Buddhist India c19.64

c19.64

Now when Cunningham opened the Topes (brick burial mounds) at and near Sānchi he discovered under them several of the funeral urns containing ashes from the funeral pyres of the distinguished persons in whose honour the Topes had been built. One of the urns has inscribed round the outside of it, in letters of the 3rd Century, B.C., the simple legend: "Of the good man, Kassapa-gotta, the teacher of all the Himālaya region." Round the inside of the urn is the legend: "Of the good man, Majjhima." In another Tope close by at Sonāri two urns bear the separate inscriptions: "Of the good man, Kassapa-gotta, son of Koti,¹ teacher of all the Himālaya region," and: "Of the good man Majjhima, the son of Kodini."² In the same Tope was a third urn with the inscription: "Of the good man Gotiputta, of the Himālaya, successor of Dundubhissara."³