1866.] Notes on a Tour in Maunbhoom. 189 



Near the brick temples I found, amongst a heap of ruins, a square 

 stone crypt in which was a four-armed female figure finely carved in 

 the style of the sculptures of Dulmi, to be presently described. This 

 was worshipped by the women of the place under the name of ' Soshti.' 

 In the grove there was a similar figure, and the other images of Hindoo 

 gods found there, appeared to be of the same period. Another mound 

 was pointed out to me about half a mile from the grove as a collection 

 of ruins, but I did not go to it. 



The temples of the Maunbhoom District described in a letter from 

 Lieutenant Beavan, published in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society 

 for April last, are no doubt of the same Jain type. The colossal 

 sculpture, described as worshipped by the villagers under the name of 

 Bhiram, may be another image of the 24th Jina, " Vira ;"-at all events 

 it is a " Tirthancara" not a Hindoo image. 



From the notice of " Vira" in the IXth Vol. of the Asiatic Researches, 

 article Jains, by Profr. Wilson, it appears that he flourished 500 or 

 600 years before Christ, and after he had adopted an ascetic life he is 

 represented as traversing the country occupied by the " Vajra Bhoomi" 

 and the Suddhi Bhoomi, who abused and beat him and shot at him 

 with arrows and baited him with dogs ; but he tranquilly went on his 

 course, paying no heed to these annoyances. Now Maunbhoom is to 

 this day the land of the Bhoomi, or Bhumij. ' They are a branch of 

 the Moondah race, and were long the terror of the adjoining districts 

 of Bengal. These were no doubt the " Vajra" the terrible " Bhoomi." 

 The other portion of the population, who are not " Bhoomi," are 

 called " Sudh" throughout Chota-Nagpore. It is not improbable that 

 the shrines-I have been describing, mark the course taken in his travels 

 by the great saint " Vira," and were erected to his honour by the 

 people whom his preaching had converted ; but all these temples are 

 in sight of Mount Samaye or Samat, that is the sacred hill from which 

 250 years before the days of Vira, the Jina Parswa or Parswanath is 

 said to have obtained ' nirbdna' or ultimate repose from the cares of 

 a separate existence ; and it may be that colonies of Jains had settled 

 on the rivers in the jungle mehals before the appearance of Vira, and 

 that Vira preached to men who had already been inaugurated into the 

 mysteries of the Jain faith. The tradition of the Bhoomij and their 

 kindred tribe, the Ho or Lurka Coles of Singbhoom, that the Srawakas 

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