2G7 
1872.] A. M. Broadley — The Buddhistic Remains of Bihar. 
ing, as speaking of the men who now cultivate the fields, which once, I doubt 
not, yielded the necessaries of life to the recluses of the vihara of Vira- 
deva, described a thousand years ago, as being “ as lofty as the mind of 
its founder, and which the travellers in aerial cars mistake for the peak of 
Ivailasa or the Mandara hill.” Six hundred feet to the south-east of the 
village, there are the remains of four temples or topes, but time has reduced 
them to nearly a level with the surrounding plain. 
On a line with these tumuli is a mud fort with a tower at either corner, 
which measures seventy feet from east to west, and eighty from north to 
south. In the middle of the village, about two hundred feet to the north 
of the fort, is a row of very fine idols commonly designated as the Singha- 
bani Than. All the figures (with one exception) are purely Buddhistic. In 
the centre of thorn is an idol of Durga, carved in black basalt. It is four 
feet high and three wide, and is more modern than the Buddhist figures 
which surround it, and very inferior to them in design and execution. The 
goddess is represented as seated on an enormous lion, whose mane curiously 
reminds one of the wigs in use by our Judges at home, when they go in state 
to Westminster-hall on the first day of Term. The right foot is drawn 
up in front of the body, while the left rests on a lotus flower. The figure 
is eight-armed, and each arm grasps the usual emblems. To the left of this is 
a veiy beautiful statue of Buddha, four feet high. The figure is seated in the 
attitude of meditation on a cushion covered with elaborate ornamentation, 
which rests on a throne supported at either comer by a lion-couchant. 
Prom the centre of the throne depends a cloth, the folds of which are in- 
scribed with the Buddhist creed, and covered by the representation of a 
female goddess in the act of trampling upon an adversary, under the shade 
of an umbrella, held by an attendant from behind. On either sido of the 
cloth, a figure (one male and the other female) is seen in the act of making 
an offering. The main figure is covered by a long cloak, and the hair is 
knotted. A halo surrounds the head. There is a cushion at the back of 
the throne. Above the head is a “ chaitya” surmounted by a pipal tree. 
Around the main figure are eight smaller ones, seated in different positions 
on small thrones, six of these holding lotus flowers of different design ; in 
one case a bud, in another a cluster, in a third a full blown flower, and so 
forth. The seventh grasps a sword, and the eighth a sword in one hand 
and an unfurled banner in the other. At the bottom of the figure, that is 
under the lions which support the throne, is a double row of lotus leaves, this 
being the very converse of the ordinary arrangement. The details of this 
figure are very curious, and I have never seen them in any other. At the side 
of it is a standing one of Buddha about four feet high. The body is covered 
by a long cloak and the hair is knotted, to the right an attendant holds 
an umbrella over the head, and to the left is a three-headed figure holding a 
bell in one hand and a torch in the other. 
