120 
F. S. Growse —Mathura Notes. 
[No. 2, 
In the upper tier, the female figure with a child in its lap (from the 
Manoharpur quarter of the city) is of exceptional character and uncertain 
date. The square box, with a seated Buddha fully draped, on each of the 
four sides, is shewn by the flanking columns to be of great antiquity. I 
brought it from the Mahavidya tila, which is unquestionably one of the 
oldest religious sites in Mathura and probably has many relics of the past 
buried under the modern temple. The architrave, with defaced figure 
sculpture at either end. I found in the progress of the repairs of the 
Chhatthi Palna at Mahaban, being part of the Hindu temple there which 
was destroyed by Aurangzib. It is a good example of a simple but very 
effective style of decoration. 
8. The Festival of the Holi, as kept in Braj. 
In 1877 the Festival of the Holi fell unusually early in the year, while 
the weather was still cool enough to allow of a mid-day ride without serious 
inconvenience. I took advantage of the opportunity thus afforded me and 
made the round of the principal villages in the Chhata and Kosi Parganas 
where the rejoicings of the Plni.1 Dol, for so these Hindu Saturnalia are 
popularly termed, are celebrated with any peculiar local observances, visit¬ 
ing each place on its special fete-day and jotting down what I saw in my 
note-book. Several of the usages are, I believe, entirely unknown beyond 
the limits of Braj, even to the people of the country, and—so far as I could 
ascertain by enquiries—they had never before been witnessed by any 
European. The following extracts from my diary may therefore be thought 
worthy of preservation. 
Feb. 22ncl, Bars ana, the Bangila Noli .—In the middle of the town 
is a small open square, about which are grouped the stately mansions and 
temples built by the great families who resided here during the first half 
of the 18th century. I find a seat in the balcony over the gateway of the 
house still occupied by the impoverished descendants of the famous Katara, 
Rup Ram, the founder of Barsana’s short-lived magnificence, from which 
I have a full view of the humours of the crowd below. The cheeriness of 
the holiday-makers as they throng the narrow winding streets on their 
way to and from the central square, where they break up into groups of 
bright and ever varying combinations of colour; with the buffooneries of 
the village clowns and the grotesque dances of the lusty swains, who with 
castanets in hand, caricature in their movements the conventional graces 
of the Indian ballet-girl, 
Crispum sub crotalo docta movere latus, 
all make up a sufficiently amusing spectacle ; but these are only interludes 
and accessories to the great event *of the day. This is a sham fight between 
