Page:Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India Vol 14.pdf/23

Rh diameter than those of the other Janic temple outside the city. There are some slight differences of detail in the mouldings which will be seen in the accompanying drawings. The section of the new base was verified by making a clay cast which was cut down perpendicularly while still wet; when dry it was laid upon a sheet of paper and its outline traced by a pencil.

I made excavations in all directions, east, west, north, and south, in the hope of discovering some more remains of this ancient temple, but without success. The whole of the walls had been dug out, with the single exception of the small portion on which the newly discovered base was standing. The base itself was saved by being built over as a part of one of the later walls. Several walls, 6 feet in thickness, were found just below the surface, some running north and south and others east and west, but not one was coincident with the line of the old pillar wall. Some of the walls were only 4 feet deep beneath the surface, and none were deeper than 6 feet, which marks the amount of accumulation of rubbish inside the city since the building of the Janic temple. Some of the drums of the shaft are said to have been in two pieces, and none of them more than 15 inches in height. All the pieces of shaft that I saw had been broken by the people for the convenience of lighter carriage.

While this excavation was going on I explored the Little Jhandiâla mound, a short distance to the north of the city. This proved to be the ruins of a very large vihâra, 181 feet long by 114 feet broad. Except where the roots of some tough bushes remained, the whole of the superstructure had been removed, so that my plan scarcely represents more than the foundation walls. But from what I have seen of the arrangement of other vihâras, I conclude that the great statue must have been enshrined at the spot which I have marked S in the plan, at the end of the great centre room. Here I found traces of a platform on each side, which probably occupied both sides of the room as well as the back wall. The entrance to the building was on the south, facing the city. In front of the shrine room there was a large open court, 105 by 52 feet, and on each side of the temple there was a row of rooms for the officiating monks, with a cloister