Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-02-27
BURIED IN THE DEBRIS.
The Strange Story of the Indian Troy, q
Dead City.

The Strange Story Of the Indian Troy o
Dead City.
AT last the ruins of the Indian
Troy, deeply buried in the debris
of over 20 centuries. are likely soon
to see the light. Pataliputra, the
Pallbothra of the Greeks, the city
of sweet scented flowers, so famous
In ancient Indian legend and TO
nance, is perhaps most widely
known as the capital of Asoka, the
greatest of Indian emperors and the
most lavish devotee the world has
ever seen. He covered his mighty
kingdom, from Afghanistan to the
Deccan, from Nepal Il. Guierat, with
countless Buddhist monuments and
buildings of vast size. His stupen,
dous stlpas or mounds of solid ma
sonry to enshrine Buddha s relics OF
to mark some sacred spot arc found
all over India and are almost like
Egyptian pyramids in size. His co.
lossal edict pillars, single shafts of
stone over 10 feet in length and
beautifully polished and sculptured
still excite the admiration and Won
der of all who see them.
How magnificent, then, must have
been the capital of this great Hindoo
king, who was the ally of the Greek
kings, Antiochus of Syria, Ptolemy
OF Egypt, Antigonos of Macedon,
Magnas of Cyrene and Alexander of
Epirus. 1t was already Il splendid
city in the fourth century B. c., in
the time of his grandfather, Chan
dragupta, the Greek sandrncottus,
as we learn from the glowing de.
scriptions of Megasthenes, the en-
bassador of the successor of AleXan.
der the Great.
At that time the buildings were
all of wood, like the palaces and
temples of Burma in the present
day. 1t is Il matter of history, how
ever, how Asoka found this capital
of wood and left it stone But before
the dawn of our era this great city
had decayed with the fall of Asoka' q
dynasty and the smaller succeeding
dynasties and the transfer of capital
elsewhere In 400 A. d. the Chinese
pilgrim Ia HAN reported that it lay
deserted and in ruins. Since the
Mohammedan invasion, in tho
twelfth century A D., the very site
of this city was forgotten. 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 entirely
washed away by the Gangcs. Then
it will be remembered that Surgeon
Major Waddell, in 1892, during IL fly
ing visit to Putna, found that the
leading landmarks of Asoka' S CAPT
tai still existed.
He found sever al sculpturcd stones
and images of the Asoka epoch lying
on the surface or built into houses
or walls, 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 pos
sible sites CT particular buildings for
exploratory excavations, without
which, of course, no detailed identi
fications could be decisively attend
ed. Unfortunately most of the like
ly mounds now contain Mohamme-
dan graves, for the Mohammedan
invaders We're wont to seize the
highest mounds for their residences
and burial grounds, and for centuries
they have used these ruins as a
quarry for their building material.
Still a beginning has now been
made, and already at Patna, where
five years ago no stones of the Asoku
period were suspected to be, there
may now be seen pieces of the well
known Stone posts, the so called
Asoka ratings, with their quantity
figured mclallionlike bosses, by
which Asoka perpetuated in stone
the original wooden fences which
surrounded the sacred Buddhist
spots. And close by one may see,
about IL feet below the present sur
face, parts of "tho wooden walls" of
Palibothra, with their lnarvelously
well preserved Sal timber, over 20
centuries old. - Calcutta English
man.