Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/293

 SAH 285 that from here the demigod marched south to Mánikpur on the Ganges, where he fought with his unknown son by the daughter of Chitrangada, Babruváhana. The whole story completely baffles me, and I only remark that it has also been localized at Chhattisgarh (vide Central Provinces Gazetteer, page 159). There can be little doubt that this city was the Sribástam, which has given its name to the principal division of the Káyaths of upper India. All that now remains of this once famous city is the great fortress on the banks of the Rápti, with a smaller ruin to the south-west, a lofty mound due sonth on the Balrampur and Bahraich roads, and numerous small piles of bricks, probably the remains of ancient stupas scattered here and There within a distance of two miles of the main city. The fortress is in shape a semi-circular crescent with the concave side facing the river, and is completely surrounded by solid brick walls, the highest remains being to the west, where the ruins of the river bastion are still 50 feet in height. The ordinary walls vary from a greatest elevation of 40 feet on the western front to a lowest of 20 feet along the east and south-east. The interior is covered with a dense jungle,so thick in parts as hardly to admit of the pas- sage of an elephant, which is broken into a wavy surface by the remains of temples and palaces underneath. All the principal buildings were in the western half, and it is there that the undergrowth is the thickest, only ceasing along two orthree broad streets which have been left bare, and indi. cate the chief features of the old city. The main strect runs right through the centre, and is built so as to command a view of the great mound Orá Jbár from one end to the other. To the south it debouches by one of the principal gateways, and at the north it ends in a small square, containing among other lofty remains the two principal mounds, which may be identi- fied with the Sudattás house and the Angulimati a stupa mentioned by Hwen Thsang. The dense brushwood, and the possibility that the city which he saw may have been considerably altered by the later Jain dynasty, renders the application of that traveller's descriptions a difficult and hazardous task, but I am inclined to conjecture that his palace of Para- senájít was situated among the mounds of the south-eastern comer where there is now the small Jain temple. The next principal building mentioned by him, both in his life and in the Siguki, is the ball of the law built by that monarch for Buddha, which would have been situated between the palace and the main street, while Prajapatis Vihara would have formed the whole or part of the long and even line of buildings which face the west of the street. The north-west corner of the ruin contains a large open space with a small pond in its centre, and a nearly straight road running from it to another southem gateway and converging with the main street on the Orá Jhår. The eastern half has no very important remains, though the surface is broken everywhere with the debris of houses, and it was here probably that the common people had their quarters. The walls are pierced with numerous gateways, the principal being at either end of the main street and the north eastern bastion, and in the middle and southern corner of the west wall. At a distance of Lalf a. mile from the south-west gate, and separated from the main town by swamps, which probably mark the course of the old moat, is another