18C7.] Udayngiri and Khandjiri in Cuttack. 1087 



Now this picture accords surprisingly with the facts gleaned from 

 the mutilated inscription. In Sunando, we may be perhaps allowed to 

 recognize the Nanda raja whose name twice occurs rather than one 

 of the nine Nandas of Magadha J the hero of the record may have suc- 

 ceeded him, and he, as we have seen, wavered between the rival reli- 

 gions. The name of this young prince from the most obvious inter- 

 pretation of the opening line would seem to be Aira, the excavator 

 of thecaves and repairer of the palace and religious edifices. 



But there is another explanation of the first line, which seems more 

 consistent with the epithet Mahdmeghavdhana ' the great rider upon 

 the clouds,' — a term hardly applicable to a terrestrial monarch. It 

 will be remarked that the termination lunam, ' excavated,' is indefinite 

 as to time ; and far different from the conclusion of every subsequent 

 sentence in a causal verb of the present tense, as, kdrayati, * he causes 

 to be done.' This first line then may be independent of the rest, and 

 may be similar to the announcements upon the other caves, also 

 terminating in lunam ; or in other words, it may declare the name of 

 the cave as, ' the cave of Aira.' Now Stirling tells us that Indra's 

 wife was the last to inhabit these caves, but that " they date from an 

 age much anterior — the time of Buddha ;" — that is, not of Sakya, but 

 of Buddha the progenitor of the lunar race according to Pauranic 

 mythology ; — in common parlance from 'time out of mind.' 



Again Wilson, in his analysis of the Mackenzie manuscripts (voL 

 1, p. cv.) remarking that they present no satisfactory materials for 

 tracing the ancient history of the countries north of the Krishna, cites 

 among the few traditions recorded, that " the excavations at Ellora 

 are ascribed to Ila the son of Buddha the son of the moon." The 

 rajas who ruled subsequently at Ellora are said to be Yuvanaswa, 

 Dandaka, Indradyumna, Darudhya, and Rama raja.' — (Of these 

 Indradyumna, it may be remaked, en passant, is the traditionary 

 founder of the temple of Jaganndth ) 



The Ila above mentioned is properly speaking not the son but the 

 wife of Buddha, — in other words Ila' or Ira', the goddess of the 

 earth, or water. From whom was born Ailas or Puru'vavas, pro- 

 genitor of the two principal branches of the Chandravansa who 

 reigned at Kdsi and Pratishthdna. 



The essays of Wilford contain frequent mention of Ila and Ila', 

 (for this personage is both masculine and feminine,) whom he identifies 

 with Japhet as Ilapati or Jyapati t and again with Ilys of the Orphean 

 theogony, Gilshah of the Persians, and litis of Homer*. He has, how- 

 ever, omitted what appears to me a much more rational analogy both 



* Asiatic Researches, VIII. 255. 

 6 y 2 



