1895.] Alexancler E. Caddy — Asolca Inscriptions in hidia. 159 



characteristic group of the Mahanth and his college of chelas in the fore- 

 ground. 



Preparations for my return to Calcutta complete, I was just leaving 

 Cay a, when a packet was placed in my hands requiring me to go into 

 the Rajgir valley to bring away casts of the] long, rambling inscription 

 in the rocky roadway, in what Prinsep has called the " shell " character. 

 I had a reserve cask of gypsum in Bankipore, which I sent on to Bihar. 

 I stayed a day here to consult Mr. O'Donnell, the Magistrate and Collec- 

 tor of Patna, as to the space the inscription occupied, that I might-riot 

 riin short of material eventually. No one, however, seemed to have any 

 idea of the extent of surface covered by the inscription by actual 

 measurement. 



25. From Bankipur I traversed the ground between there and 

 Patna. Dr. Waddell identifies this space with the ancient Pataliputra 

 specifically, and I followed the sites consecutively as he details them. 

 Some objects of note and interest lay on the way in modelling and 

 sculpture. In clay there was an unique model of a hill. When 

 Mahendra, the son of Asoka, was converted to Buddhism, during the 

 intense reaction which took place about this period in the religious ex- 

 pression of the people, he songlit the valley of Rajagriha iov refuge, 

 and the cave of Buddha on Gridhrakuta for meditation. To wean him back 

 to Pataliputra, an artificial hill was built on this spot, and its ruin still 

 retains the name of Bhiknapalidri (the mendicant's hill), the moJiulla 

 being called Mahendra. On Bhiknapahari stood this clay model not so 

 very long ago. Its purpose was evidently to supply the workmen with 

 an idea of the hill as it should be made, and I determined while in the 

 Rajgir valley to discover any resemblance which might exist between 

 model and prototype. It has been an object of worship from time im- 

 memorial, and owes its preservation to perennial renewals. 



There was some sculpture, too, a caryatid figure of Maha Maya with 

 alto-relievo figures on either side, and a sculptured coping which I saw, 

 belonging to the period of Asoka, and this is absolutely all that is left 

 above ground of the stone-built palace of Asoka, or the court of 

 Chandragupta ( Sandracottos). 



26. A traveller has to take Rajgir from Bakhtiarpur, 28 miles 

 nearer Calcutta than Bankipore. A mail coach here takes one 19 miles 

 due south to Bihar, where there is an isolated hill of quartzite, once 

 occupied by Buddhists. From here the Subdivisional Officer, Mr. Cupta, 

 drove me down to Rajgir. The road strikes south-west. We left 

 Bargaon at the 7th mile-stone, and turning due south rode through the 

 large village of Silao (renowned for its sweet pastry) ; and the lesser one 

 of Panditpur. Here the bar of hills enclosing the Rajgir valley, becomes 



