284 A. M. Broadley - — The Buddhistic Remains of Bihar. [No. 3, 
a great circular platform, which you are gravely assured to have been the 
actual scene of the preaching and teaching of the famous Jaina Tirthankara 
himself. In the village I found a few Buddhist idols which probably came 
from this place. Opposite the “ chabutra,” or “ pulpit,” of Mah.tvira is an 
enormous tank, covered with the lotus flower and other luxuriant water plants, 
and in which myriads of fish swim undisturbed by the apprehension of inimi- 
cal net or hook ; for their preservation seems to bo the only care of the pujari 
and his assistants. In the centre of the pond is a second temple still less at- 
tractive than the first, built in the centre of a stone platform, which is connect- 
ed with the shore by a narrow stone causeway five hundred and fifty feet long. 
This temple is resorted to by pilgrims from all parts of India, and is 
the scene of a great mela in the month of Kartika. Many of the visi- 
tors are the inhabitants of native states, subjects of Sindhia and Holkar, 
and it must bo a dreadful undertaking for them to pass through the tract of 
country south of the rail before the autumn sun has dried up the floods, 
which make the once famous Bihar almost inaccessible during the rainy 
season. A good road from Bakhtiarpur to Bihar would be of infinite service 
to the country, and its completion is worthy of the attention of Government. 
Without it, the lakhs of rupees which have been spent on the roads from 
Giryak to Bajauli and from Giryak to Munger, have been simply wasted. 
Six miles north of the birth-place of Mahavira Swami is situated Bihar, — 
once a famous seat of Buddhistic lore and at the same time doubtless 
the capital of a Hindu or Buddhist prince ; — later still, the metropolis of one 
of the richest and most powerful of Muhammadan states — and now the decay- 
ed and ruined cliief station of the subdivision of Zila’ Patna which bears its 
name. To the west of the town runs the Panehana, now represented merely 
by a sandy hollow, winding round the foot of the solitary hill to the north- 
west of the town. Prom the main stream no less than five rivulets branch- 
ed off to the oast, intersecting the town in different places, and adding not 
a little to the picturesqueness of its appearance. All of these have long 
since dried up, and with its river seems to have ended the prosperity of Bihar. 
For years a great sand-bank has been silting up in the bed of the stream 
just below Paw&puri ; which forces all the water into the pynes to the east, 
and renders the country to the south an arid waste. Even at the height of 
the rains, the most feeble stream with difficulty forces its way along the de- 
serted bod, and at all other times of the year not a particle of water is visi- 
ble. To the north-east of the town is the hill, appropriately described more 
than fifteen hundred years ago as an “ isolated rock.” The southern slope 
is gradual, a staircase of boulders piled one upon the other, more like the 
work of some architect of the past, the effect of volcanic agency. The 
other side is a cliff, the side of which is varied by enormous rocks, some 
perpendicular and boldly darting into the air, others lying in heterogeneous 
