1865.] Notes of a tour in the Tributary Mehals. 25 
In the thickness of the gateway wall, a niche four feet in depth and 
about eight feet in height and breadth, is divided by a column still in 
position, shewing how the fragments of the columns of the ruined 
colonnade should be restored. The shaft and base are octagonal and the 
bracket-like projections of the capital are erouching human figures, so 
placed, that head, arms, hands and back all appear to support the 
abacus. There is one well executed figure in this enclosure, of a man 
kneeling on a coiled cobra, and with snake heads peering over each 
shoulder. 
A flight of 48 cut stone steps leads from this resting place to 
another mass of ruins which appear to have been a temple and gateway 
eombined. There is here an image of Durga with 20 arms, another 
with eight, and a large figure of Hunooman, all more or less mutilated. 
We are now on the ridge forming the top of the hill. Bare as are 
the sides of the rock, there must be here a great depth of soil, as it 
supports a variety of large forest trees and shrubs, which are growing 
luxuriantly. On the highest part of the ridge and about the centre 
of the hill, is the temple, which contained no doubt the principal object 
of worship. It consisted of a small fane, the inner crust of which, 
constructed of parallel courses of roughly cut stone, is still standing, 
with a detached portico on columns. It is small and insignificant, but 
no doubt immensely old ; it is impossible to say to what idol or object 
of worship the temple was originally dedicated ; at present, on the old 
“argha” or stand, there is a group of Vishnu with his wives, but the 
/ group does not fit the pedestal, is of more elaborate workmanship than 
the figures that are lying about, and whilst all the old figures are mu- 
tilated, this one is perfect. I conclude that it was placed in the temple 
after its partial destruction, and the mutilation of the original images. 
I found the air on the hill keen and invigorating. There is space for 
several houses on the saddle back ; and as it is an independent isolated 
mountain, it commands an extensive view, shewing that all this part 
of Sirgoojah, which the maps make out to be a mass of hills, from 
the foot of the Mynepat, as far as the eye from this elevation can 
penetrate westward, is, thus seen, a plain slightly undulating, but on 
the whole well adapted for the Railroad, which, Iam confident, will some 
day be made through it, connecting, by the most direct route, Calcutta, 
Central India and Bombay. 
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