90 H. P. Shastri — The identification of Ramagiri. [DkC, 



3. The identification of Ramagiriy the starting-point of the cloud 

 in the cloud-messenger of Kalidasa with Ramagarha Hill in the Sugruja 

 State.— By Mahamahopadhtaya Habapeasad Shastri, M.A. 



Ramagiri, the starting-point of the cloud-messenger in Kalidasa's 

 well-known poem Meghaduta and the temporary residence for a year of 

 the banished and love-sick Yaksha was identified by Horace Hayman 

 Wilson in 1813 with Ramatec, 28 miles north-east of Nagapnra. It is a 

 place sacred to Rama and it is in the neighbourhood of Sitabaldi the 

 famous hill on which the British Residency was attacked by Appa Saheb 

 in J 818. Th first verse of the Meghaduta speaks of Rama's hermitage 

 with its waters sanctified with the ablutions of Sita. 



But when the south-east monsoon, which commences about the 19th 

 June or about the beginning of the Bengali month of Asadhia, began 

 to blow it would carry the cloud towards Malwa, and not to Amara- 

 kantaka (ancient Ararakuta) . So for a long time I doubted the correct- 

 ness of Wilson's identification. 



My readings, however, brought to my notice another Ramagarha or 

 Ramagiri a few miles to the east of the Amrakuta. This Ramagarha 

 is also sacred to Rama and there are pools, rills and brooks sanctified by 

 the holy baths of Sita. It is described in the J 3th volume of Cunning- 

 hams Arch. Report as a single hill on a small plain with spurs and a peak. 

 The small plain is surrounded on the north and towards north-east 

 and north-west by high range of hills which a rain-cloud is not 

 expected to cross over. So when the south-east monsoon strikes upon 

 a piece of cloud resting on the spurs of Ramagiri it will drive the cloud 

 north-west. Obstructed there the cloud will veer round to the Armakuta. 

 So I thought Ramagarha in the Sarguja State would be our Ramagiri. 



But an unexpected corroboration was afforded by a study of the 

 works on Ramagarha. It has two caves very ancient indeed, one is now 

 called the Jogimara cave, the other Sitabanjira cave. These caves have 

 inscriptions in Asoka characters. These have not yet been deciphered. 

 Cunningham tried his hand at it, but could not do much. He was 

 anxious to find in it some record of Devadatta, the cousin and opponent of 

 Buddha. But I found two love-songs in these inscriptions. 



The first song translated into English will run thus : — 

 I salute the beautifully-formed one who shows us the gods. I 

 salute the beautiful form that leads us to the gods. He is much in 

 quest at Varanasi. I salute the god-given one for seeing his beautiful 

 form. 



The second song ; — 



The heart of a lady living at a distance (from her lover) is set 



