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DECEMBER, 1893.]
NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA.
831
the point indicated in the plan there is a bamboo ladder leading up into darkness in the roof, most probably into a higher cave in the rock, but this was evidently too much infested with bats to make exploration desirable at short notice during the visit.
The whole of the caves above described were clearly at one time crammed with images of all sizes, materials and ages, just as the Kògun, B'inji and D'ammabá Caves still are. These have nearly all now been destroyed by iconoclasts, probably.chiefly Natives of India, from Maulmain. The proximity of that town, its occupation by the British for nearly seventy years, the existence for many years of a large garrison there, and the callousness of the Burmese to this species of desecration, would easily account for the destruction of invaluable remains that has taken place.
There remain, however, several huge recumbent figures of Gautama Buddha, one measuring 45 feet in length and others not much less, sitting figures of various sizes, and small figures mostly matilated. The condition of the wood, of which some of these are made attest their antiquity.10 Some of the stalactites have been ornamented, but this has not been the rule, as it evidently was in some of the other caves, notably that at D'ammaba. All over the sides of the cave and its roof there are signs of former ornamentation with small images of plaster painted white and red, and made of terra-cotta stuck on with a cement. The best preserved of these particular remains are high up on the south wall at tlre deep end of the Chaitya Hall, where a number of plaster yahàns are kneeling opposite one of the huge Shrégáyaungs or recambent Gautamas, and in the roof near the entrance. Here advantage has been taken of a small natural dome to picture the Church' (bingá - sang'u); i. e., a numerous circle of yahàns praying round a central figure of Gautama under the Bo (=Bód'i=Bur. Bòdi) Tree 11 Plate I. which is from a photograph taken from the entrance to the Chaitya Hall, looking along the Entrance Hall northwards, indicates this ornamentation and shews the small pagoda above mentioned.
The best way of visiting the Farm Caves is to take a hackney carriage (these are numerous, cheap and proportionately bad in Maulmain) to the Nyaungbinzêk Ferry on the At'arân13 River, about four miles, then to cross in the Ferry, and thouce proceed by bullock cart to the caves, another four miles or so. There is no difficulty in the journey, as it is constantly made and the people en route consequently quite un lerstand what is wanted. It is advisable, however, to give notice to the bullock drivers of the intended journey. The roads are now good all the way.
3. The D'ammaba Cave. The D'ammaba Cave is distant from Maulmain about eighteen miles and is situated near the banks of a side-stream behind an island in the Jain River. There is a village and a small bright gilt pagoda on a high precipitous rock jutting picturesquely, 13 as usual, into the River. (See Plate XIX.) Near the pagoda are kyaungs (monastic buildings) of the ordinary village type. The Cave is in a range of limestone rocks of some height behind the village and distant about quarter of a mile, and there is no difficulty in procuring guides from the village. The peculiarity of this Cave is that it runs right through the rock, and so is better lighted than is usually the case.
It contains a great number of stalactites and stalagmites, some very large, and
Skr. Gautama = Pali Gòtama = Burmese Gùdaina and Güdami (Anglo-Indian goddama, vsed for any Buddhistic image).
10 Many of the figures aro, however, quite modern, having been placed there by worshippers of the present day. Loonl information places the number at 68, of which only 9 are now in good order.
11 This cave is much disfigured by scribbled names of visitors in, many languages: English, French, German Hindustani, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Burmese and Chinese.
11 This word is Attaran in Crawfurd's Aun, 1820, and in Spearman's Gazetteer of Burmah, 1950. It is Atharam in Wilson's Burmese War, 1827, p. lxiii. It is at this point frequently called the Nyaungbinzék Crock.
15 One of the most striking facts in Burma is the beautiful and picturesque situations of the pagodas and public buildings. They are comparable in this rospect to the religious structures of the Lepchas in Sikkim. See Journalo kept in Hyderabad, Kashmir, Sikkim and Nepal, by Sir R. Tomple and R. C. Temple, Vol. II. Pp. 206-207. Bir R. Temple's Oriental Experience, pp. 73-74. See also post, p. 361 f.
