36 G. A. Grierson —Image of the Buddha found at Rdjagrha. [No. 1, 
Hiuen Tsiang 1 gives further particulars :—“ When Tathagata had 
guided the world for some fifty years, he dwelt much on this mountain, 
and delivered the excellent law in its developed form. King Bimbisara, 
for the purpose of hearing the law, raised a number of men to accom¬ 
pany him from the foot of the mountain to its summit. They levelled 
the valleys and spanned precipices, and with stones made a staircase 
about ten paces wide and five or six li long. In the middle of the road 
are two small stupas, one called the ‘Dismounting from the Chariot,' 
because the king, when he got here, went forward on foot; the other is 
called ‘ Sending back the crowd,’ because the King, separating the 
common folk, would not allow them to proceed with him. The summit 
of the mountain is long from east to west, and narrow from north to 
south.” The pilgrim then describes the caves mentioned by Fa Hian, 
and from his account, the ruined brick Vihdra must have been re-built 
after Fa Hian’s departure. 
There are other details given which I need not quote. Suffice 
it to say that the spot was one of considerable sanctity, and it was 
here that the Buddha dwelt during much of the later portion of his 
life, and is said to have delivered many of his most developed 
sutras. Though there has never been any serious doubt as to the 
identity of the spot, and though it had been twice visited by en¬ 
thusiastic archceologists, it is curious that till I visited it, no attempt 
seems to have been made to exploit its treasures. I had only 
a few hours available, but a very little examination showed the 
remains of important buildings, and gave me the beautiful image of 
the Buddha, shown in Plate II. It is of a black stone, which stone- 
carvers of the neighbourhood told me came from Monghyr, and is in a 
state of excellent preservation, though there is no doubt as to its having 
lain for centuries safely buried in the ground. 
The descriptions of the Chinese pilgrims are, as usual, accurate. 
There are, as I have said, two large caves, joined together by a 
cleft in the rock, besides a number of smaller ones. The massive 
staircase of king Bimbisara, with the ruins of its two stupas , is still in 
existence, and I used it myself in clambering up to the site of the 
cave. The top of the mountain is simply a mass of buried ruins, and 
may contain unnumbered treasures. 
As regards the sculptured image itself,—for an excellent heliograph of 
which I have to thank Col. Waterhouse,—BabuQarat Candra Das, C.I.E., 
has been good enough to give me the following note, which he has drawn 
up with the assistance of Lama Qerab Gya-tsho :—“ The image belongs 
to the Mahayana school of Buddhism. The Buddha is represented in 
1 Beal’s translation, ii, 153. 
