164 Alexander E. Caddy — Asoka Inscriptions in India, [Nov. 



twenty-five centuries ago, and which have not been touched by the chisel 

 for any purpose whatsoever, in vain I sought some stone-cut record of 

 the past. Statues shattered and mutilated of the Buddha I found here, 

 but nothing more. There were bricks all over the place ; a stucco ro- 

 sette in one of the caves shows that it had been plastered and em- 

 bellished. Here, too, is the great stone fronting the cave Ananda occu- 

 pied, whereon the Vulture Mara sat and with outspread wings terrified 

 his soul, and there is the kindly crevice through which the comforting 

 hand of Buddha came and rested on his shoulder, divesting him of fear. 

 The very spot where I placed my not irreverent camera to record, the 

 present condition of the cave is where the vulture sat Avho gave the 

 name Gridhrakilta to this group of caves. 



38. Here it was that Mahendra, more than two centuries later, 

 sought refuge in Buddha, and the small clay hill 1 saw at Mahendra 

 near Patna, is a model of this hill. The centuries between, and its 

 perennial renewings, have altered its outline in detail only. The slan- 

 ting highway reaching from the foot of the hill to the cave level opposite 

 has been worn down to almost a level road at its water-course end, 

 where one would naturally imagine the approach to be eminently 

 difficult. The caves, too, are rightly placed behind the wall of rocks, 

 the mud representing which seems here to have been piled higher as 

 the road ay ore down. So there is an unmistakeable similarity, although 

 the likeness may not be at first sight obvious. 



39. I returned to Calcutta in the middle of February, and after 

 seeing all my moulds stored away in the Museum, I took up my 

 southern tour. 



40. There remained to do — 



1st, the Asoka inscription at Jaugada in the Madras Presidency ; 



2nd, a rescript of the same edicts at I)hauU ; 



ord, the singular record of self-laudation by the Aira Raja over 



the cave entrance in TJdaigiri ; and 

 4itlLly, a number of small dedicatory tablets from various caves 



of the Udaigiri and Khandaglri group. 



41. I booked by the Galna for-Gopalpur, a seacoast town of the 

 Madras Presidency, about 350 miles from Calcutta. It is the port of 

 the Ganjam district ; it is also the summer resort. Berhampur is the 

 sadar station. Ganjam is but a small station. I was at Gopalpur in 

 the first week of March, and immediately made for Jaugada by way of 

 Berhampur. The nearet post-town to Jaugada is Purushottapur, just 

 the other side of the Rishikulia river, and the nearest village to the fort 

 isPandya; the whole journey from Gopalpur being about 41 miles. 

 The assistant tahsildar was of great help to me at Jaugada. While the 



