PARAS-MATH. 43 
under-shrubs are of the previously mentioned species, with a handsome 
odendron, and little or no herbaceous growth, except a wiry Andro- 
pogon, Anthistiria, Saccharum, &c. 
At the foot of the mountain some villages were passed in warmer 
localities, and on a more fertile soil than those near the road we had left. 
ipot-Palms and Mangos flourished, with extensive Rice-fields and 
broad acres of Mustard, Flax, and Rape; in the latter the Orobanche 
Judica abounded, pushing its blue flowers through the soil. The dis- 
tance to Mudderbund we had understood to be six miles off the road, 
but now found that this short cut lay through ravines, too narrow for 
the elephants. We therefore wound round by wooded valleys and some- 
times the beds of streams, and did not reach the village till 2 p.m. 
All the hill-people hereabouts are a fine athletic race, far superior in 
looks and knit of limb to the low-country Bengalees: they disclaim all 
knowledge of tigers, which are the dread of the Palkee-bearers along 
the road at the foot of these hills, who affirm that the very torch- 
bearers are seized by these animals at night, and eaten, torch and all, 
as children swallow apple-candles lighted with almond wicks. 
The site of Mudderbund, in a clearance of the forest, is charming, 
and the appearance of the snow-white domes and bannerets of its 
temples through the fine trees by which it is surrounded, is highly 
attractive. Though several hundred feet above any point hitherto 
reached, the situation is so sheltered that the Tamarind trees, Peepul, 
and Banyan are superb. Of the latter a most noble specimen 
stands at the entrance to the village, not a broad-headed tree as is 
usual in the prime of its existence, but a mass of trunks, throwing 
out minute branches very irregularly in a most picturesque manner. 
The original trunk was apparently gone, and the principal mass of 
root-stems is fenced in. "This, with two magnificent Tamarinds, forms 
a grand clump. The ascent is at once from this village by a good 
path, worn by many a pilgrim from the most distant parts of India. 
Paras-Nath is a mountain of peculiar sanctity, to which the 
flourishing state of Mudderbund is to be attributed. The name is that 
of the twenty-third incarnation of Jinna (Sanskrit, Pa who was 
at Benares, lived 100 years, and was buried o is mountain, 
which is the strong-hold of these people in Eastern iii as Mount 
Abo is in Western (where are their libraries and most splendid temples). 
The origin of the Jains sect is obscure, though their rise appears to 
s G 2 
