Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Mandár
MANDÁR.
The famous hill of Mandár stands about 1½ miles off the present road from Bhâgalpur to Seuri, near the village of Oureya; the antiquities here have been noticed by several writers, the last of whom is Babu Rashvihâri Bose, whose paper is to be found in the first volume, Indian Antiquary.
At the foot of the hill on the south side, near the south-east end, is a tank named the Pâpaharani, which, as its name implies, purifies from sin. This tank is used to throw in the dead, and for this purpose corpses are brought from several miles distance all round. The bodies before being thrown in are supposed to have been burnt, but this operation is only nominally performed in many cases, and I saw numerous entire bodies, which could have been but slightly scorched by fire, lying and floating on the tank waters.
This tank once had temples on its banks; there lie numerous moulded or cut-bricks and stone, and several statues, or rather fragments, on its eastern banks; among these is a mutilated figure of Garud, which was once surmounted by Vishnu, but which is now broken off, leaving the legs across Garud's neck alone visible. At the north-east corner of the tank are the ruins of a small temple, which appears to have been Saivic, judging from a fragment of Nandi. Judging from the style of sculpture, and from the shallowness of the mouldings of the temple shewn by the loose carved stones, I should ascribe it to a post-Muhammadan period.
On the north banks of the tank the rock shelves down to the water; it is covered with fragments of stones—cut, rough, and sculptured; the carvings are more elaborate and carved stones are more numerous; the ruins are of more than one temple; one large temple certainly occupied a wide, flat space on the spur, but there must have been others and smaller ones in the vicinity. The temples were Saivic, judging from a fragment of Nandi; the temple, or at least the principal one, was of the style of the brick temples of Mânbhum, to be described further on, and appear certainly older than the Muhammadan conquest; the temple was evidently richly sculptured, I found a corner stone carved into statues on two faces, each being a female in the usual attitude; the hair of each is represented as tied into a knot on the left side of her head.
Besides this old temple, there stood more recent temples also, about the middle of the north bank, and on the rocky spur; these appear to have been of the style of the Barâkar temples, but with far shallower lines and of coarser execution. These temples I ascribe to a post-Muhammadan period, and, for reasons to be detailed subsequently, to the time of Akbar and his general Mân Singh. These temples were also Saivic, and several coarsely executed lingams lie to attest their purpose.
At the north-west corner are the ruins of a temple which appears to have been similar to that on the north-east corner.
There are some ruins on the west banks also, and these appear to be the remains of a single small group of temples. These temples appear from their carvings to belong to an older period than those described on the north-east and north-west corners and in the middle of the north bank, and to belong to the same age as the single large temple which stood on the north bank as noticed above.
To the north-east of this tank is another, now dry; on its west banks stood an old temple with numerous statues, and ornamented with deep mouldings.
At the eastern foot of the hill is a tank, on the southern banks of which stands a large irregular stone structure with numerous rooms enclosed within a courtyard. The pillars employed are plain, but with elegant octagonal shafts; they are used to support the verandahs in front. The stones employed in building this structure are of various sizes and various workmanship, and are set in mortar; they were clearly obtained from older structures. There are several small windows secured by stone lattices of plain and heavy patterns, which let in just light enough into the obscure interior chambers to render "darkness visible." The enclosure wall is in keeping with the building inside, having, however, in addition to stones of various sizes and qualities, bricks also. The structure belongs to the Srâwaks or Jains, and one of the rooms contains a charan, or sacred foot-print, sculptured in stone and set up on a platform.
The only other remains near the east foot of the hill are a number of nondescript tombs, or rather chhatris, built of brick and stone; some of these are inscribed, and from them we learn that they date to only the seventeenth century; one gives the name of a petty local Raja, and is dated Sake 1621.
The eastern face of the hill is peculiarly impressive in appearance; it rises sheer up, a mass of smooth stone without a single blade of grass all the way up in the central portion; the form in outline is a graceful curve somewhat resembling a parabola with its vertex upwards. When within about 30 feet of the ground, vegetation begins to shew itself, and thence the slope is a gentle one in the reverse direction till it meets the plain; the outline, therefore, of the entire hill here is a curve of a double flexure, and is singularly beautiful.
The ascent to the hill is up a series of rude steps cut along a spur on its south face. There is another minor series of steps also on the south face cut on another spur, the ascent up which is much steeper, and it appears that, eventually, the attempt to carry the steps all the way up by this route was abandoned.
Following, however, the principal ascent, which is cut on a spur, that starting from the main hill on its west side curves round to the south, and ascending up the slippery steps a short way, one comes upon a large rock-sculpture to the right. The sculpture represents a ten-armed, three-headed figure (male or female it is impossible to tell from its rudeness) cut on a large boulder lying on the hill-side; the right hand holds a sword, a gada, a vajra, a spear and an hour-glass-shaped article. The left holds a chain, a shield, a spear, a chakra and a bow: the figure which has only two legs is represented trampling on a squat prostrate figure with large ears and large earrings in them; he has a short sword in his right hand, and over his head appears a canopy as of the spreading branches of a tree similar to the canopies of tree branches sometimes seen in sculptures of Buddha and of Mâyâ Devi. The ten-armed figure wears crowns; it has long ears but small earrings; it has anklets on the feet and bracelets on the arms, and also wears the sacrificial thread.
