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/17

Rh sculptured two lions on the two sides of a Dharmnia Chakra The figure has split off, the front portion, including the face, having split bodily off; the style of the sculpture appears to me to be of as early as the Gupta period the other sculpture appears to have been similar, but is even more mutilated; there is, besides, a flue head of Buddha.

The height of the roof of the cave, which is formed of an overhanging projecting slab of natural rock, is at present 5 feet above its earthen floor; the cave is full of loose fragments of rough stone, but no bricks.

Both these caves have two openings each; the one at the base of the rocky peak has one opening upwards giving access to the plateau above. There cannot be a doubt, I think, that here is the cave mentioned by Rwen Thsang and Fa Hian as Buddha’s meditation cave. Fa Hian says (Beal’s transl., p. 114), that 30 paces to the north-west of Buddha’s meditation cave is the stone cell of Ananda. Buddha’s cave, according to him, clearly had two openings. If now we suppose the cave at the foot of the mass of rocks to be Buddha’s meditation cave, we have to north-west of it at 50 feet the other cave which contains the sculptures, and about 100 feet off also to north-west the great block of stone mentioned above. The cave is quite far enough to be Ananda’s cave, as the loose measurement of 30 paces may mean anything from 50 to 90 feet; but the great stone is, perhaps, the real spot, although it is not a cave, for it does not appear to me quite certain that Ananda’s meditation place was a cave. Hwen Thsang calls it simply "a great rock." But as Fa Hian distinctly calls it "a stone cell," it would appear that the cave which he saw had fallen in before the time of Hwen Thsang’s visit.

On the peak, or rather a little below the highest point of the mass of rock, is a small oblong levelled terrace, partly natural and partly artificial. On this terrace undoubtedly