40 ALEXANDER'S CAMPAIGN IN THE PANJAB [Chap. I
rectangular bastion at the north-eastern extremity of the top. Both the Hindu temple and the mosque are raised on the top of a very massively built terrace ( Fig. 5 ) intended to secure more adequate level space. Judging from its irregular shape and other indications, this terrace has been repeatedly enlarged. As shown by the sketch plan ( Plan 4), the maximum dimensions of these substructures, all much injured, are about 120 feet on the north-west and 80 feet on the south-east. The terrace on the former side rises to heights from 15 to 25 feet above the surface of the natural soil. The terrace is faced with large dressed slabs of tufa, set in mortar and laid in regular courses. Judging from the materials used and the careful construction, it can be safely assumed that the whole of the substructure is far more ancient than either the temple or the mosque. The latter, comprising a prayer hall and an enclosed forecourt, shows walls of very rough masonry still retaining their white plastering, and is manifestly of late date. The mosque appears to have been built within the ruins of an older and larger structure of which portion of a wall still survives on the north-west side.
The Hindu temple (Fig. 6) is a structure closely corresponding in type to the temples found at other Salt Range sites such as Ketâs, Amb, and at the Kâfirkôt sites of the Dera Ismail Khan District by the bank of the Indus.3 It has suffered much damage, having lost almost the whole of its front on the southwest, where the entrance lay. It is built throughout with cut slabs of tufa, of irregular sizes and smaller than those used in the platform. The masonry is set in mortar but is distinctly inferior to that of the terrace. The whole face of the outside wall was once covered with stucco, of which portions remain in places. These wall faces were decorated with an elaborate scheme of trefoil arches, niches, amalaka-topped pilasters, &c., all carved in rather flat relief, and showing motifs derived from late Graeco-Buddhist art. But all this ornamentation has badly decayed since it lost its protective cover of stucco. For the same reason and on account of the damage otherwise suffered by the outside of the structure, the details of the measurements recorded for it cannot claim to be absolutely exact.
The temple measured at its base 24 feet 3 inches on its north-east face and 25 feet on the north-west. On the south-east face the lowest portion of the base has disappeared. The porch which once faced the interior on the south-west has been completely broken, and similarly also the doorway, probably trefoil-arched, leading into the cella. This measured approximately 11 feet 7 inches square, and supported a hemispherical dome built in horizontal courses and
3 Cf. Cunningham, Archaeol. Survey Report, ii. Survey Work, N.W. Frontier Province and Baliicbispp.188 sqq., v. pp. 90 sqq. ; Stein, Report on Archaeol. tan, 1905, pp. 14 sqq.
IIIF Color HighRes
