POSITION OF MOHṚĀ MORĀDU

The ruins of Mohṛā Morādu lie about a mile to the south-east of the city of Sirsukh and are situated in a small glen at the back of the village of Mohrā Morā. Here, as one goes eastward, the slopes begin to be noticeably greener; for the wild olive and sonattha shrub grow freely among the rocks, and the rugged gorge of Meṛi, through which the pathway ascends to the monuments, is singularly picturesque. Inside the glen—or it might better perhaps be termed a cup of the hills—an oblong terrace was constructed by the Buddhist builders, and side by side on this terrace were erected a stūpa and a monastery of commanding size, the former at its western, the latter at its eastern end. When first discovered, both monastery and stūpa were buried in a deep accumulation of detritus from the surrounding hills, the only part of the structures visible to the eye being about 5 ft. of the ruined dome of the stūpa, which in years gone by had been cut in twain by treasure-hunters in search of the relics, and, like the Dharmarājikā, sadly damaged in the process. Beneath this accumulation, however, both buildings proved to be remarkably well preserved, standing actually to a height of between 15 and 20 ft. and still retaining many admirably executed reliefs in stucco on their walls.

STŪPA 1

In point of architectural design there is nothing specially remarkable about this stūpa, nothing to distinguish it from other memorials of a like character which were erected between the second and fifth centuries of our era. Thanks, however, to its protected position in the hills and other fortunate circumstances, many of the stucco reliefs with which its walls were decorated and which in other cases have almost entirely perished, are here tolerably well preserved; and, though their colouring has mostly disappeared, they suffice to give us a much better idea than we could otherwise have got, of how these monuments looked when they first emerged from the hands of their builders. Apparently, the whole surface of the structure up to the top of the drum was covered with figures.