6 
L. A. Waddell —Discovery of Buddhist Remains 
[No. 1, 
The numerous remains noted by Iliuen Tsiang identified seriatim .— 
In identifying seriatim the remains noted by Hiuen Tsiang, it is con¬ 
venient to describe these in a slightly different order to that given 
by the pilgrim, as at least two of the rock “ traces” have lately been 
removed, respectively five and six years ago. 
The residence of the Yaksha. — 1 $£, “ Above this mountain top is the old 
residence of the Yaksha ( Vakula ).” This to the present day is one of the 
sights of the hill. The villagers call it Lorik ka ghar or ‘ the house of 
Lorik the giant ’ ( i. e., Yaksha). It is a somewhat flat area on the top of 
the hill, below the S. E. side of the summit, and is surrounded on three 
sides by vaguely columnar rock, slightly suggestive of rude walls. 
The local survival of the name of the Yaksha , viz., Bakula. —In regard 
to the name of the Yaksha, viz., Vakula,* which in modern Hindi 
becomes Bakula, it is remarkable to find the local survival of this name 
and the awe in which it is still held. Immediately behind Uren is the 
mouth of a pass which leads into the wild Singhol hills ; and the pass 
and the hills beyond were the retreat of banditti till long after the 
Muhammadan invasion. The older banditti are popularly alleged by 
the villagers to have been cannibals, and their raids are still spoken of 
by the lowlanders here with dread. These highland aborigines were 
formerly called rakshas or ‘ demons ’ by the plains-people; and the 
oldest settlement of these raksha or yaksha tribes is about five miles 
beyond the mouth of the pass, and is called Bakura —which is identical 
with the name of the ‘ yaksha ’ given by Hiuen Tsiang— l and r being 
interchangeable, and indeed such interchange is the rule hereabouts ; 
thus the common word givdl, a cowherd, is ordinarily pronounced gwdr. 
And in Chinese transliteration r is expressed by l. It is a common 
practice to name villages after their founders : thus Bakura village = 
‘ the village of Bakura.’ And so great was the dread inspired by 
this Bakura that he is even now worshipped by the semi-aborigines 
of the plains (the Dosadhs and Gwalas) at a shrine in the village 
of Jalalabadf, about eight miles east from Uren, under the name of 
‘ Ban-Bakura Nath or the ‘ Savage Lord Bakura.’ His image is in basalt 
and represents a squat muscular man in a semi-sitting posture. He has 
a large sensual head, thick lips and curly hair which latter is fastened 
in a coil with a scimitar-shaped dagger, as with the aborigines in 
* A Hindu legend of a man-eating demon, bearing the somewhat similar name 
of Vaka, is told in the Mahabliarata (Wheeler’s Transl., p. 110), the demon being slain 
by Bhima. But the great Asura Raja, named Vaka, lived near the city Ekachakra , 
which is believed to be within the modern district of Shahabad, abont two hundred 
miles to the north of Uren. This may be a Hindu version of the Buddhist storv. 
t And six miles north-east from Kharagpur. 
