Page:The Buddhist Antiquities Of Nagarjunakonda MASI 54 Longhurst A. H..djvu/14



Nägarjunakonda, or Nagarjuna's Hill is the name of a large rocky hill on the right bank of the Krishṇā river in the Palnad Taluk of the Guntur District of the Madras Presidency, and 16 miles west of Mâcherla railway station, the terminus of the line from Gunțur opened in 1931. The first ten miles of the journey from Mächerla can be done by bullock-cart over a very bad road to the village of Nāgulavāram, picturesquely situated midst cultivated fields with a long low range of mauve hills in the distance running from north to south. These hills are an offshoot of the Nallamalai Range in the adjoining Kurnool District. At Nägulavāram the cart track ends and the traveller has to arrange with the village Headman for porters to carry his luggage over the hills to Nāgārjunakonda, a distance of 6 miles by footpath. The first 2 miles is pleasant walking through cultivated fields until the foot of the hills is reached. Here, the path leads up the steep slope of the rocky hills to a plateau on top, after crossing which, the path descends into a deep boulder strewn gorge with thorny jungle on either side. At the foot of the gorge the country opens out into a red-soil valley about three miles in width and completely shut in by the surrounding hills and the Krishņā river on the western side, forming the boundary between the Guntur District and the Nizam's Dominions, the latter being indicated by a range of hills in the distance (Plate I). Here, the Krishna is about half a mile in width with numerous rocks and sandbanks in its bed, but in the rains it is a mighty river navigable for country craft right down to the sea (Plate II (a)). The only way of getting in or out of the valley is by the gorge just mentioned, or by means of the river. On the north-western side of the valley stands Nägarjuna’s Hill overhanging the river. It is a large lozenge-shaped hill of rock about a mile in length and 200 acres in extent with a plateau of sheet rock on top, the edges of which form rugged cliffs all round the summit converting the latter into a natural fortress. These natural defences have been strengthened by "brick and stone fortifications now in ruins, but showing that at one time the plateau was used as a citadel. With the exception of two small ruined Hindu temples and a mediæval stone gateway, there are no ancient remains on the hill. The bricks used in the construction of the fortifications are similar in size to those used in