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| 0257 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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resting in their cases, shall have been set up afresh for exhibition in our Museum at New Delhi.
[The task has been safely accomplished in 1925, after these pages were written.] What supple-
mentary data I was able to collect during my renewed visit to Mīrān concerning ruined structures
previously noticed, such as M. IV, M. VIII and M. IX, have been embodied in the account I have
given of the latter in Serindia.¹⁴ Similarly the more detailed survey of the site which I now was
able to make with the help of Miān Afrāz-gul has been fully utilized in the plan which Plate 29
of Serindia reproduces. But, apart from the structures already explored, my fresh stay at Mīrān
enabled me to trace some ruins which, hidden away in the close-set tamarisk-cones to the north,
had previously escaped me, and among them two which presented features of distinct interest.
On the first day after my arrival Tursun Ākhūn, an old Loplik, told me of a mound he had Ruined
seen among the 'Donglik' or sand-cones to the north, and guided me to it from the ruin M. II. shrine
This small mound, M. XIV, was situated about 1¾ miles almost due north of the Tibetan fort M. I M. XIV.
and at first sight looked very puzzling. Its height was about eight feet. Clearing soon showed
that it contained the remains of a small rotunda with the central Stūpa base still standing to a height
of about five feet, but the wall of the enclosing circular passage almost completely decayed on the
western and southern sides (see Fig. 118 ; Pl. 9). The extant portion of the Stūpa base, all
covered with stucco, showed a triple plinth below and a series of flat mouldings above, as seen
in the elevation of Pl. 9. The width of the circumambulatory passage was only 4½ feet and that
of the enclosing wall approximately 5 feet. The wall of the enclosing passage bore signs of having
once been painted. The remaining traces were too faint to permit of any conclusion as to the subjects
represented ; but what survived of colours and outlines seemed to point to a style different from
that of the mural paintings in M. III and M. V.
Among the small objects recovered in the course of the clearing were five small wooden tablets Finds in
bearing Tibetan writing (Pl. CXXX), found on the north and north-west sides of the passage. These ruin M. XIV.
proved clearly that the small shrine, if not actually of contemporary construction, must in any case
have remained accessible during the period (eighth–ninth century A. D.) when the Tibetan fort M. I
was occupied.¹⁵ The fact that the style of the Stūpa mouldings distinctly differs from that observed
in the case of the Stūpas of M. III and M. V¹⁶ seems also to indicate a later origin. The other
objects found here and described in the List below comprise a specimen of gilt stucco, M. XIV. 01,
evidently from some Buddhist image ;¹⁷ a turned wooden box, M. XIV. 02–3, with traces of lacquer
ornamentation (Pl. XXI) ; several fragments of relief carvings in wood, M. XIV. 04–10 (Pl. XXI),
of which one, M. XIV. 09, shows the familiar ornament of the four-petalled Gandhāra flower. The
fact that a layer of reed-straw and sheep-dung was found embedded in the debris at a level of about
five feet above the floor shows that this small ruin, too, like the remains near M. II¹⁸ and elsewhere,
had at some later time served as a herdsman's shelter.
Another mound, M. XIII, reported to me by one of my Loplik diggers, was found amidst Ruined
tamarisk-cones, both living and dead, about 1¼ mile to the north-east of M. XIV. It proved to be tower
the ruin of a P'ao-t'ai-like tower (Fig. 120), closely corresponding in type to the tower M. XII M. XIII.
visited by me in 1907, some two-thirds of a mile to the south.¹⁹ It measured about 17 feet square
at the base and rose to about 16 feet above the original ground level, which wind-erosion had here
lowered by about 8 feet. The sun-dried bricks measured on the average 18″ × 10″ × 4½″. The
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684
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National Institute of Informatics
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