South Indian Buddhist Antiquities

This volume contains the results of the excavations conducted at the ruined stupas at Battiprolu, Gudivada and Ghantasala during the beginning of 1892. All these stupas are located in the Krishna district of the Madras Presidency. It is to be regretted that all these works, in common with most others of their class, have suffered at the hands of those who required material for the construction of roads or other such works. Though among the oldest existing monuments of an ancient civilization, their great antiquity was no protection from the despoiling hands of the adjacent villager, who scrupled not to destroy the finest works of art to provide material for the building of his wretched mud shine. The most important results of the excavations were achieved as the former of these stupas. These show what may still lie buried in buildings which have seemingly been denuded of everything valuable. This temple had been examined and declared utterly ruined, with nothing of value in it left; yet buried in the centre of the masonry were important historical documents in a form of alphabet hitherto unknown.