1892.] at Mount Uren in Mungir ( Monyhyr ) district , Sfc. 21 
on religions grounds, still survives amongst Muhammadans. I lately 
witnessed in Upper Burma this work of destruction taking place under 
very similar circumstances to what obtained at Uren, viz., a force, con¬ 
sisting mainly of Muhammadan (and these mostly Pathan, i. e., Af gh an) 
troops invading a country actively Buddhistic and hoary with the anti¬ 
quity of its Buddhist monuments. Although stringent orders had been 
issued to respect the temples and their teeming images, it was found im¬ 
possible to repress the Muhammadan soldiery from clandestinely mutilat¬ 
ing the very numerous alabaster images of Buddha which abounded in 
every village. One image would be dashed against another, and the head, 
thus broken off, used as an instrument to mutilate the features of all the 
other images within reach, and the heads finally thrown far away. Had 
these men been altogether unrestrained, the work of destruction must 
have been enormous. As further illustrating the fanatical spirit of these 
Muhammadan invaders is the historical note* regarding their invasion of 
Koch Bihar: the chief (Mir Jumlah) issued “ directions to destroy all 
the idolatrous temples and to erect mosques in their stead. To evince 
his zeal for religion, the General himself with a battle-axe broke the 
celebrated image of Uarain, the principal object of worship of the 
Hindus of that province.” This image is known to be the mutilated 
image of Buddha, still at Koch Hajo and worshipped by Hindus under 
the name of Madliab, one of the titles of Uarayana or Vishnu. And at 
Uren itself, when photographing the two ornamental pillars which are 
now deposited in the garden of a Muhammadan gentleman of the place, 
I expressed a regret that the figures had been mutilated ; on which 
the aforesaid gentleman stated that when the pillars were exhumed a 
few years ago, some of the features still remained entire, but he 
with his own hands completed the mutilation, as otherwise he could not 
have tolerated the pillars near his dwelling. 
Mediaeval Brahinanic idols similarly destroyed. —At the time of 
Hiuen Tsiang’s visit to Magadha in the seventh century, although the 
dominant religion was Buddhism, many Brahmanical temples with their 
priests existed throughout the country. One such small Brahmanical 
temple appears to have become established at Uren, at the point marked 
Ho. 16 on Plate I. It was far removed from the Buddhist settlement 
and it enshrined one or all of the following idols, which are still found 
there :— 
(1) A four (?) armed Durga. 
(2) A Hara-Gauri (S'iva and Parvati). 
(3) A pot-bellied god squatted in front of a palm-leaf-like 
canopy ? (Ganesa). 
* Stewart Ibid ., p. 289. 
