Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/111

Rh Benares City, the stump of which is now known as Lât Bhairo, was destroyed in that way by the local Muhammadans during the great riot of 1809. Various sculptures and other remains at Kumrâhâr indicate the importance of the site. But another palaee must have been situated somewhere inside the city walls and a second Asoka pillar is said to exist buried in Patna City. Many of the remains at and near Patna are practically inaccessible, and the incomplete excavations carried out on several occasions have not sufficed to establish great results of deﬁnite value. If the scientilic exploration of the site begun by Dr. Spooner is carried further, it will need to be done carefully and will be a long and costly business.

The numerous and stately monasteries which Asoka erected at many places in the empire have shared the fate of his palaces, not even one surviving in a recognizable state. Such structures were extremely numerous. Hiuen Tsang mentions more than eighty stapes and monasteries ascribed to Asoka, without counting the legendary ﬁve hundred convents in Kashmir and other large indeﬁnite groups in other countries. The Asokarama, or Kukkutaraina, the 'Cock Monastery,' which was the ﬁrst—fruits of the emperor's zeal as a convert, and accommodated a thousand