About 250’ to the north-east of the above stupa is a low mound but, it appears, it was not fully explored by Cunningham. Similar mounds existing to the west of the tank were excavated by him, but without any result. Half a mile to the west of the pillar Cunningham noticed two high conical mounds, locally known as Bhim Sen’s pallas or baskets, standing near the corner of a tank, having no indications of brick ruins; though they were universally believed to be old, some people even calling them as Raja Bisal ka Murcha or Raja Bisal’s fort or Battery. Cunningham does not seem to have explored it further.

Cunningham noticed the small temple dedicated to Mahadeva, on the island on the east side. All sculptures found in the ruins of Besarh were found collected in this temple which included both Hindu and Buddhist ones. There were several sheets of water to the north and north west of the fort, which were irregular in shape, and were alluded to being formerly 52 in number (Bawan Pokhar), two of which still existed in the neighbourhood of Bakhra.

Due north from the pillar, and just outside the courtyard then used by the Baba, Cunningham noticed the Stupa where an excavation had been made right into the centre of the mound from the north west. He learnt that the excavation was supervised by the Bengali servant of some Saheb more than 50 years ago, i.e. previous to 1835 AD, around 1805 AD. Cunningham did not find it necessary to make any further excavation, since the centre had already been reached.

To be continued...