Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1896-09-01

countless BaI lnlgt monuments and
buildings of vast size. His stipend
Gus stupas or mounds of solid
masonry to enshrine Buddha's rel
les, or to mark some sacred spot, are
found all over India, and are almost
like Egyptian pyramids in size His
colossal edict-pillars, single shafts Of
stone, over 40 feet in length and
beautifully polished and sculptured,
still excite the admiration and
wonder of all who see them. How
magnificent then must have been the
capital of this great Hindu king,
who was the ally of the Greek Kings
Antiochus of Syria, Ptolemy of
Egypt, Antigonos of Macedon,
Magas of Cyrene and Alexander of
Epirus.
1t was already splendid city in
the fourth century B. c., in the
time of his grandfather, Chandrag-
upta, the Greek Sandracottus, as we
learn from the glowing descriptions
of Mcgasthenes, the ambassador of
the successor of Alexander the
Great. At that time the buildings
were all of wood, like the palaces
and temples of Burma in the present
day. 1t is matter OF history, how
ever, how Asoka found this capital
of wood and left it of stone. But,
before the dawn of our era, this
great city had decayed with the fall
of Asoka's dynasty and the smaller
succeeding dynasties, and the trans
fer of the capital elsewhere. In 400
A. D. the Chinese pilgrim Fa HAN
reported that it lay deserted and in
ruins. Since the Mohammedan in
vasion in the twelfth century A. D.,
the very site of this city was forgot
ten. 1t was known to be somewhere
near the modern town of Patna in
Bengal; but most of the experts and
Others who had deliberately searched
for it believed that it had been en-
tirely washed away by the Ganges.
Then it will be remembered that
Surgeon Major Waddell, in 1892,
during q flying visit to Patna, found
that the leading landmarks of
Asoka's capital still existed, He
found several sculptured stones and
images of the Asoka epoch lying on
the surface or built into houses or
wells, and these, together with the
position of the old mounds, many of
which still retain their ancient
names, enabled him to fix with GER
tainty the limits of Asoka's citadel,
and also to indicate roughly the
possible sites of particular buildings
for exploratory excavations, without
which, of course, no detailed identi-
fcations could be decisively at
tempted.
Unfortunately most of the likely
mounds now contain Mohammedan
graves, for the Mohammedan in
vaders were won't to seize the high
est mounds for their residence and
burial grounds, ana Tor centuries
they have used these ruins as a
quarry for their building material.
Still, q beginning has now been
made, and already at Patna, where
five years ago no stones of the Asoka
period were suspected to be, there
may now be seen pieces Of the we'll
known stone posts, the so-called
Asoka ratings, with their quantity
figured medallion-like bosses, by
which Asolka perpetuated in stone
the original wooden fences which
surrounded the sacred Buddhist
spots. And close by, one may see,
about II feet below the present sur
face, parts of ''the wooden walls" Of
Palibothra, with their marvelously
well-preserved Sal timber, over 20
centuries old. = Calcutta English
man