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are represented on horseback, if the kings met with their
death in battles and in other positions if they died natural
deaths. The custom of erecting stone images of dead
kings is an ancient one, but it is not yet known from any
ancient extant work. These statues were worshipped with
fried rice and flowers. Offerings of food are still made to
the stone images in Bikaner where all royal personages
down from Bika have their statues.*
2 These statues were not exposed to weather as are
the busts and statues of many modern celebrities, but were
kept in especially built statue-houses, about which we have
written earlier. In contrast with the temples which
generally contained only one image the statue-houses
contained a number of images. As these statues were of
the Ksatriyas, the Br膩hma峁嘺s were naturally not to make
any obeisance to them. But other visitors also paid their
homage to the dead without prostrating themselves before
the statues and without chanting any mantras. In the
case of sacred images, one had to bow down and chant
mantras of that particular deity. The statues and statue-
houses seem to be unknown in the Kekaya country (a
province of the Asuras) in the days of our poet. They
were, of course, well known in Ayodhy膩."
Dr. Jayaswal placed Bh膩sa in the second Century
B. C. on the similarity between the Pratim膩s referred to in
the Pratima and the Saisunaga statues which the learned
Doctor relegated to the fifth Century B. C. But the
discovery of the statuary in the Indus valley has proved
the existence of the art of sculpture in India milleniums.
before that epoch, and hence Bh膩sa, cannot be said not to
have lived in the pre-Mauryan age on the score of the
alleged absence of any human stone image of the earlier
period. The custom of throwing sand in the enclosures
of sacred places has been mentioned by Apastamba alone,
and Apastamba belongs to the fifth century B. C. This
fact also indicates the antiquity of Bh膩sa. Prof. Pisharoti
suspects some connection between the institution of statue-
houses and the ancestor worship which is current amongst
1 Cf. Haraprasad Sastri, OC, V. pp. 97-98. 2 Prat, p. 59-YYMY-
啶侧ぞ啶溹ぞ啶掂た啶粪�嵿�曕�冟い啶� 啶�啶侧く啶� 啷� [l膩j膩vi峁�k峁泃膩 balaya岣� | ] 3 Haraprasad Sastri, OC, V. pp. 97-98. 4 Cf. K. Rama
Pisharoti, QJMS, XII, pp. 386, 395. 5 JBORS, V, pp. 89, 95; cf. also, V. Smith,
JBORS, V, pp. 512-513. 6 Haraprasad Sastri, OC, V. p. 98.