Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/12

162 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA. slopes which stretch away westward from Jellalabad in the Cabul valley toward the Lughman hills. It is fully described and figured in Wilson’s Ariatia Antiqua, 1841, and it is figured also in Mrs. Spiers’s Life in Ancient India , 1856. The tope in which it was found is known as No. 2 of Bimaran. Dr. Honigberger first opened this monument, but abandoned it, having been forced to hastily return to Cabul. Mr. Masson continued Honigberger’s pursuit, and in the centre of the tope discovered a small apart- ment, constructed, as usual, of squares of slate, in which were found several most valuable relics. One of these was a good-sized globular vase of steatite, which, with its carved cover or lid, was encircled with inscriptions, scratched with a style, in Bactro-Pali characters. On removing the lid, the vase was found to contain a little fine mould, mixed up with burnt pearls, sapphire beads, &c., and this casket of pure gold, which was also filled with burnt pearls, and beads of sapphire, agate, and crystal, and burnt coral, and thirty small circular ornaments of gold, and a metallic plate, apparently belonging to a seal, engraved with a seated figure. By the side of the vase were found four copper coins, in excellent preservation, having been deposited in the tope freshly minted. They were the most useful portion of the relics, for they enabled Professor H. H. Wilson to assign the monument to one fo the Azes dynasty of Gneco-Barbaric kings who ruled in this part of India about 50 b.C. The upper and lower rims of the casket are studded with Balas rubies, in alternation wiih a raised device resembling the sri-vatsa, or curl on the breast of figures of Vishnu and Krishna ; and between these jewelled lines the whole circumference of the casket is divided into eight niches, enshrining four figures represented twice over. The niches are formed by a series of flat pilasters supporting finely-turned arches, circular below and peaked above, between which are figures of cranes with outstretched wings. The whole is executed in the finest style of beaten [repousse goldsmiths’ work. Like so many of the Buddhistic remains found in the Panjab and