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

General Cunningham has given a general account of the position of Ketās,
and Mr. Talbot's Gazetteer usefully supplements it with details regarding the
sacred pool supposed to have been formed by the tears which rained from Śiva's
eyes at the death of his consort.⁷ It is the scene of a great annual pilgrimage
attracting many thousands of Hindus in the first days of the month of Vaiśākha,⁸
and its sanctity accounts for the numerous shrines and Dharmaśālās erected around
it in modern times. General Cunningham has briefly described such remains of
old temples as were seen by him on the terraced slope of the flat-topped hill over-
looking the sacred pool from the west. They had all suffered badly by decay and
clumsy repairs, and several of the smaller shrines mentioned by him as com-
prised in the Sat-ghara group of temples have disappeared since his time. The
rough sketch plan (Plan 5), prepared by Dr. Fábri, will help to convey some
idea of the present state of these ruins.

As already correctly pointed out by Cunningham, the general style of these
temples in their constructive features and such decorative details as are still
recognizable shows close similarity to that of the temples of Kashmīr dating
from the eighth to the tenth century A.D. Hence they can safely be assigned,
like some other and better-preserved structures of that type in the Salt Range
(Amb, Malōt; also Tila Kāfirkōt, &c., on the Indus), approximately to the same
period. But there can be no doubt that the successive terraces on which these
temples are built are of much greater antiquity. They are all very massively
built with a facing of large dressed slabs of sandstone. The north side of the
terrace on which the three topmost temples, A–C, stand, rises at its north-east
corner to 19 feet above the present ground-level and is divided into two stories
by a boldly projecting moulding. The upper one still shows traces of seven
flat pilasters.

A similar decorative scheme, reminiscent of that common at the bases of
Buddhist stūpas in Gandhāra and Swāt, is to be seen somewhat better preserved
on the north face of the basement on which the ruined structure, D, is built.
The westernmost of the pilasters which divide this face at a distance of 4 feet
3 inches from each other, still retains the outlines of a surmounting double
bracket once stuccoed. This structure D, which was obviously not a temple
but a hall, or maṇḍapa, has undergone great alterations, and its original dimen-
sions (about 40 by 43 feet) are uncertain. But the superior masonry of the
older walls and the 'Buddhist rail' pattern of the open-work filling in the two