Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces

Front matter

Archaeological Survey of India.

REPORT

OF

Preface

PREFACE.

MR. BEGLAR began the tour described in the present volume at Patna on the Ganges, where he was led to examine the question of the ancient course of the Son river. This question he has discussed at considerable length, and with much acuteness. I have myself lately gone over all the country to the south of Patna, when I made a searching enquiry into the subject, and the result of my investigation most amply confirms all that Mr. Beglar has advanced. He has clearly established the fact that a large river bed is traceable from Tarârh (near Dâu̇dnagar) on the Son, viá Râmpur-chai and Kyal to Siddhrâmpur and Sonbhadr on the Pûnpûn river. Now there can be no doubt that Siddhrâmpur is the same place as Siddhâsrampur, which was certainly on the Son; and the name of Sonbhadr speaks for itself, as Sonabhadra is one of the well-known names of the river at the present day. The lower course of the present Pûnpûn river was therefore the ancient course of the Son, the junction taking place at Sonbhadr. The Murhar river then joined the Son 4 miles to the west of Jahânâbâd. Both sand and boulder stones were found at Nima, on the present course of the Murhar, when digging for the foundations of a bridge between Bânkipur and Jahânâbâd. I made numerous diggings still further to the east, and at Pakaoli, Pathariya Jhil, and Kasba Patna, all to the south of the present city, I found coarse red sand and boulder stones. Similar sand is also said to be found at Chilbil, 4 miles to the south of Phulwâri, and near Maholi on the lower course of the Pûnpûn. Putting all these facts together, it would appear that the Son must formerly have flowed from a point close to Dâu̇dnagar to Siddhrâmpur, and thence to Sonbhadr on the Pûnpûn, from which it followed the present course of the Pûnpûn and Murhar rivers to Chilbil, south of Phulwâri, where it turned first to the east as far as Panch-Pahâri, and then to the south-east, finally joining the Ganges at Fatuha. The long tract of low ground in this direction is noticed by Buchanan. It is almost destitute of trees, and the inundation waters of the Son, Pûnpûn, and Murhar still find their way down this old bed to the Ganges. This is the old channel to which Buchanan gives the name of Mar-son, the "dead or deserted Son." The courses of the Ganges and Son would thus have been nearly parallel for many miles, and in this narrow tract, lying between the two rivers, was situated the famous city of Pâtaliputra or Palibothra, the capital of the Gangetic Provinces. The site was exactly similar to that of Hamirpur in the long narrow strip of land between the Jumna and Betwa rivers.

Connected with Palibothra Mr. Beglar has broached a theory that the Erannoboas of the Greeks was not identical with the Son, because "both Pliny and Arrian mention the Son and Erannoboas as distinct rivers" [p. 4]. But the very same objection holds good as to the Gandak being the other large river, as Pliny mentions the Condochates as well as the Erannoboas. There is another fatal objection to the identification of the Gandak with the Erannoboas, as the Ganḍak is a female river, while the Hiranyabáha (or Erannaboas) is a male river like the Sona, whose wooing of the Narbada river is a well-known legend. I may add that, according to Patanjali, the city of Pâṭaliputra was actually situated on the Son (Anu Gangam Pâṭaliputram); and as Mr. Beglar himself has shown in the previous discussion that the old course of the Son flowed, past the southern side of the city, then the Son, on which Pâṭaliputra stood, must be the same river as the Erannoboas, on which Palibothra stood.

