Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Suissá

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SUISSÁ.

A mile and a half north-west of this, and about three from Sápharan, is the large village of Suissá. Here, under a bar or bat tree, are collected numerous statues, found, it is said, in the jangal when the place was cleared, but chiefly in a spot 100 yards off, which is, and must long have been, a burialplace of the Bhumij or aborigines; this cemetery is full of tombs, consisting of rude slabs of stone raised from 1 to 4 feet above the ground on four rude, longish blocks of stone, which serve for pillars; people say that when digging for fresh tombs they often come upon the slabs of old tombs now buried; and from the profusion of tombs in all stages of freshness and decay there can be no doubt it has long been a chosen cemetery for the aborigines, the Bhumij or Bhumyas.

The sculptures collected under the tree are Jain and Brahmanical; the principal are known by the names below:—

Monsá, a naked Jain figure with the snake symbol.

Siva, a naked Jain figure with the bull symbol.

Siva, a votive chaitya with four naked figures on the four sides, evidently Jain.

Sankhachakra, a figure of Vishnu Chaturbhuj.

Parvati, a female seated on a lion.

Besides these, there are two small Jain figures naked—a female under a tree which I take to represent Máyá Devi under the sâl tree; another female under a tree, with five Buddhist or Jain figures seated round her head on branches of the tree; on each side are four rows of two each of elephant and horse-faced men. Bunches of flowers and fruit hang round the head of the female figure.

There are a few others of no note; some lingams also form part of the collection.

The Ind parab is celebrated here also.

In his geography, General Cunningham, following the bearings and distances of Hwen-Thsaug, places his Kirana Sufalana near Barâ Bâzâr. As there are not many ruins there, while here the remains are numerous, and as the name Sápharan is apparently the original of Sufalana, I think that Hwen-Thsang's Kirana Sufalana may with much probability be identified with the Sápharan near this place; there is not far off a sub-division of Chutia Nâgpur called Karânpur, the Rájás of which place are said traditionally to have once ruled over the greater part of the country, including Dalmi. Admitting the probable correctness of this tradition, the Chinese Kirana Sufalana would be Karna Sápharana: Sápharana means destroyer of curses. In the absence, then, of other data, I propose to identify this place with the capital of Çaçangka Rájá.