164 Antiquities of the Cutback Hills. [No. 3, 



small isolated and steep hills rise in a few places to the north 

 of Cuttack and, taken in connection with the bosses and whale-back 

 ridges which stud the surrounding country, present all the features 

 of an upraised archipelago, and lead to the belief, that, at no very 

 remote geological period, the water of the western portion of the Bay 

 of Bengal dashed against many a rugged cliff, and rolled around 

 clusters of islands which studded over what is now the Province of 

 Cuttack : indeed a comparatively trifling depression of the country 

 might reproduce the same phenomena." In a subsequent part of 

 their report, they state " around the gneiss hills which have been 

 mentioned as rising suddenly from the alluvial plain, a quantity of 

 water-worn pebbles are always found, evidently the remains of an 

 old beach. Although, owing to weathering, these pebbles have 

 somewhat lost their rounded form and smooth surface, yet this 

 mode of occurrence and the absence of large angular blocks, prove 

 that they are of beach origin, and not merely rolled from the 

 hills."* 



It must be added, however, that what the men of science suppose 

 to have accrued at a former geological period, the tradition brings 

 within the history of man. Anyhow the table-land of Udaya 

 Giri must have been peculiarly adapted to the Buddhists for a 

 sanctuary ; a variety of hills and dales, green-woods and plains, 

 a limpid stream in front, combined with the solitude of the place, 

 amply inspiring a devotional feeling, " the vision and the faculty 

 divine." 



At the foot of the hill, the eye is caught by a colossal image of 

 Buddha, half covered in jungle, and a portionburied imder the earth. 

 It is fully nine feet in height, the length from the knee to the head 

 being seven feet. The figure is cut in high relief on a single slab of 

 rough chlorite, holding a large lotus in the left hand ; the nose and 

 the right hand are mutilated. The ear, arms, wrist, and breast are 

 decorated with ornaments, and the cloth round the waist is fastened 

 with three chains answering to the gote of the present day, worn 

 tight like a belt. The breast-plate furnishes an excellent pattern, 

 more elegant than any that I remember to have seen in the 



* Memoirs, Geological Survey of India, I. pp. 33 and 70. 



