18 HILLS OF BEHAR. Chap. I. 



The site of Maddaobund, elevated 1230 feet, in a clear- 

 ance of the forest, and the appearance of the snow-white 

 domes and bannerets of its temples through the fine trees 

 by which it is surrounded, are very beautiful. Though 

 several hundred feet above any point we had hitherto 

 reached, the situation is so sheltered that the tamarind, 

 peepul, and banyan trees are superb. A fine specimen of 

 the latter stands at the entrance to the village, not a broad- 

 headed tree, as is usual in the prime of its existence, but a 

 mass of trunks irregularly throwing out immense branches 

 in a most picturesque manner ; the original trunk is appa- 

 rently gone, and the principal mass of root steins is fenced 

 in. This, with two magnificent tamarinds, forms a grand 

 clump. The ascent of the mountain is immediately from 

 the village up a pathway worn by the feet of many a pilgrim 

 from the most remote parts of India. 



Paras-nath is a mountain of peculiar sanctity, to which 

 circumstance is to be attributed the flourishing state 

 of Maddaobund. The name is that of the twenty-third 

 incarnation of Jinna (Sanscrit " Conqueror "), who was born 

 at Benares, lived one hundred years, and was buried on this 

 mountain, which is the eastern metropolis of Jain worship, 

 as Mount Aboo is the western (where are their libraries and 

 most splendid temples). The origin of the Jain sect is 

 obscure, though its rise appears to correspond with the 

 wreck of Boodhism throughout India in the eleventh 

 century. The Jains form in some sort a transition-sect 

 between Boodhists and Hindoos, differing from the former 

 in acknowledging castes, and from both in their worship of 

 Paras-nath' s foot, instead of that of Munja-gosha of the 

 Boodhs, or Vishnoo's of the Hindoos. As a sect of Bood- 

 hists their religion is considered pure, and free from the 

 obscenities so conspicuous in Hindoo worship ; whilst, in 



