Vol. V, No. 1.] The Vikramasilé Monastery. 7 
[N.S. 
even thought of. The hill is a very small one, too small to 
have a monastery with six gates and a quadrangle or open 
space which could hold an assembly of 8,000 men, and also the 
ime ese 
ces clearly prove that the ine eee of Vikramasilé with the 
erase ig _ can not at all be correct. 
a the ancient soos te the capital of Anga. 
Co 
tharghata. The approach to Pathanghaes from the Colgong side is 
guarded by. bristling crags and large boulders ch a jutting 
up from the bed of the river, ash are carved with the effigies 
of Pauranik gods and goddes sses, From the faba of the river a 
broad flight of steps cut into the rock leads up to the projecting 
portion of the hill, where on a level terrace on its southern side 
elow a banian tree is situated a temple of Mahadeva called 
Bateswarandtha. To the east of the temple is a spacious cave 
cut in the hill with a low doorway, on both sides of which are 
many stone statues and terra cotta aa of gods and goddesses 
of the Tantrika-Buddhistic pantheon, as of Tara, the consort 
of Amoghasiddhi! or of Avaloki cawene? of Akshobya, one of 
the five Dhyani Buddhas, and so for th, and also some phallic 
images of Mahadeva. On the court-yard of the temple also, 
just below the platforms, may seen similar statu ese 
statues are of course not in situ, but they must have been re- 
moved there from the other parts of this place. Some of these 
images contain inscriptions in the Kutila character which was in 
use between the eighth and twelfth centuries of the Christian era. 
On the southern side also may be seen similar excavations in the 
vast extent of rocky plain covered with the debris 
large portion of which has now been brought under cultivation. 
Two places called Antichak nee Buddhasana which are contigu- 
| Hodgson’s Literature and Religion of ene Baddhists. 
2 Dr. Waddell’s Buddhism of Thibet, p. 358. 
