32 
P. Doyal —An ancient Gave. 
[No. 1, 
in this mountain, and the diamond throne under the Pippala tree (in 
Buddha Gaya), is 14 or 15 li ( i.e ., about 3 miles), leaves not the slightest 
doubt as to the correctness of General Cunningham’s identifications. 
This range of hills which is washed at its south-western base by 
the Mora Lake, is called “ Mora Tal Ka Pahar,” i.e , the hill of the 
Mora Lake. The middle part of this range is called Dhongra Hill, and 
contains the stone chamber which was probably visited by Hwen Thsang. 
The chamber is situated about half-way up the north-western slope 
of the hill. The cave is excavated at the base of a precipice of 
rock that rises high above it towards the top of the hill. In front of 
the cave is a more or less level space about 60 feet long, and 12 or 13 
feet wide, which is open on the north-east side where it falls away in 
the general slope of the hill side. Immediately in front of the cave, 
however, is a barrier of rock, which completely shuts out the cave from 
view from below ; advantage appears to have been specially taken of 
the recess thus formed to make the cave where it is. The face of the 
precipice seems to have been roughly hewn, so as to give it a more 
regular and vertical appearance ; and perhaps the native rock had been 
further cut to form a level space in front of the cave; but this cannot 
be stated for certain. 
In the entrance to the cave is fitted a chaukat (wooden frame), 
2 feet 1 inch broad, and 2 feet 4 inches wide. 1 The chamber within 
is of an irregular oval shape, 16 feet 5 inches from north-east to south¬ 
west and 10 feet 9 inches from north-west to south-east. The roof 
of the cave is vaulted or concave, and is 9 feet 7 inches high at the 
highest point. The cutting is very rude and uneven, as if the cave had 
been left unfinished. In the south-western corner of this cave, on a 
sandstone pedestal, is placed an image of an eight-armed goddess, 
sitting on a lotus wrought in blue stone. The height of this image 
including the lotus seat, but excluding the sandstone pedestal (which is 
only 7 inches high) is 2 feet 2 inches. The face of the image, the top 
of the halo behind the image, and two out of its eight hands are 
broken. A few letters of the first and last parts of the Buddhist 
formula (the rest having disappeared with the broken part of the 
relievo) inscribed over the shoulders, are in Kutila character, belonging 
to the 9th or 10th century, a.d., which shows that the image belongs 
1 [The entrance to the cave, which has the shape of a crescent, was at the time 
of my visit, December, 1901, closed by a masonry wall, erected some 7 years before 
by the Sadhu, who now lives there. It admitted access to the interior through a 
small door, formed by a wooden frame, about 4 ft. high and 2 ft. wide. I could not 
observe any marks of chiselling inside the cave, and I think the cave is a natural 
one, and not an artificial. T. Bloch.] 
