Page:Report of a Tour Through the Bengal Provinces of Patna, Gaya, Mongir and Bhagalpur; The Santal Parganas, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Birbhum; Bankura, Raniganj, Bardwan and Hughli in 1872-73.djvu/16

xvi distance turns due north, and skirts the edge of a deep gorge between the Deva Ghat and Sailagiri hills. Close to the bend is a large platform of brick remains, evidently the place of Mr. Broadley’s "second stupa, and a large quantity of images, pillars, &c." I could see nothing to shew that a stupa ever existed here, but, perhaps, Mr. Broadley dug it up, and it has disappeared accordingly: the ramp goes on northwards a short way further on and then all traces of it cease. I could not trace it further.

Crossing now the gorge and going north-east, I found a cave near the toe of a high mass of naked rocks which rise up on the main spur from Sailagiri hill.

The cave is a natural cavern of an irregular shape 12 feet long by 10 feet wide; it has two entrances, one facing south-west, the other north-west; it is situated literally in the northern shade of the mass of naked rocks just mentioned, which form a peak subordinate to the great peak of Sailagiri; 20 feet from the north-west entrance of the cave is a large rock 30 feet square and 5 feet thick.

Fifty feet from this cave, to its south-east, and under or within the mass of rocks which rise up in a peak, is another cave, also irregular in shape.

Both these caves were once ornamented with a brick or plaster lining, or rather, I should say, the irregularities appear to have been somewhat reduced by built brick-work and stone-work. Within the first cave are several sculptures—one, a longish stone, and apparently a fragment of a pedestal of a statue, is ornamented below by a line of 4-petalled lotuses, and over it by a line of sculpture representing an elephant standing facing a Dharmma Chakra. On the opposite side sits a human figure, followed by a figure like a lion; this again followed by a female, a man with a stick (?); and, lastly, a horse and rider. There are, besides this sculpture, two others, one representing Buddha seated with attendants on the sides in a fine-grained purple sandstone; on the pedestal were