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SEPTEMBER, 1905.1
RAMGARH HILL OAVES IN SARGOJA.
197
TEIE RAMGARH HILL CAVES IN SARGUJA.
BY JAS, BURGESS, C.I.E., LL.D., F.E.S.E. THE Rāmgarh hill is in the Rāmpur pargaņā of Sargūjā state, in the south-east of Bengal,
1 in latitude 22°58 N. and longitude 82° 57' E. or about eight miles west of Lakhanpur, and rises to a height of 8206 feet above sea-level, or fally 1300 feet above that village. It is notable for a natural tunnel through the rock about a hundred and fifty yards long, known as the Hathphor, along which a stream of water flows from a fissure in the rock. Near this are two caves, one of them, known as Sitā Bangira, consisting apparently of a natural cavern, with an artificial cave-chamber behind it. It faces the north-west, and inside & wide entrance this chamber stretches 444 feet from north-east to south-west, but is only about 15 feet deep at most, the back being slightly curved. It is 6 feet high at the entrance, bat little over 4 feet at the back, the greater part of the interior being occupied by a bench 2 feet high at the wall and 31 feet wide, which rans along the back and ends of the cell, with another 2 feet wide and only 2 inches lower attached to the face of it and returning along the front walls. This leaves a floor area at most only 5 feet wide, though about 32 feet long. In the outer approach under the natural rock arch "leading up to the entrance from the outside," says Mr. Beglar, "are a series of several circular steps, and two series, one on each side, of smaller and less steep stairs." On the right jamb of the entrance is an inscription in two lines of 21 or 22 characters each, of a type of about the second century B. C.
Close by is a second cave known as Jogi Mārā, somewhat smaller and seemingly natural, bat also containing an inscription, the apper two lines short and in smaller characters (repeated in the third), whilst the other three are of bolder type,- and here the roof has been painted.
Theso caves were first described by Colonel Ouseley in 1848 (Jour, ds. Soc. Reng. Vol. XVII. pt. i. pp. 66-67), and more at length by Colonel Dalton in 1865 (ibid. Vol. XXXIV. pt. ii. pp. 23-27), who mentions somo interesting structural remains in the vicinity. Again in 1873, Mr. V. Ball furnished to this Journal a detailed account of them with rough plan and sections of the larger cave and eye-copies of the inscriptions (Ind. Ant. Vol. II. pp. 243-246). On these three papers was based the account given in Hunter's Statistical Account of Bengal (Vol. XVII. pp. 236-239), and a fourth description was sapplied by Mr. Beglar in Gen. Cunningham's Archæol. Survey of India (Rep. Vol. XIII. pp. 31–55 and pl. x.). Copies of the inscriptions were also given in the Corpus Inscrip. Indicarum (Vol. I, p. 83 and pl. xv.), from Mr. Beglar's impressions.
Dr. Bloch of the Archeological Survey had recently visited these caves, and in a letter of 30th April, 1904, published in the Zeitschrift der Deut. Morgenländ. Gesellschaft, Bd. LVIII. S. 455, he reads the first line of the inscription in the larger cave as :- Adipayarli hadayashi sabhavagarukavayo, and explains it as - Adipayanti hridayah wabhāvagurukavayah: "The poets, by nature, worthy of honour, fire the heart." From the inscription beginning thus, he infers that "we mny surely expect a panegyrio on the poetic art, and when such a hymn is met with on the wall of an artificial rock excavation, it can there be applicable only because the place served for presenting poetical compositions before a larger public. And the arrangement of the cave," he adds, " is admirably adapted to this parpose. In a semi-circle, rising above one another in terrace form, a row of seats are hewn out, which are again divided by radiating lines, quite in the style of a Greek theatre. From these seats a comfortable view was presented over a natural platform laid out below, which afforded room enough to erect a small stage. Naturally the amphitheatre is only in miniature : it might afford space for thirty spectators; bat yet its arrangement on a classical model cannot be mistaken. Above the seats is a rectangular chamber with broad benches along the walls, where people evidently retired when the cold of winter nights made it unpleasant to remain in the open air. At the
