Shewei or Srávasti in Oudh, when he visited the place in 400 A. D.

"There are," says he, "two pavilions and two stone pillars; on the pillar to the left, is executed the figure of a wheel-on that to the right is placed the figure of an ox." There is, however, no trace of a pillar now at Sonári; but the polished cylindrical shafts of these columns could be so readily converted into sugar-mills, that their entire disappearance offers no proof of their non-existence.

3. The Sonári Topes are situated on the top of the hill, about one mile to the south of the village.* To the north, east, and south of the Topes, the hill extends for some distance almost level, but to the westward it is broken into narrow ravines, which give rise to clear springs that once furnished the fraternity of Sonári with drinking water. The hill is covered with trees and low thorny jungul; and the place is now as wild and desolate as it was once cheerful and flourishing when the hymn of praise was chanted by several thousand voices.

4. The Great Tope at Sonári is situated in the midst of a square court, 240 feet each side. In the south-west corner there is a solid square mass of masonry, from 12 to 15 feet in height, and 36 feet on each side. In the north-east corner there is a flight of steps, 4 feet wide, leading to the top. The object of this building and of similar structures at Satdhára puzzled me very much, until I had seen the ruins at * See Plate V.

Bhojpur, amongst which there is a very large building of the same description, but in a more perfect state. As this was undoubtedly a temple, I presume that the Sonári structure was only the basement or terrace of a Buddhist temple.

5. The Tope itself is a solid hemisphere, 48 feet in diameter, of dry stones, without either cement or mud. This is raised above the terrace on a cylindrical plinth 4 feet in height. The terrace itself is 5 feet broad by 6 feet in height. The Tope is nearly perfect, not more than 6 feet of its entire height having been lost. It was once surmounted a square Buddhist railing, of which only a few fragments now remain. The pillars were rather less than 3 feet in height, with a section of 61⁄2 inches face, by 6 inches side. There were three rails, each 8 inches deep by 34 inches thick. The railing was all formed of white sand-stone, from the Udayagiri hill, while the Tope itself was built of the claret-coloured sandstone of the Sonári hill. (See figs. 2 and 3, Plate XXIII.)

6. The base of the Tope was surrounded by a Buddhist railing, 4 feet 8 inches in height, of which nothing now remains but a few broken pillars, and two or three small fragments of coping. The pillars were 3 feet 8 inches in height, with a section of 9 inches face by 8 inches side. 8 inches side. There were three railings, each 15 inches long, 11 inches broad, and 3 inches thick. The coping was different from that

*See Plate XXIII.

of the Sánchi railings. It was 11 inches in height, and the upper half had a projection of 2 inches on the outer face. The pillars were ornamented on the outer faces with medallions of full and half lotus flowers, as shown in the fragment, Plate IX. This railing was erected in the same manner as those at Sánchi, by the gifts of many different individuals. Two of these simple records still remain (see Plate XXIII, figs. 8 and 9).

Fig. 8.-Aya-pasanakasa Atevas(ino) Dhama Gutasa Navakamánasa dánam.

"Gift of DHARMA GUPTA, the new man (i. e., the regenerated) the pupil of ARYYA PRASANNAKA.”

Fig. 9.-(A)yapasanakasa Atevasino Sagha Rakhitasa aánam. "Gift of SANGHA RAKSHITA, the pupil of ARYYA PRASANNAKA."

7. In No. 13 of the inscriptions from the great Tope at Sánchi, we have a record of a gift made by ARYYA PRASANNAKA himself, who is there called a Bhikshu, or mendicant monk. As the name does not appear again amongst nearly three hundred inscriptions, it seems highly probable that the Bhikshu of the one record and the teacher of the others are the same person. This would fix the date of the Tope in the latter end of Asoka's reign, coëval with that of the neighbouring Tope, No. 2, which will presently be described.

8. A shaft was sunk down the centre of this Tope, and at a depth of little more than 5 feet a large slab was reached, which on being raised disclosed the relicchamber strewn with fragments of stone boxes. The

fragments were carefully collected and afterwards put together, but no trace of bone or of other relic was discovered. The largest of the relic-boxes is a cylinder 4 inches in height and upwards of 8 inches in breadth, covered by a domed lid of the same fine sandstone having a rise of more than 2 inches. Inside this was a smaller stone box of the same description; but only 5 inches in diameter and 3 inches in total height. Inside this, again, there was a third stone box or casket only 12 inch in diameter, and of a different shape, being nearly spherical with a pinnacled top. Lastly, inside this there was a small crystal casket only seven-eighths of an inch in diameter. This little casket must once have enshrined some minute portion of bone, or perhaps a single tooth of the holy Buddha; but, after the most careful search of the chamber, no trace of any relic was discovered. As the relic-chamber was near the summit of the Tope, the probability is that the villagers had opened it long before, and that when the relic-boxes were broken the minute fragment of bone was dropped into the chamber, and after the lapse of years had become mingled with its kindred dust.

CHAPTER XXIII.

NO. 2 TOPE.-SONÁRI.

1. THE second of the Sonári Topes* is situated north by west from the Great Tope at a distance of three hundred and fifteen feet. The bearing, 103 deg. W., is so very nearly the same as that between Nos. I. and II. Topes at Sánchi, that I cannot help suspecting that there must have been some peculiar significance in this particular angle. The Sánchi angle is 109 deg., and the mean between the two is 106 deg. At Sánchi the line is prolonged to the eastward to a lofty temple. At Sonári also it is extended in the same direction to No. 3 Tope which bears 102 E. from the Great Tope.

2. No. 2 Tope is situated in an enclosure 165 feet square. It is a solid hemisphere of dry stone, 27 feet in diameter, raised on a cylindrical plinth 44 feet in height. The terrace is 5 feet 8 inches broad, and 12 feet in height. This is gained by a double flight of steps each 20 feet long, which meet at a landing 6 feet long by 6 feet broad. No trace of railings or

• See Plate XXIV.