Thus wrote the simple-minded Fa-hien at the begin- ning of the fifth century. More than two hundred years later, when I-Iiuen Tsang travelled, the ancient imperial city was deserted and in ruins, the effect of the departure of the court and the ravages of the White Huns. Now,
'The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples,'
lie buried deep below the silt of the Sôn and Ganges rivers, serving as a foundation for the city of Patna, the civil station of Bankipore, sundry villages, and the East Indian Railway.
No example of the secular architecture of Asoka's reign has survived in a condition such as would permit of its plan and style being studied. Local tradition indicates the extensive buried ruins at and near the village of Kumrahar, to the south of the railwayline connecting Bankipore and Patna, as the site of the palace of the ancient kings, and the tradition probably embodies the truth. Mr. Mukharji discovered innumerable fragments of an Asoka. pillar between the Kallu and Chaman tanks to the north of the village. The pillar, which was of polished sandstone as usual, was about 3 feet in diameter, and evidently had been broken up by heaping round it a mass of inflammable material which was then set on fire. The similar pillar, to the north-east of
not the work of mortals. These still exist.' Beal, like Legge, places the palace 'in the city,' and according to him 'the ruins still exist.'
