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FEB. 2, 1872.]
MANDARA HILL.
49
serpent round its sides, so as to induce the be- kunda to the Pápharni(which he calls Poulief that the hill was used by the gods in churn- phur). The passage of the cascade may still ing the ocean. This, as well as the steps cut in be clearly traced a few yards from the steps the rock, must have cost enormous sums. But by the smooth surface, abrupt declivities, and an inscription at the side of the steps which deep gorges left by it on that portion of the h:11 has lately been deciphered* seems to show that where it fell. But at present the Sitákup da, inthey were the work of a Buddhist king named stead of overflowing, is scarcely full even during U grabhairava. It is however probable that the rains. The pilgrims who visit it are persuaded the inscription does not refer to the steps cut in to believe that it has derived its name from Sitá the rock, but, as supposed by the decipherer, —who used to bathe in it during her stay in the
memorates the dedication of a statue. Though hill with her husband when banished from Oudh. there is at present no statue near the inscription, On the northern bank of the Sitá kunda, stood
still to be seen many Buddhist and the temple of Madhu súd a na, said to have been Hindu images lying here and there on the left built by Rájá Cholá, now entirely in ruins. The side of the steps, which have evidently been temple appears to have been pulled down, its stones transported from their original places and muti- hurled down the sides of the hill to the plain, lated and disfigured by Muhammadan bigotry. and the image of Madhusudan a reduced to There is also a Buddhist temple near the sum- dust by Muhammadan fanatics. But according mit of the hill which is held in great veneration to the Bráhmans, Kulá p a hár could not destroy by people of the jaina. But even if the the image of Madhusudana, for it leaped into honour of cutting the steps in the rock really the Sitákuņd a on his approach, and cutting a belongs to Ugrabhairav -as a Buddhist, subterranean passage, proceeded to the large tank he could not have traced the coil of the great ser- at Kajráli near Bhág alpur, where it remainpent on the body of the hill in order to keep up ed concealed for many years. At length Madhuthe memory of a Hindu superstition.
súdana appeared to a Punda in a dream and The steps do not go much higher than Sitá - told him of the place of his concealment, whence kunda. This is the name of a beautiful oblong it was accordingly conveyed back to the Mantank, about 100 feet by 50, excavated in the dára and located in a new temple at the foot of body of the rock, nearly 500 feet above the sur- the hill. But the Zamindars of Subbalpur, by rounding plain. Every hot spring in India is whose ancestors the new temple was built, affirm known by the name of Sitá kunda, it being that the image of Madhusudana, after its plunge supposed that Sitá bathed in it after passing into the Sitákunda,went direct to Pachit, and through the fiery ordeal to which she was sub- thence appeared to one of their ancestors in a jected by her husband with a view to test her dream, and that it was not till they had waited purity, and thereby imparted to its water the in vain upon the Rájá of that place for recovery heat which she had imbibed in the flaming pile. of the image, that Madhusudan a condesBut the water in the Sitákunda on the cended to appear in the tank at Kajráli. Mandara is almost as cold as ice. Whether A few feet above the Sitá kunda is another there was formerly a hot spring, the heat of spring which is called Shankha Kunda from a which has become extinct, it is not easy to monster Shankha or oyster reposing beneath say. The Mandara Mahátmya, an old its waters. The Shankha, to judge of its size Sanskļit work which gives an account of the by the impression left on the bank, where it was hill from a religious point of view, describes formerly kept, is about 3 feet by 11. It is said to several springs existing at the place which be the same identical Shankha that is designated appear to have been subsequently amalgamated in the Mahábhárata as Panchajanyaand converted into a tank by Rájé Cholá. whose sound used to fill the ranks of the enemy That the sitá kunda has undergone with dismay. The Shankha Kund a is believextensive changes within the memory of man ed to be very deep. It has been very irregularly is apparent from Col. Francklin's account of excavated, not presenting the appearance of any it. For when he visited the hill in 1814, symmetrical figure, but rather resembling the there was a cascade or waterfall from the Sitá- shape of the oyster which is preserved in it; and
• Vido page 64, Inote t.
# It is just to state that at the time of deciphering, he was not Aware that the Inacription occurred near tho side of the steps
Vide his Inquiry concerning the site of Ancient Palibothra. Part II.-As Francklin's work is now icaroo, his account is appended in full.-Id.
