players and minstrels. Many people came to worship at this shrine.1
The evidence of early structures of stūbas is available in the archaeological remains discovered at some places. At a village Lauria Nandangarh in Champaran District of Bihar, three rows of earthen barrows or huge conical mounds of earth have been discovered. These were identified by A. CUNNISGHAM as sepulchral mounds, and they belonged too 600 B.C. or earlier. Their character as burial mounds, seems to be supported by the wooden post found in the centre of one of them known as lofty Chaitya-yūpa. Two of the mounds are formed of whitish clay. T. BLOCH actually found a repousse gold plaque depicting the earth goddess in the characteristic pose of the ancient Mother-Goddess figurines, also depicted on ancient small rectangular metallic pieces from Rajgir.
The remains of a very early stūpa have been discovered at Piprahwa (District Basti) on the Nepal border, 16 km from Kapilvastu. The stūpa, 116 feet in diameter at the base and 21.5 feet in height at present, was built in brick (16/11"/3") as a solid cupola, with excellent masonry, well and truly laid, containing a great sandstone coffer, made out of a huge monolith with a lid fixed by clamps having perfect edges which confirm a high standard of craftsmanship. According to an inscription, the stūpa was built by the Sākyas, relatives of Buddha, to enshrine a part of his original relics. The stonc box contained, in a casket, not only some scraps of bonc as relics but several hundreds of other articles of high artistic value, c.g. ornamental forms, flowcrs and leaves wrought in various semi-precious stones as carnelion, amythist, topaz, garnet, coral, crystal, shell and metal and gold, all in exquisite designs. They included a squarc gold lear stamped with a lion, gold Icaf stars, dedicately carved miniature leaves of crystal and other substances, Tri-ralna gold leaf cross, a coil of fine silver wire, Svastika stamped on gold Ical, taurine symbols stamped on gold Icar, small pearls, bcads of beryl; topaz etc, a small bird in red-carnellion carved with great skill, an elephant in gold leaf; a figure of the Earth
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