Afterwards King Aṡoka, being eager to ascertain where their ends rested, sent men to find out by digging. They dug down till they reached a yellow spring, but could not discover the bottom of the steps. Hence the king felt an increase of devotion, and built a Vihāra over the steps, with a standing image of Buddha sixteen cubits high. Behind the Vihāra he erected a stone pillar, about fifty cubits high, with a lion on the top of it. A dispute arose between some heretics and the Buddhist monks about the ownership of the place, and the former agreed to give up their claim if any supernatural sign occurred; upon which the lion on the column gave a great roar. Fā-hien adds that a Stūpa was erected on the spot where Buddha descended; another where the female mendicant caught the first sight of Buddha at his descent. The basement of King Aṡoka’s pillar was found by General Cunningham in 1876. On a previous occasion he discovered the capital of the ancient pillar surmounted by an elephant, which may have been mistaken by Fā-hien for a lion (see Cunningham, i. 274). Hiouen Thsang, in his account of the three ladders (Beal, i. 202), says that they were arranged side by side from north to south, so that those who descended might have their faces to the east, and that the flight by which Indra descended was of crystal (not of gold), while that used by Brahmā was of silver, and the Buddha’s steps were of gold (or of the seven precious substances, of which gold was one). This indicated the superiority of Buddha over the two gods who accompanied him. In harmony with these ideas Indra and Brahmā are sometimes represented in Buddhistic sculptures standing one on each side of the Buddha, and protecting him. They were also present at his birth (see p. 483 and engraving opposite p. 477). Hiouen Thsang adds that some centuries before his time the ladders still existed in their original position; but, when he visited the spot, they had sunk into the earth, and disappeared. Saṅkāṡya, however, was still much frequented. A magnificent image of the Buddha was preserved in a large monastery there, and 1000 priests were studying the doctrines of the Sammatīya, a school of the Hīna-yāna, in four monasteries. Furthermore, many ‘myriads’ of pious laymen lived in the neighbourhood. The story of Buddha’s descent from heaven by help of golden steps is commonly believed both in Ceylon and Burma to the present day. The legend, as current in Ceylon, is given by Spence Hardy (Manual, p. 311).