90 GANGES VALLEY. Chap. III. 



On my passage down the river I passed the picturesque 

 rocks of Sultangunj ; they are similar to those of Monghyr, 

 but very much larger and loftier. One, a round-headed 

 mass, stands on the bank, capped with a triple-domed 

 Mahommedan tomb, palms, and figs. The other, which 

 is far more striking, rises isolated in the bed of the river, 

 and is crowned with a Hindoo temple, its pyramidal cone 

 surmounted with a curious pile of weathercocks, and two 

 little banners. The current of the Ganges is here very 

 strong, and runs in deep black eddies between the rocks. 



Though now perhaps eighty or a hundred yards from the 

 shore, the islet must have been recently a peninsula, for it 

 retains a portion of the once connecting bank of alluvium, in 

 the form of a short flat-topped cliff, about thirty feet above 

 the water. Some curious looking sculptures on the rocks 

 are said to represent Naragur (or Vishnu), Suree and 

 Sirooj ; but to me they were quite unintelligible. The 

 temple is dedicated to Naragur, and inhabited by Fakirs ; 

 it is the most holy on the Ganges. 



April 5. — I arrived at Bhagulpore, and took up my 

 quarters with my friend Dr. Grant, till he should arrange 

 my dawk for Sikkim. 



The town has been supposed to be the much-sought 

 Palibothra, and a dirty stream hard by (the Chundum), the 

 Eranoboas ; but Mr. Ravenshaw has now brought all 

 existing proofs to bear on Patna and the Soane. It is, like 

 most hilly places in India, S. of the Himalaya, the seat of 

 much Jain worship; and the temples on Mount Man den,* a 

 few miles off, are said to have been 540 in number. At 

 the assumed summer-palaces of the kings of Palibothra 

 the ground is covered with agates, brought from the 



* For the following information about Bhagulpore and its neighbourhood, I am 

 indebted chiefly to Col. Francklin's essay in the Asiatic Researches ; and the late 

 Major Napleton and Mr. Pontet. 



