Vol. X, No. 9. J Notes on Ancient Anga. 341 



[N.S.] 



ganj and Jahanagar near Nadia, where the Ganges is likewise 

 said to have been drunk u*p by the R»iJ Jahnu is an allegorical 

 representation of a change in the course of the Ganges. 



The hermitage of Rsi Durvasa is pointed out on the highest 



^ , peak of a hill called Khalli-pahar or 



Khadi-pahar, a limestone rock which 

 is now worked for chalk. A temple of Mahadeva occupies th« 

 site of the hermitage. The hill is situated on the bank of the 

 Ganges, 23 miles to the east of Bhagalpur and two miles to 

 the north of Kahalgaon (Colgong) or Kalahagrfmia, a sobriquet 



which the place has received on account of the irascible temper 

 of the Rsi. The hermitage of DurvasS, however, is also shown 

 at Dubaur in the sul>-division of Xowadah in the district of 



Gaya.* 



There are two famous shrines in the country of Anga : one 

 ^ - , «,, is the temple of Baidyanatha at Deo- 



-Baidvanath. . . r x . ., J A . . . 



garh, and the other the temple of 

 Madhusudana on the Mandara hill. The former contains a 

 Jyoiirllnqa of Mahadeva, and the other an image of Visnu. 

 The phallic image of Baidyanatha is said to have been estab- 

 lished by Ravana, king of Lanka, at a place which was 



variously called by the names of Citabhumi, Briksa-Khanda, 8 

 Jhada-Khanda, 4 Paraligrama corrupted into Palu-gaon, and 

 Pampapurl. 5 It is described as a place of pilgrimage in the 

 Padma Puran. 6 The sanctity of Baidyanatha as containing 

 one of the twelve great Lihgas of Mahadeva is very great, but 

 its sanctity is further enh-m^ed by the fact that it is also one 

 of the fifty-two Pithas. Sati's heart is said to have fallen at 

 this place and therefore it is called Harda Pitha. The temple 

 of Parvatf faces that of Baidyanatha, and the pinnacles of the 

 two temples are connected by a piece of cloth stretched from 

 one to the other to indicate their union. 7 According to a local 

 tradition recorded by Dr. Buchanan, the temples are said to 

 have been builr by a Raja of Chola. 9 



The Mandara hill is situated in the Banka sub-division, 



two or three miles to the west of Bari- 

 and thirty miles to the south of 

 Bhagalpur. It is an isolated hill about seven hundred feet 

 high with a groove all round the middle, the chisel marks of 

 which are still visible, to indicate the impression of the coil of 

 the serpent Basuki which served as a rope for churning the 



Mandara Hill. 



4 I 



' Fraser: H i mala Mountains, 476 ■. 



2 Grierson's Notes on the District of Gay a. 



3 Siva P., Pt. i, chs. 38, 55. 4 Maha-Lrhg> >are T antra, 



t> Uttara P., quoted by Francklin in his Ancient Palibothra, p. 21. 



fi Uttara-Khanda, ch. 59. _ t 



7 For description of the temples of Baidyanath see Dr. R. Mitra s 

 On the Temples of Deoghar r '' in J.A.S.B., 1883, p. 164. 



* Martin: East. hid., ii. 23. 



