CH. XLIII CLEARING OF SECOND ROTUNDA 479
belonged to the fallen vaulting. The clearing of it took two full days of hard work, though I set all hands to dig and sent off Mullah to Abdal to bring up every available man to help. But enough progress was made before nightfall to reveal the dimensions of the interior and to prove the wall of the rotunda to have been adorned with a frescoed frieze and dado. The Stupa, though badly broken on the top, still stood to about eleven feet in height (Fig. 145). It measured twelve and a half feet in diameter and showed a series of boldly projecting mouldings meant to represent circular bases. Like the relic tower in the small ` temple of the Angels,' it had been dug into at its foot in early times, no doubt from a hope of ` treasure.' The circular passage had a width of seven feet, thus giving to the dome which once rose above the Stupa a total span of twenty-six and a half feet.
There was no definite evidence by which to estimate the height of the dome. But the discovery among the brick débris of fragments of fine wood-carving made it clear that the vaulting must have been high enough to enclose not merely the Stupa itself but also an elaborate ` Tee' or wooden superstructure representing the succession of Chhattras or umbrellas which the miniature reproductions of Stupas in Gandhara sculpture and the actual Pagodas of Burma and other Buddhist lands invariably show. Among the delicately carved pieces which had once decorated this ` Tee ' were an eight-petalled lotus in wood still retaining in parts a rich cover of gold foil, and a portion of a well-designed capital and shaft displaying the acanthus ornament well known from Graeco- Buddhist art of Gandhara. More remains of architectural wood-carving in the same classical style came to light when we cleared the entrance to the shrine which lay on its east face. Stucco images appear to have once stood on the platform flanking this entrance outside ; but of these only pairs of wooden stumps survived, manifestly remnants of the core or framework for the legs, and a few plaster fragments richly painted in a pattern suggesting brocade.
The clearing of the circular passage on either side of this entrance first revealed the fresco decoration I had hoped
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