National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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 sub-
structures, 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 mani-
festly 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 Ketās, Amb, and at the
Kāfirkōt sites of the Dera Ismail Khān District by the bank of the Indus.³ It has
suffered much damage, having lost almost the whole of its front on the south-
west, 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 ornamenta-
tion 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