1865,] Report of the Archaeological Survey. 189 



settlement of the place is very much older, being attributed to the 

 fabulous Raja Vena Chakravartti, who plays such a conspicuous part 

 in all the legends of North Bihar, Oudh, and Rohilkhand. 



228. The temples of Soron are very numerous, and several of them 

 are said to be old. But the only temples of any consequence are those 

 of Sita-Rdmji, on the top of the mound, and Vardhaji to the north- 

 west of the city. A great annual fair is held near the latter temple 

 on the 11th of the waxing moon of Mdrgasirsha, in remembrance of 

 the destruction of the demon by the Boar incarnation of Vishnu. It 

 contains a statue of Vardha Lahslimi, and is visited by crowds of pil- 

 grims. The temple of Sita-Rdmji, which is said to have been ruined 

 by Aurang Shah (or Aurangzib) was restored by a wealthy Baniya, 

 only four years ago, by building up the space between the pillars with 

 plain white-washed walls. Internally the temple is a square of 27 

 feet supported on 16 stone pillars ; but the people say that the original 

 building was much larger, and that it contained 32 pillars. This ac- 

 count is most probably correct, as the foundations of the walls of the 

 sanctum, or shrine, are still standing at the back, or west side, of the 

 temple. There are also 10 superfluous pillars inside the temple, of 

 which two support the broken architraves, and eight are built into the 

 corner spaces of the walls. The style of these columns is similar to that 

 of the set of pillars in the south-east corner of the quadrangle of the 

 G-reat Kutb Mosque at Delhi, which bear the date of Samvat 1124, ot 

 A. D. 1067. That this date is not too early for the Soron temple is 

 proved by the inscriptions of various pilgrims who have visited the 

 shrine. As the oldest legible record bears the elate of Samvat 1226, 

 or A. D. 1169, the date of the erection of the temple cannot therefore 

 be placed later than A. D. 1000. 



229. These pilgrim's records are generally short and uninteresting, 

 but as there are no less than 38 of thejn, bearing dates which range 

 from A. D. 1169 to 1511, they become valuable for tracing the 

 history of the temple. The earliest date after the Muhammadan con- 

 quest is A. D. 1241, and from that time down to A. D. 1290 there are 

 no less than 15 dated records, showing that Soron continued to be a 

 much frequented place of pilgrimage during the whole period of the 

 Ghori dynasty, which ended in A. D. 1289. But during the rule of 

 the next two dynasties, the Khiljis and TughlaJcs, there is only one 



