n A.D. 630,
and was verified by the officers above named, who discovered other Buddhist
caves and excavations in the valleys of the Balkhab and Sarikol.

[v.03 p.0304] Still vaster than these was a recumbent figure, 2 m. east of
Bamian, representing Sakya Buddha entering _Nirv[=a]na_, _i.e._ in act of
death. This was "about 1000 ft. in length." No traces of this are alluded
to by modern travellers, but in all likelihood it was only formed of rubble
plastered (as is the case still with such _Nirv[=a]na_ figures in
Indo-China) and of no durability. For a city so notable Bamian has a very
obscure history. It does not seem possible to identify it with any city in
classical geography; _Alexandria ad Caucasum_ it certainly was not. The
first known mention of it seems to be that by Hsuan-Tsang, at a time when
apparently it had already passed its meridian, and was the head of one of
the small states into which the empire of the White Huns had broken up. At
a later period Bamian was for half a century, ending A.D. 1214, the seat of
a branch of the Ghori dynasty, ruling over Tokharistan, or the basin of the
Upper Oxus. The place was long besieged, and finally annihilated (1222) by
Jenghiz Khan, whose wrath was exasperated at the death of a favourite
grandson by an arrow from its walls. There appears to be no further record
of Bamian as a city; but the character of ruins at Ghulgulah agrees with
traditions on the spot in indicating that the city must have been rebuilt
after the time of the Mongols and again perished. In 1840, during the
British occupation of Kabul, Bamian was the scene of an action in which
Colonel William H. Dennie with a small force routed Dost Mahommed Khan,
accompanied by a number of Uzbeg chiefs.

See Hon. M. G. Talbot, "The Rock-cut Caves and Statues of Bamian," _Journal
R. Austral. Soc._ vol. xviii. part 3; and J. A. Gray, _At the Court of the
Amir_ (1895).

(T. H. H.*)

BAMPTON, JOHN (_c._ 1690-1751), English divine, was a member of Trinity
College, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1712, and for some time canon
of Salisbury. He died on the 2nd of June 1751, aged 61. His will directs
that eight lectures shall be delivered annually at Oxford in the University
Church on as many Sunday mornings in full term, "between the commencement
of the last month in Lent term and the end of the third week in Act term,
upon either of the following subjects:--to confirm and establish the
Christian faith, and to confute