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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JULY, 1908
was born as the prince, who severed his head from his trunk with the kusa grass. At the time of death, Nagarjuna told the prince that he would rise again at a future time and his head would again be one with his body. As the prince was carrying off the head, it was snatched away by a yaksha, who threw it to a distance of five miles, where the saint's remains turned to a stone. It is mentioned in the book of prophecies that the head is now in the course of drawing every day nearer the trunk to effect its junction. It is said that Nagarjana will again appear in India, and live one hundred years to teach the sacred dharma to men and gods.
To the Ramtek tradition all these details are unknown, but the little story related by the people has some striking coincidences,"7 viz., the existence of a petrified head associated with & cobra, and the tradition of Nagarjuna's revival to life at a future time. Apparently, these are not fortuitous, and the vicinity of Râmtêk, to the ancient Vidarbha, the modern Berar, lends weight to the conjecture I have ventured to throw ont, viz., that the Râmtek cave may be the place where Nagarjuna awaited his death, after being sent away by his parents. Apparently, it is not the place where he was killed. That place lay somewhere in the south on the Sriparvata, as the legend relates, and which Mr. Thomas Watterslo identifies with Fa-hsien's P'o-lo-yue apparently, the same as Po-lo-mo-lo-ki-li of Hiuen Tsiang. In this place, which is placed three hundred li or about fifty miles south-west of the capital of Kosala, which I take to be Bhandak19 (about 120 miles south-west of Râmték), the royal friend of Nagarjuna had & monastery quarried for him, which was certainly much grander than the modest Ramtek cave, as its description by the Chinese traveller discloses. According to the legend, Nâgârjana's head was not allowed to remain in the place where it was cut. It was snatched away and thrown to a distance. May it not be that the Râmtêk cave, which was originally intended to be the grave of NagArjuna, was, on his death, selected as a suitable place for depositing at least 1 portion of his supposed petrified remnants ?
11 Mark the portions italicised above.
18 On Yuan Chacang, Vol. II, p. 208. 10 In view of the foot that General Cunningham held that the onpital was Chanda, and Mr. Fergusson WAS inclined to take it a Wairagath, it seems necessary to state that in those two places the ancient remains are neither so extensive nor so old as those of Bhandak, nor are there any traces of Buddhistio remains, wherons Bhandak possesses them pretty abundantly, there being a Buddhistio cave and dagoba there still in a fair state of preservation. It, therefore, seems more reasonable to suppose that Hiuen Tsiang should have preferred to visit
place containing Buddhistio shrines than otherwise. The Chinese pilgrim has noted that there were 100 angharama there, and 10,000 priests. There was a great number of heretion, who lived intermixed with the population, and also Deva temples. The king was of the Kshatriya caste, who deeply reverenced the law of Buddha, and was well affected towards learning and arts." This description very well agrees with Bhbndak which contains also remains of many old Hindu temples. An inscription found in the Bhandak cave, wrongly said to be brought from Ratanpur, shows that a line of Buddhistic kings belonging to the Pinduvami Kshatriya onste raled in that place even till the oth century A.D. (J. R. 4, 8., 1905, p. 621). One of the kings mentioned in it is identified by Prof. Kielhorn with the Udayans of KAlanjara inscription, in which he is stated to have founded a temple of the cod Bhadreávars there. This name of Biva in, to my mind, full of meaning. In Bhandak, the most sacred templo And perhaps the oldest (judging from a broken inscription in very old characters discovered in 1908, when Pandit Hrananda and I visited it), is that of Bhadranatha, eommonly called Bhadranaga, owing to the cobrs now being worshipped there, which, apparently, was originally dedicated to Biva. This name is synonymous with Bhadrósvars, and was, apparently, given after the name of the town Bhadravatt, of which Bhandak is universally believed to be a corruption. To a king of Bhadravati, the presiding deity of which would naturally be called Bhadranaths or Bhadr ivara, this name would, as a matter-of-course, be dearer than others, and he would, therefore, be inclined to give the same name to the temples built elsewhere by him, and that seems to be the reason why Udayana called the Kalanjar temple by that name. General Cunningham rojected the strong local tradition that Bhandak was old Bhadravatt, and the scene of the capture of the Sykmakarna horse ( described in the Jaimins Advamadha), by the Pandava hero, Bhima, from Yauvanava, whose palace is still pointed out. He endeavoured to prove that Bhandak was corruption of VAktak, which Drs, Bühler and Fleet have disallowed on philological grounds. No snoh objection, I think, would arise in identifying it with Bhadrdratt. And there can be no doubt about its once being a capital of Buddhistio kings.