I have been thus particular in describing this rude sculpture, which, as a work of art, is of no value on account of its curiosity. It appears to me to represent nothing less than the triumph of Brahmanism over Buddhism, for the prostrate figure with a canopy of what I conceive was meant to represent the Bo tree, is most probably intended for either Buddha, or as a type of Buddhism; it is a singular piece of sculpture.
Close to it is a figure of Ganeça sculptured on the rock, and close to these are two rude rock-inscriptions, close to, and almost touching, the steps on their right side; the inscriptions appear to be in modern Nâgari characters, but are so rough as to be illegible.
Continuing to ascend, there stands to the left the remains of a small temple, and to the right, but on another spur separated from this by a ravine, the remains of two others. This spur is the eastmost of the southern spurs of the hill; from that spur to this extends a shallow double line cut on the rock; it appears to have been meant to mark out an intended line of wall, as on the other spur near its ridge, the line is interrupted to form a chamber or gateway; the line of walls was, however, never built. On this spur the line meets a line of walls of brick (now in ruins) which ran down along the left or west side of the ridge on which the steps of the main ascent are cut.
A little distance further up are the remains of two small and one larger temple. Among the ruins of the larger temple lie the fragments of a three-headed figure similar to the rock-sculpture already described. The mouldings of this temple were remarkably bold but perfectly plain. Just beyond the large temple are the remains of two other small temples. The small temples mentioned are not of any particular interest. No portion of any of the temples noticed is now standing. The smaller ones may or may not be old; there is no means of judging with certainty; but the larger temple just mentioned, to judge from its bold mouldings, belongs to the better days of Indian art, and before the Muhammadan conquest; and although the sculpture, both here and that described before, is very rude, this may rather be due to the refractory nature of the material of the rock than to a degeneracy of art; I would ascribe this temple to the period when Brahmanism finally prevailed over Buddhism.
Beyond this, the ridge up which the ascent is carried divides into two; one higher, and the main one leading up to the peak of the main hill; the other, a lower and subordinate one, leading to one of the minor peaks to the west of, and considerably lower than, the main peak; on this last are two temples, one large and one small.
There is necessarily inclosed between these two branches of the ridge and the main range of hills, which at its eastern end culminates in the Mandar peak, a hollow basin which has no outlet, but it is remarkable that though it has no outlet, there is no water in it.
A short way up is another large inscription to right of and touching the steps; it is in late Gupta characters, but very roughly cut, so much so that is was found impracticable to take impressions; but two eye-copies were made by me by hand under varying aspects of light. Near it, a little way higher, is a female figure sculptured on the rock. A short way further, the ridge again divides into two, which inclose a deep, narrow basin containing dirty water; the basin has steps on its south banks, which is raised artificially, and helps to keep in a large volume of water and at a higher level than the unaided height of the ridge alone would. On the sides the rock shelves down to the bottom, which is considerably below the crests of the inclosing ridges. The embankment appears to have been built, or perhaps only repaired, with stones from the ruins of temples that once stood here; the temples had mouldings not very bold, but quite deep enough to make them rank among the temples which were built before the Muhammadan conquest.
It appears to me that there stood four temples on the western ridge of this basin, one by itself, and three in a group; these last appear to have been at the south-west corner of the present embanked basin; the solitary one was on the same side, but higher up. In style the temples appear to have been like the Mânbhum ones.
The two ridges inclosing the basin meet higher up. Between their point of meeting and the north edge of the basin, is a tolerably level piece of ground, on which stand the huts of some jogis; this piece of ground is naturally inclosed on three sides by the ridges. To the west the ridge slopes gently down to it, but on the north and east there is an abrupt descent. On the north side is a cave, partly natural and partly artificial. I was not permitted to approach it, but it is said to enshrine a statue of Narasingha; on the east (i.e.) on the west face of the rocky wall which bounds this low bit of level ground on the east, is cut a gigantic human head; the sculpture is evidently unfinished, as the rock below the head is cut into preparatory steps for completing the sculpture; the extent of these preparatory steps being just such as would suffice to take in a figure corresponding in size to the gigantic head already cut; even this head is not finished; it is only roughly cut, and the lines and angles have not yet been rounded off; the head is now known as Madhu, and is said to represent the demon whose death at Vishnu's hands obtained for him his title of Madhusudana.
