1 870. J Antiquities of the CuttacJc Hills. 167 



forefinger of each, touching a point on the shoulder of the figure 

 preceding, and the toe placed on the projected knee of the one 

 following. 



I am disposed to think that this gate was provided with doors. 

 There are two hig holes in the corners, which were no doubt intend- 

 ed to receive the hinges. 



The image of Biiclha. Ahout 16 feet "beyond the gate, behind a 

 narrow passage blocked up by brambles, I came to a cell, 9 feet 

 square and as many feet deep. In this a large image of Buddha is 

 placed in a sitting and meditating posture. It is 5 feet, 6 inches 

 long from waist to head. The face itself is 1-6 by 1-5, and the 

 breast, 3 feet 6 inches broad. It is made of three pieces of 

 bluish chlorite. The head is formed of one piece, the neck down 

 to the breast of another, and all below of a third. The joints have 

 cracked a little now, but they could not originally have been dis- 

 cerned. I paid a passing visit to this image, nearly three years ago, 

 when employed in enquiries connected with the late famine, but I 

 do not remember to have then observed these joints. The rock 

 behind the image has been smoothed with layers of small bricks. 

 There are four huge stone pillars, two standing near the cell, and 

 two near the gate, which must have at one time supported a roof and 

 formed a porch in front of the cell. 



There is an expression of strength and boldness about the 

 straight gait and broad breast of the image which contrasts stri- 

 kingly with the meekness of the eyes. The left arm has been 

 placed carelessly over the thigh, the palm being visible ; the right 

 hand has been mutilated ; so is the nose. 



Scarcely one image was met with on these hills, which had 

 escaped the ravages either of time or of fanaticism. The tradition 

 rogarding the mutilation of the nose, is the same everywhere. Ask 

 the humblest Uriya of the cause, and the reply is: "it drop- 

 ped at the sound of Kalapahar's kettle-drum," thus significantly 

 pointing out the origin, but superstitiously veiling the manner of 

 its destruction. One thing, however, is certain, that there is no 

 spot in Orissa, however remote or secluded, to which the arms of 

 the Moslem conquest did not reach, or which did not suffer from 

 its ruinous influence. The lover of antiquity cannot turn to these 



