140 Dr. Mitra— On the Temples of Dcoghar. [Aug. 



and 4 inches in diameter. It is held in the highest veneration, and 

 pilgrims by thousands resort to the place from all parts of India. During 

 the principal festivals, the number of pilgrims varies from 40 to 60 

 thousand. The lingam is noted for effecting miraculous cures. On the 

 north, the south and the west sides of the temple, there are verandas, in 

 which from 40 to 60 persons are to be daily seen lying in absolute fast for 

 days, in the hope of the divinity disclosing to them in dreams the remedy 

 for their ailments. Most people are blessed with the dream on the 3rd, 

 4th or 5th day of their fast, but those who are not so blessed even on the 

 7th day are generally driven away on the 8th to prevent death by starvation. 

 Cures are frequent, particularly of nervous diseases, such as hysteria and 

 the like. 



Some of the images in the minor temples are of Buddhist origin. 

 In one temple a figure of Padmapani is worshipped as Siirya, and the 

 image of a Bodhisattva does duty in another temple for the goddess of 

 Dawn, Sandhya. The author is of opinion that the place was originally 

 the site of a Buddhist sanctuary which has been, since the expulsion of 

 the Buddhists, appropriated to Hindu worship. The paper includes texts 

 and translations of all the inscriptions available at the place, as also a 

 drawing of the principal temple and a ground-plan. 



This paper will be published in the Journal, Part I. 



2. On the origin of the so-called Kharahpur Meteorite. — By V. Ball, 



M. A., F. G. S. 



[Received 28th July; Read 3rd August, 1881.] 



In the year 1848 a mass of iron supposed to be of meteoric origin, 



which had been found embedded in the soil on the top of the Kharakpur 



hills, was forwarded to the Asiatic Society. It was stated that it had 



been exhumed by the hillmen and had been an object of worship for many 



years. 



Mr. Piddington, who had invited Capt. Slier will to procure it for the 



Society, after a physical and chemical examination which is fully detailed 



in the Journal,* pronounced it to be a veritable meteoric iron. The 



chemical examination was believed to have revealed the presence of nickel, 



cobalt and chromium, which metals commonly occur in meteoric irons. 



The metal was stated to exhibit the damasked lines known as Wied- 



mannstatten figures which are specially characteristic of meteoric irons. 



The result was, in short, that this mass of metal weighing nearly 



156| pounds became renowned as the Kharakpur meteorite and for 



many years it held a place of honour in the case of meteoric stones in 



the Society's Museum. About the year 1860 a sample cut from it was 



* Volume XVII, p. 538. 