Close to this sculpture is a cleft high up in the face of the rock and approached by a ladder; this cleft communicates with a small basin to be described further on, and contains water; it is approached by a wooden ladder, up which even my Hindu servant was not permitted to ascend; this is the famous Akâs Ganga, and is perhaps the holiest spot in the whole hill. It is said that the volume of water in this cleft never enlarges or diminishes, but this must be untrue, as I could see traces on the rocky face below the cleft, which proved to at the water overflowed at times, and it is evidently connected with the external basin to be presently noticed.
Close to the holy Akâs Ganga is sculptured on the rock a representation of the Vaman avátar of Vishnu.
Of the two ridges which inclose the basin, the western one has already been noticed as having had four temples, three near the south-west end of the basin; the eastern ridge also had temples, the largest being at the north-east end. Beyond this point, this eastern ridge again divides into two, of which the west face of the west, or the left one, has already been noticed as containing the cleft of the Akâs Ganga and the great face of Madhu; the two ridges necessarily inclose a small basin; this basin is triangular, one of whose angles is in the direction of the cleft known as Akâs Ganga; the water in the basin is remarkably transparent, and one can see that at the bottom of the basin, but especially at the corner on the west, lie cut-stones that once belonged to temples. So far as I could judge, the level of the water of the Akâs Ganga and of the basin is the same; and I have no doubt that the two communicate by a hole at the angle, which, whether accidentally or designedly, is encumbered with cut-stone from ruined temples.
The ascent is along the right, or eastern one of the two ridges just noticed. On it, close to this place, are the ruins of a small temple occupying the north-east end of the depression, in which is the basin that communicates with the Akâs Ganga. A short way higher up, the ridge again divides into two, inclosing a longish depression, across which two cut-stone walls were built, dividing and forming it into tanks; the walls or embankments are now in ruins and the tanks dry.
On the spur overlooking the lower tank was a small temple of coarsely cut-stone. Stone from it and from elsewhere has subsequently been used to build a modern shrine overlooking the upper tank (also dry now); it is a small, square, flat-roofed house of no interest; it is dedicated to Sivá, and a lingam stands in the sanctum.
The ascent is up the western or left-hand ridge of the two which inclose the depression just noticed; it goes up northwards, and at the first secondary peak, to the west of the great main one, it meets the other spur, which was noticed before as having, cut across it, a shallow double line to mark an intended line of walls and a gateway; from this peak the ascent goes eastwards up the slope of the great main peak.
The highest peak is crowned by a Jain or Sarawaki temple with a bulbous conical dome built of older materials. To the west of this and immediately under its walls, at the summit of the hill, is a deep chasm or hollow. I did not attempt to descend and ascertain its depth; it is overgrown with jangal which rendered a descent unsafe. The Jain temple stands to the east of and immediately on the brink of this chasm. On the rock is cut a figure of the Varaha incarnation, from which it appears probable that originally a Brahmanical temple stood on this spot.
Close to this Jain temple, which is of no interest, stands another small pyramidal-roofed temple and some other buildings, none of any interest.
I have omitted to notice a single line of inscription in characters of, perhaps, the 1st century of our era, which is cut on the rock on the ascent.
This closes my account of Mandar Hill. For a sketch of the peaks and lines of principal ridges, I refer to the plate; it is merely a sketch. I could not spare the time necessary to make a survey of the hill and of its offshoots. The hill is not encircled by a spiral mark of any kind; there is a little bit of a slanting line towards the base, and a little towards the summit, formed by the jagged end of a broken shell or outer layer of rocks, and imagination probably continues the line all round, forming a connected spiral from top to toe; the hill was probably volcanic, as suggested by General Cunningham.
About twelve miles from Naya Dumka, and three off the road between it and Mandar, is the shrine of Bhaski Nath; the temple there is apparently modern, and there is nothing of interest except the legend.
The legend relates that in ancient times some Parihar Rajputs used to live in these jangals, feeding on roots and fruit. One of them, Vasu Patr, in digging for roots, came upon a lingam, and continuing his excavations, found an entire lingam and argha; these he cleaned and went home; there he dreamt that he was ordered to worship it; he wanted to know where he could get water for libations, when he was told that in a copse, to the north of the lingam, he would find water in a hollow. On waking, Vasu Patr did as ordered, found the water, and began to worship the lingam, making offerings once a week, every Monday. The lingam, after Vasu Patr, came to be known as Bháskinâth. Bye-and-bye Vasu Patr dug a tank; for his zeal, the god appeared to him in his dream and ordered him to make and keep ready ropes, as he would send him many buffaloes. Vasu Patr, however, had not this time much faith in the dream, he nevertheless made a small length of rope. At midnight he was ordered to go to the tank and to tie as many buffaloes as he could; he went to the tank, but not having ropes enough, he could tie only a few; he tied some with his pagri and his dhoti, but these were found too weak to resist the attempts of the animals to get away.
Subsequently, Rupá Manji, a gwallá, was ordered to build a temple; he began it, but could not finish it; it was then taken up by Babu Gopál Sing, Raja of Negawáu, and on his death, by his brother, who finished it. The proceeds of the temple are now divided between the Pandás and the Raja of Negawán.