408 Notes on the Caves of Burahur. [May, 



leaving just room to crawl in, in a sitting posture ; these may be the 

 remains of the temple alluded to in the two inscriptions translated 

 by Prinsep, and which, as he justly conjectures, are of afar more modern 

 date than the caves or the Pali inscriptions which record their construc- 

 tion, and first appropriation. I am in hopes of having a passage cut 

 in front of the rock and doorways, by which means the water which 

 now floods the caves will be let off and prevented again reaching them, 

 and admit a free passage for visitors, and perhaps bring to light some 

 hidden curiosities. 



Figure 6, pi. VIII. will best explain the shape of this curious 

 work of patience and labour ; the entrance has an outer recess or porch 

 about three feet deep, the doorway of Egyptian shape, is six feet high ; 

 the room is highly finished and polished though perfectly plain ; there 

 is a niche in the centre of the east end, and on the west the singular 

 convex end or side of the circular inner chamber with a projecting 

 hood or dome like a mushroom, with its tapering doorway, faces the 

 visitor, who, if inclined to the study ofBudhist antiquities, will at once 

 exclaim this is a Dehgope or cave Chaitya. On the left or east side 

 of the entrance (outer) recess is the purposely mutilated inscription 

 marked fig. 5, pi. IX. of which sufficient is left to show that in the 

 12th year of the reign of the beloved Rajah, this "Nigope" cave was 

 excavated ; unfortunately the first syllable is doubtful, but the second 

 is not so, and suffices I think to settle the point of the cave being 

 a Chaitya or shrine ; indeed I am inclined to believe that three of 

 the four on this hill were such, for the common name of " Sutgurba," 

 which the Kaith moonshee, taking the word " sat" as a numeral, wrote 

 "huft khaneh," or seven chambers, the meaning generally however, 

 though improperly given at the present time, should in my estimation 

 be rendered the caves of righteousness. In the, Pali annals, the 

 spot it called " Suttapanni Gurba," i. e. allowing my inference before 

 explained as correct. The other caves at Nag-arjuni were perhaps 

 not so, but intended as habitations for the ascetics, as already shown. 



The extreme lengths of these chambers from end to end, as well as 

 their width and height to crown of vault will be seen in the plate. 



At the end and further east of the above mentioned, is a second dou- 

 ble chambered cave of the same shape, but has remained unfinished, the 

 sides only being polished and the vault left in the rough, as well as the 