To the south of Patna Mr. Beglar visited Telâdha or Telâṛa, a place which Mr. Broadley has described, and which I have identified with the Ti-lo-tse-kia of Hwen Thsang. Mr. Fergusson has objected to this identification that I “persist” in calling the monastery Tilaḍaka, “though M. Julien calls it Tilaçakya. It is true that M. Julien so names it in two places (I, 139, and II, 439); but in a third place (I, 211) he calls it Tilaṭaka, and in his index, at the end of volume III, he gives both readings, Ti-lo-tse-kia or Tiladhaka, and Ti-lo-shi-kia or Ti-la-ça-kia. But with regard to this latter reading he adds: “mais peut-etre que dans ce mot, ou chi (ça) a le même groupe phonetique que tse (dha), it faut reconnaître la transcription fautive de Tiladhaka.” Here it will be seen that M. Julien himself gives the preference to the reading of Tiladaka which 1 have adopted, and as the Chinese syllable tse is the usual representative of the Sanskrit cerebral d or t (just as we say nashion for nation), I thought it very probable that it was the same place as the Tillâra of our maps. The proper name of this place is Telâḍha, the Tillaṛa of Mr. Broadley. Here Mr. Beglar found the short inscription which Mr. Broadley describes as illegible, but in which he read the word Samvat. The inscription is on the architrave of the entrance to an old Masjid which is built of Hindu materials. It opens with tho words Sri Telâḍhaka; and there is no trace whatever of the word Samvat. During the past cold season I paid a visit to Telâḍha where I obtained a small Buddhist figure, with an inscription round the head opening with the words—

Telâḍhaka vâstavyam.

With these two ancient evidences of the old name of Telâḍhaka, and with the modern spelling of the name as Telâḍha, I believe that my identification of it with Hwen Thsang's monastery of Tilaḍhaka is now placed beyond all doubt.

In his account of Râjgir Mr. Beglar has broached a theory regarding the Sattapanni cave, which, in my opinion, is quite untenable. I believe that the only cave in these hills which has any claim to be identified with the famous Sattapani cave is the artificial cave now called Son-bhândâr. This is the only one that has been regularly cut and formed with chisel, like those at Barâbar. It bears also on the outside a row of socket holes, for the ends of the wooden beams of an outer apartment, which agrees with the description of the hall prepared by Ajâtasatru for the reception of the 500 monks who formed the first Buddhist Synod. Lastly, this cave is situated in the south face of the Baibhâr mountain, exactly as described in the Pali annals of Burma.

A. CUNNINGHAM.

Note

NOTE.

SINCE the report was written, and while it was in the press, I have, in company with General Cunningham, again visited some portions of Magadha; and although this is not the place to give an account of the places seen, and the results obtaiiwd from excavations, a few notes on disputed points will not be out of place.

In page 27 I have spoken of Bhika Pahari as a rocky hill, and have considered it identical with Panj Pahari: in both these statements I am incorrect. Panj Pahari turns out on excavation to consist of brick, and brick alone; it appears from the stratification disclosed in the excavations that the mound had long ago been dug into for bricks, the entire ones being carried off while the broken ones and the rubbish were thrown up on the sides, and mark the occurrence by the distinctly-sloping lines of the layers of rubbish with the well-defined accumulations of the larger pieces of brick-bats at the lower end of the slope, where in the actual course of excavations they would naturally roll down and accumulate; the remains, besides, of fragments of walls embedded in the mass of rubbish point to the same conclusion. Panj Pahari was therefore clearly a brick structure of some kind. General Cunningham proposes to identify it with the hill of Tipagupta, and I fully concur in his identification. But I will leave him to marshal his arguments in support of the position himself. Bhika Pahari I now learn, to my surprise, to be one of the wards within the modern city of Patna, so that it is clear my informant, in calling the great mound Bhika Pahari, had misled me. Bhika Pahari is itself a high spot, but has not been examined.

In development and continuation of my views regarding the old course of the Son, I may mention that the peculiar coarse yellow sand and the rounded Son pebbles were dug up at various and numerous spots this season by General Cunningham, shewing that the river once flowed about half a mile south of Panj Pahari, and ran parallel or nearly so to the Ganges, falling into it at Fatuha. I have, in the body of the report, indicated the course of the Son by the modern villages of Daudnagar and Tararb (about 60 miles above its present junction with the Ganges), past the villages of Rampur-Chai, Kyal, Kojhasa, Chandhos-buzurg, Bihta, into the Murhar, and then viâ Mohiuddinpur Khera and Patehpur Kalán into the Ganges at Patuha; and in addition to my argmnents in the body of the report, I can now add that, close to Mohiuddinpur Khera, there is an extensive jhil or lake, evidently the remains of the old bed, aud that excavations at Sonmayi, a village 3 miles south-east of Mohiuddinpur Khera, and 1½miles south of the great jhil, yield coarse yellow sand and pebbles precisely resembling what are well known as the Son sand and pebbles.

