158 Antiquities of the Cuttach Hills. [No. 



Secondly, The bestower of land shall be happy in heaven, 

 For sixty thousand years : 

 And both he who resumes it, 

 And he who concurs in the act, 

 Must dwell in hell for the same number of years. 



Notes on the Antiquities of the Nalti, the Assia, and the Mahdbindyaha 

 hills of Cuttach. — By Bdbu Chandras'ekhara Banurji, Deputy 

 Magistrate, Jdjapur. 



[Read 3rd August, 1870.] 



The following notes are taken from my diary of an official tour 

 during the last cold weather, when I had scarcely any leisure to 

 devote to antiquarian researches. My object in putting them 

 together, is more to stimulate, than to satisfy, the curiosity of the 

 reader regarding a few of the out-of-the-way antiquities of a dis- 

 trict which has been, for the last two thousand years, famous for its 

 peculiar architecture and unrivalled temples. 



The ruins inspected, occur on the summits of three ranges of 

 hills, two of which are situate in the centre of the district, and the 

 other on its western border. The names which the natives give 

 to these ranges are — (1) Assia (marked Assiah in the maps). (2) 

 Nalti, and (3) Mahabinayaka. 



The Assia range runs in a south-easterly direction in the 

 'Alamgir estate of Parganah A'lti, throwing out spurs towards 

 the west and the east. Near the centre of the range, there is 

 an open space, lower than the surrounding heights, and which 

 communicates with the plains towards the east. This passage 

 forms, as it were, the key to the fortified places on the peaks. 

 The rangs is accessible from the village of Bar-chana on the Trunk 

 Eoad, and is about 27 miles to the N. E. of Cuttack. 



The Nalti Hill is merely a spur of the Assia range, but is 

 separated from the latter by the stream of the Birupa, which flows 

 between them ; the hill stands on the north-western borders of the 

 Matcadnagar parganah. 



