DISCOVERY OF RELICS OF BUDDHA.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 2, Issue 125, 15 May 1895, Page 3

DISCOVERY OF RELICS OF BUDDHA.

In the Government Central Museum at Madras th\fin dc st'cclc globe-trotter may see preserved in a glass case some relics of Buddha, which for 2,t)00 years lay undisturbed in the elaborate and costly resting place erected for them by Xing Asoka in the remote .past. Many such relics have been found in various parts of India, usually small pieces of bone, believed to have been collected at tho "saint's funeral pyre, and enclosed in crystal caskets. Sir Robert Sewoll, who has devoted much attention to tho subject, read a paper recently before the Asiatic Society on some discoveries of the kind made not long ago on tho bank.-, of the Krishna in the Presidency of Madras.- Tho belief of tho people in the genuineness of tho relics was attested, ho said, by the splendour of the structures in which thoy were carefully deposited, and tho lavish wealth of adornment. That at Bhattiproiii, discovered by Mr Ilea in 1892, may bo described. It contained when ho unearthed it three caskets, and among the inscriptions found was one, in characters not later than about 200 8.C., which runs thus :—' By the father of .Kura, tho mother of Kura, Kura himself, and Siva, the preparation of a casket and a box of crystal in order to deposit some relics of Buddha. By Kura, tho son of Banava, associated with his father (has been given) the casket.' Inside was a globe-shaped black stone casket, and inside that a crystal casket containing a small fragment of bone. Tho monument was of tho most elaborate construction. First, foundations were dug deep in tho soil, and a great circular base built of solid brick 1-18 feet in diameter. Above ground was a solid superstructure 5 feet high of large bricks, and in tho exact centre of this was left a small cylindrical hollow, and the relic caskets were placed one above tho other, firmly built into the brickwork, tho hollow being about!) inches in diameter. The outer caskets measured 2 foet 11 inches by 2 feet G inches, and 2 feet 10 inches ' by 2 feet 3 inches respectively. Above . all this was constructed a dome, also ; of solid brick, having a base of 132 feet diameter, round which was a pro- ' cession path of 8 feet broad. The - whole of the outside surface was encased in marble slabs, so as to present i a pure white glittering surface, \ isibl; from a great distance. Though, in j process of centuries, during twelve of which the religion of the district was ( Brahmiuical and not Buddhist, this ] great edifice had been sorely injured, the marbles being partially pulled . down, and a quantity of the enclosed brickwork pulled to pieces by (he j villagers, probably for house-building, it remained till a few years ago in a confused but generally circular mass 30 or 40 feet high, ruined at the top. At that period, a zealous oh'iccr of the ' Public Work/5 Department utilised a ' quantity of the bricks for road- ' making, and most of the marble for -i the floor and walls of a small sluice :n - the canal close by. Ho dug so deep that tho topmost relic' casket was ] found, and this led to the subsequent discoveries, and tho relics, together with a quantity of gold flowers, coins and precious stones, after lying un- ) touched by the hand of man for two thousand years, were taken from their resting places and put in the Madras ' Museum.