The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s3.t2.62

v2.c16.s3.t2.62

**Kosala Gang Tank :—**Close by Dhauli is a large tank, a mile and a half in length by five furlongs in breadth, having a small island in its centre on which there are the remains of what is called a palace (*nār*) or a fort (*bārabāti*). "Once a superb artificial sheet of water," it was, when I saw it, a good deal choked with weed and sand. This sand is probably due to the fact that at one time the tank was fed by a canal leading from the Dayā river to its north-west corner. The line of the canal still exists, but it has so silted up as to be unfit for the purpose for which it was made; except during the rainy season when the river is flooded, and the level of the water in it is much higher than the bed of the canal, and the tank is filled up to the full extent of its size. At one time the canal was spanned by several stone bridges, and on the western or the Dhauli side there are heaps of stone foundations, potsherds, and bricks, which indicate the former existence here of a town; but there is nothing to show that the town was synchronous with the date of the inscription. The tank was excavated during the reign of Gaṅgeśvara Deva in the 12th century, and it is to be presumed that when he got it dug, he had buildings made on its banks as well as on the island. The house on the island was obviously a sort of summer-house such as are seen in other large tanks in the Cuttack and Puri districts, and when the Rājā occupied it, he must have required out-houses for his retinue on the bank of the tank. There is nothing in the ruins to justify the assumption that they have existed since the time of Aśoka. In the case of Dhauli itself the identification of the modern village with the site of the Dubalabi *stūpa* rests on the near resemblance of the name.