________________ 443 History and Archaeology of Vaisali steps leads down to the village of Basarh. This brick mound is the ruin of one of the stupas or solid towers of Vaisali, of wbich so many are described by Hiuen Tsiang. Both within and without and all round the town of Vaisali', says he, 'the sacred monuments are so many that it would be difficult to enumerate them'. It is much to be regretted that the presence of the Musalman tombs on the top of this ancient stupa effectually precludes any attempt at excavation. An annual fair is held at [140] the Basarh stupa in the month of Chait, when many thousands of people assemble at the shrine of Mir Abdal. As the occurrence of this fair is regulated by the solar reckoning of the Hindus and not by the lunar year of the Muhammadans, I conclude that the festival was established long before the time of the Musalman saint. I would, therefore, as the fair is held beside the ruined stupa, connect the festival with some celebration in honour of Buddha, or of one of his disciples." Nineteen years later General Cunningham found that the walls had entirely disappeared, but the ramparts and ditches still remained. The fort now forms an elevated piece of land, of oblong shape, almost one mile in circumference. The longest sides run from north to south, about 1,700 feet long, and the shorter ones from east to west, about 800 feet in length. It is surrounded by a ditch, 125 feet broad, where water still exists in some places, but the land is almost entirely under cultivation. The height of the plateau from the bottom of the ditch is 15 feet on the average. The surface of the fort is undulating, with a well-marked deep depression a little north of the centre, and with two smaller depressions running through the centre, from north to south and from east to west. To the south, an embankment still exists, evidently the remains of the high road leading to the fort. There are many holes in the surface made by the villagers digging for bricks or seeking treasure, but there are no surface indications of any structural remains. In the south-western corner stands a modern temple containing some curious brass images, and the ground round it has been fenced off and is cultivated by the priests. A modern temple west of the village, near the tank called the Bawan Pokhar, contains some mediaeval statues said to have been dug out of the tank. In the neighbourhood are several fine sheets of water and a large number of small tanks. Local tradition states that there were once 52 tanks, and that Basarh was the residence of the Puranic Bali Raja. Vishnu appeared here in his fourth incarnation in the shape of a dwarf, and asked the Bali Raja for as much ground as he could cover with his three feet. Two feet covered the heaven and carth, and the third he placed on the head of the Bali Raja, and sent him to hell as a punishment for his overweening pride. The natives of the
