1883.] Rajendralala Mitra —On the Temples of Deoghar. 165 
afterwards, there was an impetuous current eight feet deep, and so strong that 
none could swim across it. I was, on the occasion, placed in a ludicrous 
situation. My cook had forded the river at early dawn, right opposite to 
my bungalow, and at 10 o’clock, when he returned with his purchases, the river 
was impassable, and I had to satisfy myself with the sight of the materials 
of my breakfast waiting on the opposite bank. The water subsided at 3 p. m., 
when my servant easily recrossed the river by fording. I have been told that 
the freshets are at times so sudden that a person may be overtaken by one 
before he has half crossed the river. 
The forest on the north is called Data Jungle, deriving its name from 
that of a Fakir, whose descendants now own the land. It appeared to me 
very like a hunting-ground or Shikargah of some old Raja, not unlike 
the hunting-ground of the Dumraon Maharaja, but much smaller, being 
limited to an area of about a mile and a half. It is not much encum¬ 
bered by brushwood, and one can very easily walk about in different parts 
of it. 
The area of Deoghar is under two miles, and the fixed population at 
the last Census was reckoned at 8005, of which 4961 were males and 
3041 were females. But the influx of pilgrims on particular holidays 
is said to rise from two to fifty thousand heads. The pilgrims, however, 
do not, generally speaking, prolong their stay in the town for more than 
10 to 12 hours, and their presence does not seem ordinarily to affect much the 
sanitary condition of the town, which has the reputation of being 
highly salubrious. The soil is fertile, and the crops are rich ; but the 
cultivation is carried on principally by the Santals who live in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, and not by the Hindu population, among whom there are about 
300 families of priests, a good many of whom look for their earnings mainly 
to the gullibility and the religious zeal of the pilgrims. 
Deoghar is now the head-quarters of a subdivision, and has besides the 
usual public offices, a good hospital and a school teaching up to the Entrance 
standard of the Calcutta University. A Municipal Committee, with an in¬ 
come of about two thousand rupees a year, has charge of the sanitary esta¬ 
blishment of the town, and to their credit it must be said that the roads and 
drains of the place look clean and well taken care of. 
In so far the place is of little importance. It is, however, of much 
interest to antiquarians, on account of a large sanctuary which stands in its 
centre. 
There is no temple in Bengal which can claim a higher sanctity than 
that of Baidyanatha at Deoghar. Its renown is acknowledged by a hundred 
thousand pilgrims, who resort to it every } r ear, and its antiquity is carried 
back in some of the Puranas to the second age of the world. It was in 
the l’reta Yuga, says the S'iva Purana, that the cruel Titan, Havana, 
