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

walled-up terrace of similar construction which extends the natural edge of the
plateau to the south-west.

The mound distinctly suggests a much decayed *stūpa* which has completely
lost its facing. On my first visit it was declared to have been occupied within
living memory by a Muhammadan shrine believed to have been built by Shāh
Kamīr, a holy man whose grave a short distance to the east of the hillock is still
venerated. Many of the rough stone blocks belonging to the mound and the
supporting terrace below it, as well as material from similar coarse masonry
once extending the plateau eastwards, had been carried off for the construc-
tion of a large well, some 15 feet in diameter and some 30 feet deep, from
which water is raised for irrigating fields and a plantation of trees to the south
of the hillock.

The greatest part of the plateau to the east and north of the 'Stūpa mound'
was found on my visit to be covered with debris from the reported ancient
temple. The position of its walls was clearly marked by four trenches forming
an oblong of about 50 by 40 feet close to the north of the 'Stūpa mound'. From
them the fine slabs of red sandstone used in the construction of that ill-fated
bridge at Chōa Saidān Shāh had been excavated some eight years before my
visit under the orders of the Assistant Commissioner at the time. A solid mass
of coarse masonry and debris rising within this oblong to a height of about 12
feet above the bottom of the trenches (Fig. 17) showed that the floor of the
temple must have been well raised above the natural level of the plateau. The
mound thus formed was covered with rough building stones and fragments of
carefully cut slabs of red sandstone, some bearing marks of relief decoration.
Everything pointed to a richly ornamented Hindu shrine having been upheaved
and extensively quarried, probably long before the remaining walls and
foundations had been subjected to final exploitation.

In the course of the systematic clearing which was carried out over the whole
of the temple site and the remainder of the plateau, it was found that the solid
masonry of rough stone blocks set in earth which lay exposed on the mound
rested on and around great boulders, forming part of the natural ground of the
hillock. Obviously these had been utilized to provide a raised platform for the
base of the temple. Adjoining the trench marking the position of the wall on
the east side there was laid bare, on a lower level, a flooring about 6 feet wide
consisting of rough slabs fitted into each other. It probably indicated the posi-
tion where the entrance of the shrine was approached by stairs. Among the debris
overlying this approach fragments of elaborately carved pieces of red sandstone,
all forming parts of architectural decoration, such as small architraves, brackets,
columns, &c., first turned up in abundance. It seemed clear that all these had