An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c38.163

v2.c38.163

**Lauriya-Nandangarh**, Dt W. Champaran, 30 km n.-w. of Dt headquarters Bettiah. Lauriya deriving its name from a pillar (*laur*) of Aśoka standing there and Nandangarh (variant Nanadgarh) being the name of a mound about 2 km to the s.-w. of the pillar. Lauriya has 15 *stūpa* mounds in three rows, each row upwards of 600 m long; the first row begins near the pillar and runs e. to w., while the other two are at right angles to it and parallel to each other. A. Cunningham (*ASI—AR*, 1, p. 68) partially excavated one of them in 1862 and found a retaining wall of brick (size 51×20 cm) which he regarded as late. A few years later H.B.W. Garrick opened up several mounds with indifferent results (*ibid.*, 16, p. 104; 22, p. 47). In 1905 T. Block (*ASI—AR 1906-7*, p. 119) excavated four mounds, two in each of the n. to s. rows. In two of them he found in the centre of each, at a depth of 1.8 to 3.6 m, (probably meaning 1·8 m, in one and 3·6 m in the other) a gold leaf with a female figure standing in frontal pose and a small deposit of burnt human bones mixed with charcoal. The core of the mounds was, according to him, built of layers of yellow clay, a few cm in thickness, with grass leaves laid in between. Further down in one of them he found the stump of a tree. His conclusions were that the ‘earthen barrows’ had some connection with the funeral rites of