Page:Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India Vol 20.pdf/10

VI

PREFACE.

“ Glory to. VitarAga,” which is one of the titles of the Jaina Saints. As the inscription mentions the Kcchhapagh&tatilaka, or ornament of the KachwAha race, the country must then have belonged to the KacchwAha Raja of Gwalior.

At PAroli and ParAvali, situated in the hills to the north of the fortress of Gwalior, at 9 to 16 miles, there is a very great assemblage of small stone temples of the later Gupta style. The most curious building is a large covered well, called Chaua-kua, or the “ Roofed well." It has a small temple of the Gupta style attached to it. It possesses an in­ scription dated in Samvat 1528, or A.D. 1471, during the reign of the Tomara R aja Sri Kirtti Singha Deva, who reigned from A.D. 1454 to 1479. But the well must be many cen­ turies older than his time, as the style of the temple is un­ doubtedly that of the Gupta period, while the pillars show that a complete re-arrangement must have been made at some period long subsequent to the original erection.

In the district of Mathura I discovered several old in­ scriptions of the Indo-Scythian period, one of which is dated in the year 62, or A.D. 150 according to my reckoning. A still older record was set up during the reign of the son of the Satrap Rajubula, who most probably ruled about the beginning of the Christian era. But the most valuable dis­ covery made at Mathura was a colossal statue, 7 feet high, cut in the round, with an inscription in Maurya characters, like those on the Asoka Pillars. This statue was found at the village of Parkham, which is now one of the railway stations between Mathura and Agra.

At MahAban, on the opposite bank of the Jumna a little below Mathura, 1 got a long inscription of 29 lines dated in Samvat 1207, or A.D. 1150, with the name of Maharaja Ajaya Pala Deva, one of the YAduvansi R ajas, who reigned from A.D. 113 5 to 1160. I found also that a considerable part of an old Hindu Temple was still standing intact in the Masjid of Eighty Pillars. Even the roof of this portion has remained undisturbed.

At Kota, 5 miles to the north of Mathura, I found a large number of pillars of a Buddhist railing. They were all of the usual type, with a male or female figure on one face, and