Page:The Buddhist Antiquities Of Nagarjunakonda MASI 54 Longhurst A. H..djvu/16

Rh I explored many miles of country on the plateaux of the surrounding hills but found no signs of any buildings. This country is of vast extent and for the most part, formed of solid rock deeply scarred with fissures and ravines, sparse vegetation and is a barren and waterless region unfit for human habitation. There is a small rocky hill on the south-western side of the valley not far from the river, which like Nigirjuna’s Hill, contains the remains of brick fortifications all round its summit but no traces of other buildings. This hill commands the approach to and from the river and was doubtless fortified for that reason. Remains of fort walls here and there indicate that at one time, a line of ramparts with a gateway in the middle extended from this hill to Nagarjuna’s Hill on the other side, a distance of about half a mile. The picturesque valley is dotted with numerous rocky hillocks and artificial mounds covered with grass and jungle. These mounds represent the sites of former Buddhist monuments, mostly tombs, temples and monasteries. A vast number of groups of standing limestone pillars are met with in the valley. Each group marks the site of a ruined hall or mandapa originally belonging to some monastery, Only one site was discovered, in the central part of the valley, which appears to represent the remains of a palace, and yet there must have been many important secular buildings in so large a city. The area occupied by the ruins is far greater than at Amaravati in the same district and on the same bank of the Krishna river, the distance between the two places being only about sixty miles as the crow flies, but considerably longer by river. Its strategical position, protected on three sides by natural fortifications and the river on the fourth side, together with two strongly fortified hills defending the river front, shows that it- must have been a place of considerable icing and well nigh impregnable i in early times. In ail probability, the Krishna was a much larger river then than now, affording easy navigation down to the sea at all seasons of the year. thus making the city readily accessible ‘and in communication with the other Buddhist settlements at Goli, Chezerla, Amarivati, Jaggayyapeta, Ghantasala, Gummadiduru, Bezwada and Bhattiprolu, all of which are situated in the lower Krishna valley and within easy reach of the river. The Krishna was known to the Greeks under the name Maisolos, and the Krishna delta is consequently called Maisolia by Ptolemy, The Periplus speaks of “the region of Masalia stretching a long distance along the coast before the inland country" and adds that “a great quantity of muslins is made here”. The ancient name by which this part of southern India was known to the Greeks is preserved in that of the seaport Masulipatam.

This remarkable site was discovered in March 1926 by the late Mr. A. R. Sarasvati, Telugu Assistant to the Archeological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Madras, He found several brick mounds and marble pillars, a few of the pillars standing erect and three of them bearing inscriptions in Prakrit and m Brahmi characters. of the second and third centuries A.D. As I was due to go on leave at the time, | requested Mr, Hamid Kuraishi, who was appointed to officiate