1895.] Alexander E. Caddy — Asoka Inscriptions in India. 163 



the foot of the BaihJidr hill. It is near the Asiira's house {Jarasandha 

 ka baithak). Ceylonese authorities claim it as being the cave which 

 corresponds most to the description in tlie Mahavanso. 



The authority mostly in favour of the Sou Bhandrlr being the 

 Saptaimrna is General Cunningham, while Mr. Boglar claims this distinc- 

 tion for a cave I have been unable to discover or identify on the north 

 of Baibhdr, except it be for the series of the great northern caves [ have 

 mentioned. Mr. Fergusson has accepted Mr. Beglar's idea, without 

 being certified as to the existence of the cave described by him. 



35. Great interest in the ruins of the ancient city of Rajagriha 

 attaches itself to the almost cyclopean walls, embankments, and high- 

 ways which endure to the present. The highway leads over the em- 

 bankments and city walls to the crest of the hills forming ramparts 

 which an invading army of old would have found a complete obstruction. 

 One wonders who would seek this barren waste, whose stony ground 

 produces nothing but thorn and scrub bamboo, where trees occur at 

 great distances apart and are all stunted. Yet at one time we hear o£ 

 these embankments, to which a miraculous origin is ascribed, converting 

 the country into a smiling garden and the city into a famine-proof 

 granary. 



36. We hear, too, of King Bimbisara and his chariot — how he 

 had a highway built up the side of Chatayiri to the rocks of Sailagiri, and 

 how he went in state to hear the words that Buddha had to say for the 

 comfort of humanity ; for among these rocks which overhang so and 

 threaten the timid, there are crevices and caves which were holiest 

 places to the successive bands of Buddhists who have sought refuge here, 

 where the great teacher lived and taught. From these rocks, right up 

 to the very crest of Sailagiri, Avere built stupas and viMras wiiich were 

 made waste and laid low, when a newer religious fervour directed its 

 hate towards Buddhism, — in its turn to be forgotten for many a centuiy 

 past. 



37. I traversed this highway several times — noted the stupa built 

 right in the road, which marks where King Bimbisara dismounted from 

 his chariot, and where again, on arriving at the upper flat in front of 

 the caves, another stupa records his sending back of the crowd, if we 

 take Fa Hian's account to guide us. Here, crossing over the boulders 

 lying in the now dry bed of the mountain torrent, I was able to again 

 follow up the old road, which leads to the two principal caves by a 

 direct stair to each, and which I was only able to discover after having 

 the jungle cleared for two or three days. Some six or seven caves, none 

 of any size, exist here. The rocks having naturally fallen info their 

 present position, which I should say is barely dift'erent from what it was 



