202 Kajendralala Mitra —On the Temples of Deocjhar, [No. 2, 
not rather at any other place ; this is accounted for by the existence of the 
two ancient inscribed statues, one of which is clearly Buddhist; and of a 
third figure, not inscribed, hut clearly Buddhist, being a fine-seated statue 
of Buddha himself, beautifully polished, and equal in execution to the 
finest statues to be met with in Bihar. These statues prove beyond a 
doubt that here was at one time a large Buddhist establishment. 
“ What this establishment was named, it is, perhaps, impossible now 
to determine with certainty ; but if I may be permitted to speculate, I 
should think it to have been the site of the famous Uttaniya monastery of 
Winjjha. Winjjha is the Pali equivalent of Vindhya; the passages in 
Tumour referring to it are—p. 115—‘ the monarch, departing out of his 
capital and preceding the river procession with his army through the wil¬ 
derness of Winjjha, reached Tamalitta on the 7th day,’ and in p. 171, 
‘ From various foreign countries many priests repaired hither’ * * * * 
‘ There Uttaro attended, accompanied by sixty thousand priests from the 
Uttaniya temple in the wilderness of Winjjha.’ 
“ It is evident that the wilderness of Winjjha lay on the route from 
Pataliputra to Tamluk. I have indicated some of the routes from Tamluk 
to various places. The principal route would, it appears to me, have to 
pass through, or close to, modern Bankurah ; from here there was a choice 
of several routes. Clearly the route to Bhagalpur would branch off north¬ 
wards from there, passing through Seuri, under Mandar, close past Bhaski- 
nath; it is remarkable that an old track yet exists from Bhaskinath to 
Deoghar Byjnath, whence it goes on skirting the eastern spurs of the 
Ivawalkol range, past Afsand, Parvati, Bihar to Patna. I should consider 
that this was the route taken bj T the king when he passed through the 
wilderness of Winjjha, for it appears to me pretty certain that the wilder¬ 
ness of Winjjha can only refer to the wild country now known in part as 
the Santal Parganas. 
“ If this be admitted, we have but one place in the Winjjha forests 
where Buddhist temples existed, as testified by existing Buddhist relics, 
and this place is Deoghar Baijnath. 
“ It is remarkable that close to the city of Deoghar and still closer to 
the temples is a small village named Utmuria ; this may be a corruption 
of the original of the Pali Uttama. I put forward this suggestion merely 
in the absence of any more positive ; it is possible that an examination of 
the 3-line inscription from the Buddhist statue noticed before may throw 
new light on the subject.”* 
The starting question “ why the temples were built here (at Deoghar) 
and not rather at any other place” is simply gratuitous. One may as well 
ask why was London built on the bank of the Thames, and not on that of tho 
* Archaeological Survey Beports, Yol. VIII, pp. 141/. 
