342 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [Sept., 1914. 



ocean with the hill as the churn-staff, the gods holding at the 

 tail and the Asuras at the mouth of the serpent, the hill itself 

 resting on the back of the tortoise, a form which Visnu had as- 

 sumed. The hill is sacred to Madhusudana. There are two 

 Jaina temples on the highest peak of the hill. On a lower bluff on 

 the western side of the peak was the original temple of Visnu 



Madhusudana now in ruins; but the idol is now kept at 



BaaSi, the Balisa of the Mandara-mahatmya, whence it is 

 brought every year to a temple at the foot of the hill on the 

 last day of Pons. On the western side of this is a dark low 

 nave containing an image of Nrsimha carved in the rock, and 

 near it are situated a colossal image Vamana Deva, a huge but 

 rude sculpture of Madhu Daitya, 1 and a cave containing some 

 limpid spring-water called AkaSa-GangS. At the foot of the 

 hill and on its eastern side are extensive ruins of temples and 

 other buildings, and among them is an old building called 

 Nath-than which was constructed in a.d. 1589, Flights of 

 stairs carved out of the rocks lead almost to the top of the 

 hill, which at various parts contains ruins of buildings. These 

 ruins are said to belong to the time of the Chola Rajas, especi- 

 ally of Raja Chhatar Singh-* At the foot of the hill, there is a 

 tank called Papaharinl which is considered to be very sacred. 

 As stated before, it was excavated by Konadevi, the queen of 

 Aditya Sena who became independent sovereign of Magadha 

 in the 7th century a.d. The Hindus consider it to be an act 

 of great merit to see Madhusudana on the Mandara hill 3 like 

 Vamana on the car, and therefore its sanctity has been ex- 

 tolled in many Puranas.^ The Mahabharata, 5 however, does not 

 recognize any other Mandara Parvata except the Mandara of 

 the Himalaya range. The Varaha Pur an 6 and the Mandara- 

 mahatmya, which is a portion of the Skanda Puran, mention 

 that Mandara is situated on the south of the Ganges and in the 



Vindhya range. 



The Pala Kings were Buddhists. Their powerful and 



u i ,,- . judicious administration put an end 



Bikramasila monastery. f tl ,, . **.•*. t~ ^ on- 



J to all dissensions and the state ot an- 

 archy which prevailed before their time, and their strong arms 

 repelled the invasions to which Eastern India was frequently 

 subjected. They restored peac* and encouraged learning. 

 Literature and the arts flourished, and the Buddhist religion 

 took a definite shape and developed into Tantric mysticism. 

 Their kingdom comprised the ancient countries of Magadha, 

 Anga and Gauda. There existed three universities in these 



I For a description of the figure see ./. A.S.B., xx, 272. 



* Martin : EuhU Ind. . ii. 



' 6 " *?«STT *tt(93[i!" (Garuda Puran. ch. 81). 



* Varaha P., 143; Nrsimha P., 65; Skanda P., Yor/inl T., pt. ii, 4 - 



* xiii. ch. 19; iii. 162. 6 Bk. Hi 



