} Archeological Survey Report. 
reasons :—Karna-chopdar I take to be simply Karna-jhopra, ox “ Karna’s 
Hut,” so named after Karna, King of Angga, the illegitimate son of 
Pritha, the mother of the Pandus, Similarly, Lomas Rishi, who was 
described to Buchanan as a “very hairy Saint,” is no doubt the same 
as Loma-Pdda or “hairy foot,’ who was also one of the Kings of 
Angga (or Bhagulpur). But as Loma-Pada is only a descriptive 
appellation of a Prince whose true name was Dasaratha, it would 
seem as if the name of Dasaratha, the founder of the three Nagarjuni 
caves, had actually been preserved down to a comparatively late period, 
and was then ignorantly referred by the Brahmans to the early king 
of Angga instead of to the Maurya Prince of Magadha. Regarding 
the name of Suddma, or Sudhdma, 1 am unable to offer any conjec- 
ture; but Viswamitra, was one of the most celebrated of the seven 
Rishis, or great Brahmanical Saints. 
126. The silence of Hwen Thsang regarding the caves has been 
already noticed ; but I have a suspicion that he had heard of the 
celebrated spring of the Pdtdl Gangd at the foot of the Barabar Hill. 
According to his account there was a famous spring of pure water 
situated at 30 di (or 5 miles) to the north of Gaya. Now as I could 
not hear of any spring to the northward of Gaya nearer than Barabar, 
I would suggest that Hwen Thsang’s distance of 30 Zi should be cor- 
rected to 130 & (or 21% miles), which would make his famous spring 
agree exactly with the position of the Pdtdl Gangd, according to the 
distance by road, which is 18 miles to the Bela Dak Bungalow + 6 
to the Kauwa-Dol hill + 2 more to the Patal Ganga. Hwen Thsang 
adds that “the Indians following an ancient tradition called this 
spring the ‘holy water’ (eau sainte), and that at all times whoever 
drank of it, or bathed in it, was instantly purified from the stain of 
his sins.” Now the source of the Patal Ganga is still held in such 
esteem that, according to Buchanan, from 20,000 to 50,000 people 
assemble annually in the middle of the month of Bhadrapada to 
bathe in its waters, and about 500 people bathe daily during the 
whole of that month. 
127. Should this identification be correct, it would seem to be 
almost certain that towards the middle of the 7th century of our era, 
not only were these caves occupied by the Brahmans, but the very 
memory of their Buddhist origin had been either forgotten or was 
carefully concealed. 
