________________ 452 Homage to Vaisali It was J. Stephenson, who, for the first time, cast his glance at Vaigali in 1834 and wrote an article based on explorations which was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1835. However, the site bad to wait for a few decades for excavations. I. A. Cunningham's Excavations Major-General Alexander Cuppingham, the first Director-General of Archaeology in India, in connection with his explorations, camped twice at Vaisali, once in 1861-64 and next in 1831. Cunningham's work was concentrated at and near the Raja Vilala ka Garh and the Agokan Pillar. He examined and identified the site with the ancient Vaigali. Raja Visala ka Garh was measured and examined in detail by that great archaeologist. At bis time the Garb was 1580' long and 750' wide and bad towers at all the four corners; none of those towers is now in existence. The tower on the north-western corner was about 12' high from the surrounding ground level. The Garh, which was surrounded by a waterful moat (although the northern part of the moat was dry), had an entrance from the south and also a bund over the moat on the south itself. Still there is an entrance from the south, but the moat is already filled up, the signs of which can be traced with great difficulty. Cunningham saw the Dargah of Sheikh Qazin, which was known as Miran ki Dargah even in those days, and he mistook it to be the stupa which was built over the corporeal relics of the Buddha. Besides, this great explorer met with a stupa and a vibara to the south of the city, which were donated to the Buddha by the famous Amrapali, Cunningham also came across the ruins of that stupa where the Tathagata had foretold his maba paripirvana. This great archaeologist succeeded in locating several remains which included the stupa built in the memory of that spot where the mother was recognised by her thousands of sons, the stupa representing the practice-spot of the Buddha, the stupa constructed on the site where the Buddha used to explain the religious scriptures, the stupa made on the half corporeal remains of Ananda and a few others. , Cunningham had seen a mela (religious assemblage of people) which used to be held near Miran ki Dargah in the month of Chaita even long before the time of Sheikh Qazin, the concerned Muslim saint of the said Dargab. The mela, in question, may have had association with the Buddha or with some important disciple of the Great Teacher or with Vaishnavism, because the date of the mela is based on the solar calculation. Cunningbam, aiming at the modern Baupa Pokbar, mentions that there is a lake to the 1. Archaeological Survey of India Reports, Vols. I and XVI, Calcutta.
