1 870.] Antiquities of the CuttacTc Hills. 163 



more elevated spot, perhaps already sanctified by the residence of a 

 pious Musakaan : the old name Nalati affording- an easy transition 

 to Wnat. But whatever might have been the origin of the tradition, 

 the popular belief still remains, that the bald and barren Nalti Giri 

 is a cursed hill, and the prophet still reigns on 'Alamgir. The 

 expense of the shrine is covered by the profit of sixty acres of land, 

 endowed by Shuja'udclin. The mosque is lighted every evening, 

 the rocks resound with the voice of prayer every morning and 

 evening, and the people in the neighbourhood, both Hindu and 

 Moslem, offer homage at the shrine. 



The Hindu name of the 'Alamgir peak was Ilandaha, from the 

 village of that name at its foot, where the manda or the primitive 

 system of ordeal by fire or boiled oil, &c, was held during the 

 Hindu period. 



JJdaya Giri. This is one of the Char-pitha or four peaks of the Assia 

 group. The spur on which old ruins are found, is an elevated ter- 

 race, sloping from one hundred and fifty feet above, to the level of 

 the plain. It is situated towards the north-eastern extremity of the 

 group, surrounded by a semicircular range of pointed boulders, 

 leaving an opening towards the east. On the latter side it overlooks 

 the Kalia river, which runs about two hundred yards from its base. 

 It appears that this, the only side from which it was accessible from 

 the plain, was at one time protected by an entrenchment cut in the 

 rocks from precipice to precipice. It was appropriately termed 

 Udaya Giri or the " Sunrise Hill," from its being the most eastern 

 extremity of the group and of the Cuttack district. At one time 

 the sea, according to local tradition, laved its foot. This tra- 

 dition is still preserved in a saying which the Uriyas repeat, to 

 signify an impossibility : " You cannot expect it. The sea is now 

 far off from Udaya Giri," The soil beyond the Udaya Giri is pure 

 alluvion. Between it and the sea, scarcely a stone can be seen. The 

 country is a flat, arid, sandy plain, in most places devoid of all 

 vegetation, and the tradition, therefore, appears very probable. 

 The more so, as it receives peculiar support from two passages in 

 Messrs. W. T. and H. F. Blanford and W. Theobald's Eeport on 

 the Talcheer Coal Field. " From this plain, the alluvion from 

 the coast to the foot of the hills in Cuttack," say those gentlemen, 



