159 
1895.] Alexander E. Caddy —Asoha Inscriptions in India. 
characteristic group of the Mahanth and his college of chelas in the fore¬ 
ground. 
Preparations for my return to Calcutta complete, I was just leaving 
Gaya, when a packet was placed in my hands requiring me to go into 
the Rajgir valley to bring away casts of the] long, rambling inscription 
in the rocky roadway, in what Prinsep has called the “ shell ” character. 
I had a reserve cask of gypsum in Bankipore, which I sent on to Bihar. 
I stayed a day here to consult Mr. O’Donnell, the Magistrate and Collec¬ 
tor of Patna, as to the space the inscription occupied, that I might not 
run short of material eventually. No one, however, seemed to have any 
idea of the extent of surface covered by the inscription by actual 
measurement. 
25. Prom Banldpur I traversed the ground between there and 
Patna. Dr. Waddell identifies this space with the ancient Pataliputra 
specifically, and I followed the sites consecutively as he details them. 
Some objects of note and interest lay on the way in modelling and 
sculpture. In clay there was an unique model of a hill. When 
Mahendra, the son of Asoka, was converted to Buddhism, during the 
intense reaction which took place about this period in the religious ex¬ 
pression of the people, he sought the valley of Rajagrihct for refuge, 
and the cave of Buddha on Gridhralciita for meditation. To wean him back 
to Pataliputra, an artificial hill was built on this spot, and its ruin still 
_ * 
retains the name of Bhihnapahdri (the mendicant’s hill), the mohulla 
being called Mahendra. On Bhihnapahdri stood this clay model not so 
very long ago. Its purpose was evidently to supply the workmen with 
an idea of the hill as it should be made, and I determined while in the 
Rajgir valley to discover any resemblance which might exist between 
model and prototype. It lias been an object of worship from time im¬ 
memorial, and owes its preservation to perennial renewals. 
There was some sculpture, too, a caryatid figure of Maha Maya with 
alto-relievo figures on either side, and a sculptured coping which I saw, 
belonging to the period of Asoka, and this is absolutely all that is left 
above ground of the stone-built palace of Asoka, or the court of 
Chandragupta (Sandracottos). 
26. A traveller has to take Rajgir from Bakhtiarpur, 28 miles 
nearer Calcutta than Bankq^ore. A mail coach here takes one 19 miles 
due south to Bihar, where there is an isolated hill of quartzite, once 
occupied by Buddhists. From here the Subdivisional Officer, Mr. Gupta, 
drove me down to Rajgir. The road strikes south-west. We left 
Bargaon at the 7th mile-stone, and turning due south rode through the 
large village of Silao (renowned for its sweet pastry) ; and the lesser one 
of Panditpur. Here the bar of hills enclosing the Rajgir valley, becomes 
