156 
Alexander E. Caddy—Mso/tU Inscriptions in India . [Nov. 
stayed at the dak bungalow till my cases were despatched to Calcutta. 
There were 86 moulding pieces in 12 cases. 
14. My next journey was to Sasaram. Travelling back by rail to 
Mokameh, I joined the East Indian Railway regular line at Bankipore, 
whence 32 miles to Arrah. 
At Arrali the Sone Canal has a terminal lock. It is the head¬ 
quarters station of Shaliabad. A contract steamer plies the canal to 
Deliri, in which I travelled the 51 miles from Arrah. The remaining 
eighteen miles I had to drive to Sasaram. I arrived there on the 31st 
December, and on New Year’s. Day I had the mould of the rock inscrip¬ 
tion completed. 
Where the Kaimur range of hills ends in the sandstone cliffs near 
Sasaram ,—on the crest of its last peak, some 400 feet above the sur¬ 
rounding country, may be seen the chirdg of a Muhammadan fakir of 
a dark night. In the day the white tomb of a Muhammadan saint 
gleams above it. The chirdgdan (or candle-stick) stands in a small 
recess on the broken side of the cliff towards Sasaram . A wall is built 
on either side of it not quite five feet high. Two ledged rocks make an 
angle pointing inward, where the chirdgdan on a third rock stands at the 
apex. The ledge on the left hand bears an inscription 42 inches long 
and about a foot deep. It is an extra edict of Asoka, and is im¬ 
portant for the figured date it bears, 256 years of the Nirvana. 
From below, the entrance to the cave may be observd as a small 
square hole in the hillside near the top. The inscription itself is scarce¬ 
ly known, even in Sasaram. 
15. So soon as my Sasaram case was despatched, we returned to 
Bankipore to take the Gaya railway, which has its junction here with 
the East Indian Railway. 
Gaya is 57 mites—a three hours’ run from Bankipore. I made it 
my base and sent out my camp to the Barabar hills, 15 miles north. 
The little station of Bela is 12 miles up the line from Gaya—45 miles 
from Bankipore ; it stands abreast of a group of hills. The nearer one, 
Kauwd Dhdl , with its grand tor surmounting it, makes a very pic¬ 
turesque mass. A road takes one east from Bela, past this hill and the 
hill next it, where it norths and skirts it at its eastern extremity ; then 
turning east again, passes the Barabar hill-path and the very holy Fatal - 
ganga well, which receives the perennial waters from a Barabar spring. 
Again it recurves northward, crosses a field and reaches the Nagar- 
juni , and ends at the stair leading to the milkmaid’s cave. Round the 
Nagarjuni hill, either way, paths will lead one to the two caves behind, 
among detached boulders. 
16. The locality about the Barabar hills is one of the Holy Places 
of the Buddhists. 
