1871.] 
157 
Antiquities of Ji jpur in Onsci. 
a giant and the head of an elephant. The latter is life-like, and 
affords a fair specimen of the degree of excellence to which the art 
of stone-cutting had once attained among the Hindus. 
Facing the Dasasvamedha Ghat on the opposite side of the 
river there is another old ghat. On one side of this ghat, there is 
a raised terrace surmounted by a long and narrow room containing 
the figures of the seven Matris* in miniature, evidently carved 
on the model of the figures in the Mukti Mandapa. In this 
group there are four other statues of which the most remarkable 
is the aunt of Yama, or death,—a hideous, decrepid old female 
figure, with hooked nose, a flat wrinkled face, shrunken body, and 
emaciated pointed knees. 
Portions of the temple of Biraja appear to have some claim to 
antiquity. There are some very nice sculptures on the walls on 
both sides of its gate amidst a mass of obscenity which would make 
the spectator doubt whether the men who cut these figures had 
actually the veneration ascribed to them. 
The modern town of Jajpur extends along the right bank of 
the Baitaranf, which above the point of its junction with the 
Gengati retains no water, except during the freshes. It is al¬ 
most surrounded by rivulets. It has three principal roads, two of 
which run from the west to the east, and the third cuts them cross¬ 
wise, running from the old ghat on the Baitarani to the temple of 
Biraja. It has other cross-roads and lanes decidedly in a better 
state than those of other towns similarly located. The houses are, 
almost without exception, built of mud, the floor and veranda being 
collections of old stones, some of the mud walls being raised on 
the foundations of pucca buildings of old. 
The Towns Improvement Act has been extended to Jajpur, 
and for the purposes of the Act some 81 small villages have been 
united, comprising an area of about four square miles. The inhabi¬ 
tants of Jajpur are principally Brahmans, whose houses stand 
in sashans, or rent-free grants. A most important section of 
these Brahmans are the Pandahs of Baitarani and the goddess 
# There are seven matris in the gallery, their names being 1, Kali, 2, 
Indram, 3, Kumari, 4, Rudranf, 5, Varahi, 6, Yaishnavi, 7, Yamamatrf. These 
are the different dreadful shapes which the goddess Durga assumed during her 
wars with the demons Sumbha and Nisumbha. 
