Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Hasra

by Joseph David Freedone Melik Beglar

HASRA.

About a mile to the south-east of Punâwa are two small isolated ranges of low hills close to each other; the valley or pass between them is known as the Kol, and the place itself is known as Hasra. It appears that there was once a village named Hasra here, though none now exists. The entire space between these hills is thickly studded with remains.

The two ranges are each only about ¼ mile long. The southern range is higher and less bare than the northern, and the valley between the toes of the ranges varies from 200 feet to 400 feet wide at the widest. The highest part of the valley is at the east end; here the hills approach closest, being only 200 feet apart, and across this gap are built two lines of massive walls of dry stone. There appear to be some springs in the vicinity. Near the walls are collected a number of fragments consisting of chaityas and remnants of Buddhist figures. At the eastern foot of the southern range is a stone 2½ feet high and 1 foot square, with a Buddha rudely carved in a niche on one side; this stone is now worshipped, and is covered with vermilion. Within the valley and to the west of the lines of walls are numerous mounds; one is 300 feet to the west of the walls.

On some stones in the vicinity are cut masons' marks of these shapes. 300 feet further back are numerous mounds;^[1] F I J K appear to have been temples, as the square, or at least rectilinear forms of the structures which once existed, are yet traceable. On K is a moulding and the pedestal of a statue inscribed with the Buddhist formula "Ye Dharmma." The mound F is the largest; L is a small mound. G H are other mounds. On G is a large mutilated figure of Buddha. On the spur of the hill adjacent there appears to have been

some kind of structure M; the stones are quite rough; perhaps it is only the quarry whence materials for the temples were obtained. The mounds appear to be the ruins of temples, built, not of stone, but of brick picked with stone. A and B are two mounds, A being the largest in the place. On A lie some plain granite pillars of the size and form shown in plate XVI. C D E are long low mounds which, having been lately excavated for bricks, are shown to have consisted of cells or rooms 10 × 8, evidently the remains of the cloisters of the great monastery at A. I could not find a single entire brick, but from the fragments it is evident that the bricks were more than 10 inches long and more than 6 inches wide. From these mounds have been exhumed numerous statues, of large size and in excellent preservation; they have been carried off to the adjacent village of Bishanpur Tandwa, about a mile to the south by a little west from this place. The whole of the ruins here appear to be of Buddhist monasteries and temples; there are no traces of any Brahmanical temples here.

The ground all over to the west of the hills is for some distance strewn with brickbats, but I could see no distinct mounds marking the sites of any structures outside the valley.

There are two tanks, one a large one between this place and Bishanpur.

PLATE II.

1. See plate.