Sonmayi is at present an insignificant village, and enjoys no advantages of position—geographical, commercial or polltical—to render it of any importance; but that it was once an important place is evidenced by the ancient remains in it. The principal of these is a mound about 20 feet high and 150 feet long by 100 feet wide at the base. This mound is evidently the ruin of some large and important temple; it is strewn with brickbats, and near it is a pillar of greyish white stone, 9 feet high and 20 inches square. The capital and base are plain and 15 inches high each. The central portion is ornamented with a flowered band of sculpture about its centre, and by four boldly sculptured female figures round the shaft. There were formerly, an old man says, three other pillars like this one, on the mound, about 15 feet apart, of which about 15 inches were visible above the top of the mound when he was a boy; their positions, as indicated by him, form the three corners of a square of 15 feet side, so that I have no doubt they, with the existing fourth one, formed the pillars of the Maha-mandapa of a Temple.

If we suppose the Son to have flowed as indicated by me, the road from Rajgir to Patna would cross it at Sonmayi, so that we have an intelligible reason for its ancient importance. On the north bank would have stood Mohiuddinpur Khera, a place even now of importance, and whose ancient importance and present decay is attested by its very name, Mohiuddinpur Khera, "Khera" meaning old ruin.

But although it is perfectly clear that this was the course of the Son at a certain period as stated in the body of the report, the excavations of General Cunningham shew that at one time the Son, or a part of it, flowed close to the south of Panj Pahari and Patna, past Manpur Bairia and Mahaoli. General Cunningham has also pointed out to me a statement of Patanjali, that Pataliputra was situated on the Son [Anu Sonam Pataliputram], which proves that in his time it certainly flowed down this channel. This is an important link in the chain. I have shewn, I believe conclusively, that the Son flowed down the course I have indicated in the body of the report at the time when the Ramayana was written; that it continued in this course at the period of Buddha's death; and that, at the period of the composition of the Mudra Rakhshasa, it had begun flowing down its present bed. It now appears that at some intermediate and so far undetermined period it began flowing down a channel which has not left many traces, but which I take to have been the channel found by Captain Maxwell from Saidabad past Naubatpur, Bikram, and Phulwari, and on eastwards past Manpur Bairia and Mahaoli. That it did not long continue in this course is attested not only by the absence of jhils along this line, but by the far more emphatic absence of a single important place of antiquity, and the absence of all remains of antiquity, along it. No great river like the Son can flow long down any channel without unavoidably causing the establishment of places of importance along its banks.

But the Chinese records furnish, most unexpectedly, evi deuce bearing on the change in the course of the Son (see Journal Asiatic Society, London, 1836, for July and August; also Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, Vol. VI):—

“At the close of the years Kau Yueu (about a. d. 750) the bank of the river Holung gave way and disappeared.”

The Holung” General Cunningham justly considers as the Ganges.

At first sight the statement seems to have no bearing on the subject under discussion, nor did I think of it as having any bearing on the subject till General Cunningham pointed it out to me. It is clear that the mere falling-in of the banks of a river, large or small, is a thing of such a common occurrence, and so little import, that it could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered as of sufficient importance to be nctcd down in an epitome of Indian History, written by a nation that was so far and had so little to do with it as China, and accordingly the passage long puzzled me by its apparent want of purpose. But if we remember that the capital of India stood on the banks of the river, and that part of this capital did at some time assuredly fall into the river, the apparent mystery is instantly cleared up, and I think there can remain no reasonable doubt that the solution offered, viz., that it refers to the destruction of the city of Patallputra by the falling-in of the banks of the Ganges is the correct and only reasonable one that can be suggested.

