temple which still stands near the southern side of the palace or 'Darbar,' and at each of the four sides of the city, facing the cardinal points, he built four great hemispherical stûpas, which likewise remain to this day. Certain minor Structures at Pâtan also bear his name. Asoka was accompanied in his pilgrimage by his daughter Chârumatî, the Wife of a Kshatriya named Devapâla. Both husband and wife settled in Nepâl near the holy shrine of Pasupati, Where they founded and peopled Deva Pâtan. They were there blessed with a numerous family, and becoming age ddetermined to pass the remainder of their lives in religious retirement, vowing that each would build a retreat for members of the Order. Châirumatî had the good fortune to fulfil hor vow, and in due course died in the nunnery which she had erected. The building still exists at the village of Chabâhil, north of and close to Deva Pâtan. Devapâla is said to have died in great distress because he was unable to complete before his death the monastery which he had vowed to found. These things are believed to have happened while the Kirâtas, or hill-men from the east, ruled Nepâl and Sthunko was the local Râjâ[1].
In Asoka's days, and for many centuries later, Tâmralipti, the capital of a small dependent kingdom
- ↑ Oldfield, Sketches from Nipâl, ii. 246-8; Wright, History of Nepâl, p. 110; Sylvuin Lévi, Le Nepâl, i. 67; ii. 82. The photograph on p. 263 of tome i is a good representation of the southern Asoka stûpa at Pâtan, the antiquity of which is guaranteed by its form. See also Ind. Ant., xiii. 412.
