A hunting party, a pond and a lost lion capital
In 1893 a Nepali officer out hunting in the Tarai forests came upon a fallen stone pillar beside a pond. Two years later, in March 1895, Alois Führer studied it and its inscriptions. Besides the Brahmi lines of Ashoka there were later additions, including 'Om mani padme hum' and a line for King Ripu Malla dated to 1312 CE, the same king who left his mark on the Lumbini pillar.
Führer then wrote a lavish description of a great Konakamana stupa surrounded by ruined monasteries. None of it existed. In 1901 it was shown he had copied the passage almost word for word from Alexander Cunningham's report on the stupas at Sanchi. Yet Vincent Smith, who exposed Führer, accepted the inscription itself as genuine, and the leading modern scholar of Ashoka's inscriptions, Harry Falk, agrees.
The pillar was not found in its original place: there is no foundation under it. It may have been moved from Gotihawa or from Taulihawa. The writer Charles Allen suggested the upper part may once have been used as a roller for crushing sugarcane. Xuanzang, in the 7th century, saw a lion on top of the pillar. That capital has never been found.
![David Lowry [1] · CC BY 2.0](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nigali_Sagar_pillar_full_view.jpg){kind=link}