But river banks are not in the habit of “falling-in”and cc disappearing” wholesale without adequate cause: the shifting of the embouchures of the great Son or the Gandak would be the only causes physically competent to produce the catastrophe.

But the embouchure of the Gandak has certainly not appreciably shifted from Buddha's time to the present day, as Vaisali still stands on the banks as it did then, only 20 miles above the junction; therefore, the only possible cause must have been the shifting of the embouchure of the Son suddenly from Fatuha to Maner. I have already shewn in the body of the report what changes such an event would produce in the course of the Ganges.

It is therefore clear that the change did take place very shortly before A. D. 750, and I feel gratified that my inference regarding the date of the change, based upon other and independent grounds, is thus unexpectedly confirmed.

I must not, however, omit to note that the statement of Patanjali that Patna was situated on the Son, coupled with the statements of the Greeks that it was at the confluence of the Ganges and the Erranoboas, and the actual fact that it is, and always was, on the Ganges, seems to settle the question as to the identity of the Son and the Erranoboas.

I have also visited Rajgir again, and this time with the aid of Hwen Thsang.

Fa Hian says,—"Entering the valley and skirting the mountains along their south-eastern slope for a distance of 15 li, we arrive at the hill called Gridharakonta,"—and he then goes on to describe the cave in which Buddha used to sit in profound meditation, and also Ananda's cave. In the body of my report I have identified these with the Son Bhândâr and the broken cave close to it, Nos. 3 and 4, page 90, text. Now, however, with the aid of Hwen Thsang's writings, of which I could not then avail myself (the books being out of print and not obtainable), but extracts from which have now been kindly supplied me by General Cunningham, I find that those identifications are not tenable. Following Fa Hian and entering the valley, one has to skirt the south-eastern foot of a range of hills; but as the ranges which bound the old city run north-east and south-west, it is clear that one may skirt the south-eastern foot of the northern range, the only range of which the south-eastern slopes are within the city, in two ways,—first, by going south-west and skirting the foot of the portion of the range to the west of the northern entrance; second, by going north-east and skirting the toe of the range to the east of the entrance. I followed the first route, and naturally enough identified the Son Bhândâr and the broken cave with Buddha's meditation cave and Ananda's cave: but the extracts from Hwen Thsang shew that I ought to have followed the second route; this I have now done, and am compelled to consider my previous identifications of these two caves incorrect.

My arguments against General Cunningham's identification of the Son Bhândâr with the Sattapanni cave rest on various grounds, not the least important of which are those very identifications which I now not only abandon but consider as hopelessly wrong. So long as my identifications of these two caves with Buddha's meditation cave and Ananda's cave remained unchallenged, my arguments against General Cunningham's identification of the Son Bhândâr cave were absolutely unassailable, for by no possibility could Buddha's meditation cave be identified with the Sattapanni cave. But the moment those identifications are abandoned as untenable, my arguments are at once brought down from the unassailable into an assailable position, and I must leave it to my readers to judge whether the residuum of my arguments against General Cunningham's identification of the Son Bhândár cave with the Sattapanni cave carry conviction or not.

General Cunningham and I separated before entering Rajgir, he going northwards towards Silao and Bihar; but before separating he gave me the extracts from Hwen Thsang bearing on the question, and explained to me his ideas as to the positions of the various remains there noticed noar Buddha's meditation cave. How can I adequately shew my worthiness of nobie confidence thus placed in an adversary but by unhesitatingly acknowledging my error?

The plate will shew the positions of some of the various obj ects discovered.

Going eastward from the Nekpai embankment along the toe of the slope of the Ratnagiri, I soon came upon an embankment R. R. which runs across the valley in a south-easterly direction on the right hand, while on the left it runs up along the slope of the hills in a north-easterly direction. The left-hand portion of the embankment does not go quite across the valley; it goes on to within a short distance of the eastern Eanganga rivulet, and stops abruptly; opposite to it, however, on the slopes of the southern range of hills are lines of walls, shewing that, even if the wall never did actually run right across the valley, it was at least intended to do so.

