922 Description of a Colossal Jain figure [Sept. 



celebrated rapid called from its conformation the Hurnpahl or Deer's 

 Leap.* The hills as they stretch toward the river present sharp 

 defined outlines, and are crowded and heaped confusedly together, their 

 summits for the most part terminating in peaks or sharp ridges, and 

 rise from 14 to 1 700 feet above the bed of the river, which at Chickulda, 

 on the opposite bank, is 550 feet above the level of the sea; thus 

 giving an extreme elevation of at least 2000 feet to the sacred peak, 

 which is by no means the highest visible. 



It is upon the east face of one of these hills, about 3 miles from 

 Burwanie itself, distant upwards of four from the Nerbudda, that the 

 Colossal figure is cut. 



About a mile from Burwanie the first ascent commences, and from 

 hence to the summit, is fully two miles of a most laborious, and in the 

 hot season most fatiguing way, for there is neither shelter, stream, 

 well, or tank to refresh the traveller. Colonel Franklin's description 

 (in Transaction, A. S. Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 1st) of the ascent 

 to Samet Sikhara in Behar, is so applicable to that of Bawunguj, that 

 I cannot forbear quoting it : — "The ascent, he says, commences by a 

 narrow path in a winding direction, surrounded on both sides by the 

 thickest forest. It is steep, with loose stones overspreading the road ; 

 as you proceed the ascent becomes steeper, and the summit of the 

 mountain presents a stupendous appearance ; no animal of any kind 

 is to be seen. The ascent still continues and the forest begins to thin, 

 &c. &c. and after some difficulty the summit is reached, from which 

 is an inexpressibly grand view of what may here also be termed the 

 jungle tarai on one side, on the other the Nerbudda stretching far 

 and wide its alluvial banks, luxuriating in the most fertile vegetation. 



It is after you pass the tabulated surface of the lower hill, and 

 immediately at the foot of the steeper one, that the first appearance 

 of "holy ground" presents itself, consisting of a small figure of 

 Parswinath, seated in an enclosure, and in front of it a rude square 

 pillar resembling a dipmahl displaced, unused and almost fallen down. 



* Sir J. Malcolm, in his Central India thus describes this rapid. " The name 

 of the Hurnpahl is derived from the circumstances of the river being here obstruct- 

 ed by large masses of basalt, rising about 10 or 11 feet above the ordinary level 

 of the stream, and giving passage through three very small channels, across each of 

 which it is supposed an antelope could bound." 



