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

the beautifully carved column (Fig. 20.1) over 4 feet high was found lying in two
pieces near where several large plain slabs, originally riveted together, seemed
to indicate the foundations of a gateway on the south-east leading to the temple.
The slope of the hillock suggests that the approach from below to the plateau
on its top must have lain on that side. The decorative bands dividing the several
sections of the column with their garlands held by grotesque heads are of very
delicate design. The same applies also to the ornamentation of the ogee-
shaped finial (Fig. 20.3), holding in a circular niche the excellently modelled
figure of a flying Gandharva.

There was ample evidence to be found that long before its final vandal
destruction the ruined temple of Mūrti had been plundered to supply sculptural
materials both for Ketās and Chōa Saidān Shāh. From a faqīr's cave near the
rest-house at the latter place I recovered by purchase two carved lintels of red
sandstone showing within a sunk window-like opening (Fig. 21.8) confronting
busts of a male and female. Small richly ornamented columns, undoubtedly
carried away from Mūrti, were found in the garden of the rest-house and in a
little Hindu temple of the village, where they were used for lamp stands. Local
belief was no doubt right in declaring the red sandstone slabs used for paving
the terraces and stairs of Saidān Shāh's Ziārat to have been brought from Mūrti.
More of such materials may be hidden under the thick hard plaster which covers
the walls of the sacred tomb. At Ketās two sculptured door-jambs or balustrades
(Fig. 19) in the courtyard of Mahant Sarju Dās, ornamented exactly in the style
of the Mūrti sculptures, had already attracted my attention on my first visit.
Similarly the red sandstone slabs facing the front of the small temple of Bhagvān
Dās, built there in Sikh times, were locally known to have been brought from Mūrti.

After this brief account of the site of Mūrti and the remains recovered there
I may proceed to sum up the conclusions to be gathered from the preceding
observations as to the identification of the localities mentioned in Hsüan-tsang's
description of Siṁhapura. In the first place, stress deserves to be laid on the
striking agreement between the immediate surroundings of Mūrti and the sylvan
scenery in which the pilgrim's vivid description has placed the spot sacred to the
memory of the founder of the Śvetāmbara sect. In a region generally so arid
and wanting in running streams and other scenic attractions as the Salt Range,
such close agreement must a priori claim special attention. From my acquain-
tance of the Salt Range, acquired in the course of several extensive tours in years
gone by, I may safely assert that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find in
any part of that area a scene so closely fitting the pilgrim's account in all details.¹⁴