The left-hand portion goes up along the side of the hill nearly parallel to its toe and crest, crossing, close to the angle of junction with its south-eastern branch, a small dry water-course which descends from the Ratnagiri; some remains of walls and platform appear to have once existed on the right or west edge of this water-course above the crossing of the ramp It. It., but I cannot say what they represent.

Continuing along the ramp I came at a short distance on a small heap of ruins on the right-hand side of the ramp at its edge, and on the very edge of a tolerably levelled spot on the slope of the hill; the ruins are of brick, and I could trace straight walls in the ruin; this is evidently Mr. Broadley’s "small stupa in the very centre of the staircase, about 8 feet square;" the remains may be the remains of a small stupa, and it is evident that Mr. Broadley saw more of it than I did, as he avows having removed numerous figures from near it to Bihar, and possibly dug a little into this mound also in search of figures. I accordingly consider that the 8 feet square plinth is the square basement of a still maller stupa: continuing to ascend, the ramp after some distance turns due north, and skirts the edge of a deep gorge between the Deva Ghat and Sailagiri hills. Close to the bend is a large platform of brick remains, evidently the place of Mr. Broadley’s "second stupa, and a large quantity of images, pillars, &c." I could see nothing to shew that a stupa ever existed here, but, perhaps, Mr. Broadley dug it up, and it has disappeared accordingly: the ramp goes on northwards a short way further on and then all traces of it cease. I could not trace it further.

Crossing now the gorge and going north-east, I found a cave near the toe of a high mass of naked rocks which rise up on the main spur from Sailagiri hill.

The cave is a natural cavern of an irregular shape 12 feet long by 10 feet wide; it has two entrances, one facing south-west, the other north-west; it is situated literally in the northern shade of the mass of naked rocks just mentioned, which form a peak subordinate to the great peak of Sailagiri; 20 feet from the north-west entrance of the cave is a large rock 30 feet square and 5 feet thick.

Fifty feet from this cave, to its south-east, and under or within the mass of rocks which rise up in a peak, is another cave, also irregular in shape.

Both these caves were once ornamented with a brick or plaster lining, or rather, I should say, the irregularities appear to have been somewhat reduced by built brick-work and stone-work. Within the first cave are several sculptures—one, a longish stone, and apparently a fragment of a pedestal of a statue, is ornamented below by a line of 4-petalled lotuses, and over it by a line of sculpture representing an elephant standing facing a Dharmma Chakra. On the opposite side sits a human figure, followed by a figure like a lion; this again followed by a female, a man with a stick (?); and, lastly, a horse and rider. There are, besides this sculpture, two others, one representing Buddha seated with attendants on the sides in a fine-grained purple sandstone; on the pedestal were sculptured two lions on the two sides of a Dharmnia Chakra The figure has split off, the front portion, including the face, having split bodily off; the style of the sculpture appears to me to be of as early as the Gupta period the other sculpture appears to have been similar, but is even more mutilated; there is, besides, a flue head of Buddha.

The height of the roof of the cave, which is formed of an overhanging projecting slab of natural rock, is at present 5 feet above its earthen floor; the cave is full of loose fragments of rough stone, but no bricks.

Both these caves have two openings each; the one at the base of the rocky peak has one opening upwards giving access to the plateau above. There cannot be a doubt, I think, that here is the cave mentioned by Rwen Thsang and Fa Hian as Buddha’s meditation cave. Fa Hian says (Beal’s transl., p. 114), that 30 paces to the north-west of Buddha’s meditation cave is the stone cell of Ananda. Buddha’s cave, according to him, clearly had two openings. If now we suppose the cave at the foot of the mass of rocks to be Buddha’s meditation cave, we have to north-west of it at 50 feet the other cave which contains the sculptures, and about 100 feet off also to north-west the great block of stone mentioned above. The cave is quite far enough to be Ananda’s cave, as the loose measurement of 30 paces may mean anything from 50 to 90 feet; but the great stone is, perhaps, the real spot, although it is not a cave, for it does not appear to me quite certain that Ananda’s meditation place was a cave. Hwen Thsang calls it simply "a great rock." But as Fa Hian distinctly calls it "a stone cell," it would appear that the cave which he saw had fallen in before the time of Hwen Thsang’s visit.

