1855.] Notes on Assam Temple Ruins. 17 



The epistylum, over the entrance to the shrine, has nine male 

 figures, six represented as singing, and three in graver attitudes 

 occupying more prominent positions, and each attended by two 

 females ; underneath, in the line of a richly chased border of scrolls, 

 entwining birds and animals, executed with fidelity and grace, 

 is a figure of Gunesh, who appears to hold a similar position, as 

 custodian to the entrance of most of the shrines. In attendance 

 upon him are, two slender-waisted females. The merry couples, in 

 the side compartment of the stone, represented in figure 2, of the 

 same plate, and to which, in my restoration, I have assigned the 

 position of lower member of the door-case, are engaged in a dance, 

 to this day, well known in Assam under the name of the Boisak 

 Bihu dance. 



The Mag and Boisak Bihus are the two national festivals of the 

 Assamese. The observances connected with these festivals, have 

 nothing to do with the Hindoo religion, and their origin is involved 

 in some obscurity. They belong, not to the present, but to the 

 ancient religion of the country, and what this was, may be indi- 

 cated by the fact that the Buddhist Shyans and Burmese, on the 

 borders of Assam, if not through all Burmah, at the same time of the 

 year, or nearly so, have their two great festivals in honor of Buddh. # 



In the observances of the festivals, as held by the Assamese and 

 Burmese, there is a remarkable resemblance. 



Preparatory to the first festival, the young lads of both races, 

 build up with care a lofty pile of firewood. After much feasting 

 and dancing on the previous day and throughout the entire night, 

 this is set fire to at early dawn. 



The Khamptis call it Mbika SoompJioi, and with them, it is, I be- 

 lieve, the anniversary of the birth of Buddh. The Assamese call it 

 meji, but can assign to it no definite origin. In the second festival, 

 the Khamptis commence by bathing all their images of Buddh, 

 this is followed by sports and feastings, but the women do not 

 dance. 



The Assamese, on the first day of the Boisak Bihu, bathe all their 

 cows, and subsequently, for seven days, devote themselves entirely 



* Called the Pocham and Pochi respectively : see ceremonies required to be per- 

 formed on the death of Chakin in Turner's Buddhistical Annals. — S. F. Hannay. 



D 



