1 MANIKYALA. 37
2 does not appear to be anywhere so complete a description of
3 this monument as that given by Elphinstone’ in the follow- ¢ Acc. of Caubul,
4 ing words :—‘* The plan of the whole could, howerer, be easily ie
5 discovered. Some broad steps (now mostly ruined) lead to
6 the base of the pile round the base to a moulding on which
7 are pilasters about four feet high and six feet asunder; these
8 have plain capitals, and support a cornice marked with paral-
9 lel lines and beadings. The whole of this may be seven or
10 eight feet high, from the uppermost step to the top of the cor-
11 nice. The building then retires, leaving a ledge of a foot or
12 two broad, from which rises a perpendicular wall about six feet
13 high ; about a foot above the ledge is a fillet formed by stones
14 projécting a very little from the wall, and at the top of the wall is
15 a more projecting cornice.” Above this complex basement,’ 5 F.Von Hugo, ii,
16 which may be taken to be from sixteen to twenty feet high, =
17 rises a dome approaching in shape to a hemisphere, but truncated
18 and flat near the summit. ‘It was built of large pieces of a
19 hard stone common in the neighbourhood (which appeared to be
20 composed of petrified vegetable matter), mixed with smaller
21 pieces ofa sandy stone. The greater part of the outside was cased
22 with the forementioned stone cut quite smooth.” These stones
23 are about three feet and a half long,* and one and a half broad,
24 and are so placed that the ends only are exposed. Elphinstone
25 and his party considered it decidedly Grecian. Moorcroft, on
26 the contrary, is of opinion that ‘it has not at all the character
27 of a Grecian edifice. It has a much greater resemblance to the
28 monumental structures of the Tibetans.” Erskine, as quoted by
29 Wilson,® observes of it: ‘ Although its origin is unknown, yet, ® Ariana Antiq.
30 in its hemispherical form and whole appearance, it carries with it **
31 a sufficient proof that it was a magnificent dahgope or Buddha
32 shrine, constructed at a remote period by persons of the Buddhist
33 faith.” In 1830, General Ventura,’ in the service of Runjeet 7 purnes’ Bokh,
34 Sing, sank a perpendicular shaft in the centre of the platform ee lee 3 ail:
35 on the summit, and at various depths found repositories, one Prinsep, Coins
36 . 7 and Relics disco-~
37 below another, at the intervals of several feet. These contained yered by Ventura.
38 * Hough remarks: ‘ The difficulty in the execution of this work consists
39 in the great size of the stones, which it would be difficult to remove from a
40 quarry.’’ Moorcroft observes, ‘‘ They were, however, but pebbles, compared
41 with the blocks we had seen in the ruined buildings of Kashmir, and the
42 workmanship was equally inferior.’’ (ii. 311.)