No. 63.— 1910.] 
TANTRI-MALAi. 
91 
others fallen, once supported a roof over the path leading to the 
figure. The sitting figure is cut in a recess hewn out of the rock. 
On either side of the sage are figures of gods or demi-gods fanning 
him. There are cut figures on either side of the recess, and stone 
steps leading up to the b6-tree. 
On another, almost inaccessible, rock at a little distance, is a 
square building of cut stone, and in the base of the rock is an 
artificial cave in which a priest has lately been spending a ' ' retreat" 
of three months. The cave is now uninhabited except by bats, 
and I wonder how the priest could have stood the stench. — Diary, 
April 20, 1886. 
W. J. S. BOAKB, 
Assistant Government Agent, 
Mannar, 
III. 
To Tantri-malai and back to Olukkulama, 16 miles. I went to 
this place in order to make a few measurements , as requested by 
a marginal note on my Diary of April 20, and also to make a few 
sketches ; but was rather put out of conceit with the expedition 
on hearing from Mr. levers that a Capt. Hogg had already been 
there and taken photographs, which he had sent to the Governor, 
who had passed them on to the Asiatic Society.* However, I 
am glad I went, and it may be that I have noted some little thing 
which has escaped previous observers. 
I have been trying to fix the position of the place on Ferguson's 
map, which is the only one I have with me; but I cannot find any 
place on the map nearer to it than Olukkulama, which is somewhere 
about the 38th mile on the Mannar road. 
It lies in a south-westerly direction from 01ukku|ama, and one 
passes by Kappachi of the Vavuniya district across the Aruvi-ar 
through the Vedda village of Nochchikujama of the North-Central 
Province, and by the base of the Mullamallai rocks. 
At Tantri-malai went first to the cave below the rock. The cave 
was cleaned out and there were some mats and chatties, but the 
priest was said to have gone to Anuradhapura. The cave I did 
not measure the dimensions of ; but the entrance is blocked up 
by a mud wall leaving just room for a man to squeeze in. Within, 
it is about 10 ft, by 6 ft., and there is standing room. It is cut 
about half way up the rock, and the distance from the base of the 
cave to the top of the building on the rock is 34 ft. measured over 
the surface of the rock. 
Opposite to the entrance to the cave, which was formerly of 
cut stone and having a porch, there is another rock of much 
greater dimensions, and on the slope of it is constructed a raised 
* Capt. Hogg, R. E., photographed the sedent and prone Buddhas 
Nos. 23, 24, 25), in the seventies.—B., Ed. Sec, 