On the peak, or rather a little below the highest point of the mass of rock, is a small oblong levelled terrace, partly natural and partly artificial. On this terrace undoubtedly stood several brick buildings, among which stood a small tope of nearly 8 feet diameter crowning the highest spot. I found enough of regularly cut and wedge-shaped bricks to determine the size with tolerable accuracy; the tope was adorned with mouldings, as I found several curved wedge-shaped bricks with their outer edge cut into simple mouldings, both straight-lined and curved. I could not find a single entire brick to measure; but whatever the lengths may have been, the breadth was 10½ to 11 inches, and the thickness varied from 2¼ to 3½ inches.

One curious brick that I found deserves mention; its underside was hollowed into a gentle cup-shaped cavity, while the top side had a square socket hole cut into it, 2 inches square, immediately over the lower cup-shaped hollow.

Descending the ridge on the side opposite to the cave,—i. e., on the east side, to the natural terrace on which the caves before mentioned are,—are the ruins of some sort of building of brick. Proceeding now in a northerly direction along the foot of the rocky crags; at a short distance, on a tolerably level rocky terrace above the lower terrace, are some remains of brick structures, among which I found curved bricks similar to those on the high peak noticed, and from these I ascertained that the diameter of the tope which must have stood here, and to which no doubt they belonged, was also about 8 feet.

These two small topes are accordingly situated to the right and left of a low pass in the craggy ridge through which people coming up the hillside direct must pass to get to the caves which are situated on the other side of the ridge.

This craggy ridge, which crops up along the centre of a spur from the great peak Sailagiri, runs north-east and south-west; it culminates into a distinct high peak at its extreme south-west end, on which, as noticed, one of the topes stood, and at the foot of which is what I call Buddha's meditation cave; about 100 feet off is a lower crag, close to which on a natural terrace is the other tope noticed before. Between these two eminences is the pass which connects the somewhat level surface of the spur itself on the opposite sides of the craggy ridge; the cave which I consider Buddha's meditation cave is accordingly situated in the "northern shade" of this craggy ridge.

From Hwen Thsang's detailed account it does not appear to me that the sloping ramp or wall R .R. was meant as a road to these caves,—as not only did I fail to trace it up to the eaves, but it does not appear to go anywhere at all; it stops precisely where the west side of the water-course, along whose edge it runs for the last 300 fat of its length, becomes steep and precipitous; it appears to me accordingly to be a line of defence, especially when I remember that walls in its prolongation exist to this day on the slopes and ridges of the southern range of hills beyond the Banganga valley.

The natural ascent to the eaves would be from some point near Q at the south-east foot of the slope of the main spur. Although I could see no signs of a made road, this circumstance ought not to have much weight against the supposition, when we remember that portions of massive walls, several times larger and stronger than this road could ever have been, have effectually disappeared in places in the outer line of fortifications of this very city of Girivraja; and after all, the great road, so much spoken of by the enthusiastic pilgrim, was in all human probability only a track-marked out on either side by lines of boulders.

Assuming, However, that the road did ascend up from near Q, it would necessarily go through the pass, just before reaching which would be the two small stupas to the right and left as described by Hwen Thsang.

Having visited the eaves, the pilgrim appears to have gone up towards the peak; in doing so he would necessarily come upon the various other objects which he has described.

Close to the two caves already noticed are five others, all at the foot of the craggy ridge already mentioned. Of these, one certainly enshrined a statue, as at the end of it, in its back wall, exists the remains of a small brick-built niche which had once certainly been ornamented with sculpture and scroll-work in plaster, and from the remains that exist I conclude it had a pointed or circular top, built, however, of overlapping bricks; within this cave appears to have stood a very small stupa also, as I picked up two curved wedge-shaped bricks within the cave.