Manchurian Books

My kind host took me one day to Sarnath (five miles from Benares),
where there are some interesting ruins of three remarkably massive
towers. They are not particularly high, and stand upon three
artificially raised mounds, a mile distant from each other. Both
the mounds and towers are constructed of large bricks. The largest
of these towers is still covered in many places with stone slabs, on
which traces of arabesques are here and there visible. Numbers of
slabs lie scattered about the ground. There are no signs of any
such covering on the remaining towers. In each there is a small
door and a single apartment.
Excavations were commenced beneath these towers by the English
government in the hope of making some discoveries which would throw
light upon the origin of these buildings; but nothing was found
beyond an empty underground vault.
There is a lake close by of artificial construction, which is
supplied with water from the Ganges by a canal.
There is a very singular tradition connected with these towers and
the lake.


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