Page:Report of a Tour Through the Bengal Provinces of Patna, Gaya, Mongir and Bhagalpur; The Santal Parganas, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Birbhum; Bankura, Raniganj, Bardwan and Hughli in 1872-73.djvu/42

18 brick, about 35 or 40 feet in diameter, and a maximum height of about 20 feet above the country. It is built entirely of large bricks set in mud; the bricks measure 12 inches by more than 14 inches, are all set in fine mud cement, and are all horizontal. In the centre, at the top of the mound, a square socket-hole appears to have existed, one side of which and part of a second still exist entire. It was about 18 inches square. Close to this mound, and almost touching it, are several others, oblong and round, but smaller; these are also all of brick, but the bricks are not set in solid even layers, as in the principal mound; they are irregular, and the mounds appear to be merely the ruins of structures, temples probably.

The main mound is clearly a stûpa, as evidenced not only by the even horizontal layers of bricks solidly composing it, but, as if to obviate all chance of misconception, part of the socket-hole itself, where no doubt the tee, or umbrella, was set up, still exists. From the size of the bricks, and still further from the proportion of height of the stûpa to its diameter, according to the law discovered by General Cunningham, there can be no doubt that it is one of the earliest yet discovered. That the low height as compared with the base is not due to the destruction of the upper courses, is proved by the hole at the summit still existing. I accordingly identify this stûpa with that erected over the vessel with which Buddha’s relics were measured.

The name of the village is Bhagwânganj, and remembering that the stûpa was built by a Brahman, this name is very appropriate,— that is, the name is as old as the stûpa. This stûpa accordingly would date to the 6th century before Christ.

Let us now see how the position thus assigned to the Drona stûpa will agree with Hwen Thsang’s subsequent route to Vaisâli. He went in a north-east direction, 23 or 25 miles from the stûpa, to Vaisâli (Cunningham, Geog. Anc. Ind., p. 443), and he crossed the Ganges on the road. General Cunningham suggests that the Ganges is a mistake for the Gandak, but in going from the asylum as just identified by me to Vaisâli, he must have crossed the Ganges; the direction, too, is correct enough, but the distance is 25 miles to the Ganges, and not to Vaisâli, and another 25 miles to Vaisâli. I consider, therefore, that the distance given by Hwen Thsang refers to the distance from the asylum stûpa to the Ganges, which having been crossed, he proceeded to Vaisâli (another 25 miles).