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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JOLY, 1908.
A VISIT TO RAMTEK.
BY HIRA LAL, B.A., M.R.A.S.; NAGPUR.
RÂMTK is the headquarters of a tahsil in the Nagpur district of the Central Provinces. It derives its name from the temple of R&ma on the hill (ték or tékadi), at the foot of which the town is situate. It is regarded as a very sacred place in that part of the country, and an annual fair is held there in the month of Kârttika commercing on the Pârnimâ which lasts for a fortnight. The attendance at the fair is estimated to be 60,000.
I visited the place just before the fair on 3rd November, 1907, and the following days, and took the opportunity of jotting down the following notes, especially in view of the fact that the archæologists and antiquarians, who have visited the place, being mostly Europeans, have not had access to the principal temples. So far as I know, Beglar was the first archæologist who visited the place in 1873-74. He has given & somewhat detailed account in his report, but he was not admitted inside the inner group of temples. Mr. Cousens, who visited the place 31 years afterwards, found himself similarly excluded. He writes in his report, that the European is permitted on sufferance to approach this holy of holies as far as the lower step of the inner gate, where he is met by a fat Brâhman with an oleaginous smile, who politely informs him he may go no farther.' About 20 years ago when I first visited it, I was also about to share the same fate, but my cont saved me. I then grew & small beard, which dubbed me a Musalman in the eyes of the temple-keepers, but an intelligent fellow amongst them observed that I could not be one, because my coat, or more properly angarkha, was cut on the right side and not on the left.
Ramtek has been held by some to be identical with the Råmagiri of Kalidasa's Méghadáta.
Rama is believed to have stayed for some time at Ramtêk while Various names for Ramtek.
on his way to Laika, and to have visited the place again from Ayodhyâ, after his installation as king, to chastise Sambaka for his audacity in practising the penance, which the Brahmans complained that he, being a Sudra, was not entitled to. The other old names of Ramtêk are said to have been Sinduragiri the vermilion mount,' and Tapogiri or the mountain of penance. Both of them occur in the mutilated inscription belonging to the end of the fourteenth century, to be referred to further on. The reason assigned there for first of these names is that god in his man-lion incarnation killed the demon Hiragyakasipu on this hill, which became red like vermilion with his blood, but there can be little doubt that the name, as suggested by Mr. Cousens, was given because of the red stones, which when newly-dressed or broken, look almost blood-red, especially when the sun shines on them. The second name Tapogiri is said to have been given to it becanse the sage Agastya, who was born of a pot and had once drank off the ocean on getting annoyed with it, practised penance here. The Rámdyana says that Rama, after leaving Chitrakûta and visiting the hermitage of Sutiksbņa, went to that of Agastya. On entering his abode he saw the places sacred to Agni, to Vishnu,
1 Included in Cunnigham's, Vol VII, p. 109 ff.
· For 1906, p. 41. * Seo Rai Debi Preaad'(Parna), Dharddhara Dhdvana, an excellent metrial version in Hindt of Maghaddtas with critical footnotes, p. 3 ff.
• Pragatra d&vt niharih rurarer voibhida vakshaḥ karajai fit&graiki tadrakta pardrunitar tato ? yash .. :... (Here the line is broken off in the insoription). The Ramtek mahatmya also says:- Hiranyakafipor dahal pidit viahpund purdi raktána tena saruddi bhédito msichchhmdlayaḥ i sindira radiso jatas tona Sindira partvatal
. There was an Agnitirtha at Ramtek, which is mentioned in the inscription.
