Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 486

MAN
124
MAN
Ma nasa-Sarovara--Same as Manasa. Måndagora --Mândâd, originally Mândâgada, situated in the Rajapuri creek near Kudem in the Bombay Presidency (McCrindle's Ptolemy, VII, ch. I, sec. 7; but see W. H. Schoff's Periplut of the Erythruean Sea, p. 201). Bhåndárkar also identifies it with Mândâd (Early Hist, of the Deklan, 890. viu). It has also been identified with Mandangar fort in the Ratnagiri district, Bombay (Bomb. Gaz., vol. I, Pt. I, 541-546), and with Mândal in
Kolaba district (ibid., vol. I, Pt. II). Mandakini-1. The Kaligangå or the Western Kali or Mandâgni, which rises in the moun.
tains of Kedåra in Garwal (Matsya P., ch. 121 ; Asia. Res., vol. XI, p. 508). It is a tributary of the Alakananda. 2. Cunningham has identified it with the Mandakin, small tributary of the Paisuni (Payasvini) in Bundelkhand, which flows by the side of
Mount Chitrakūta (Arch. 8. Rep., vol. XXI, p. 11; Matsya P., ch. 114). Mandapa-pura-Mandu in Malwa (Lalitpur Inscription in JASB., p. 87). The seat of
government was transferred to this place from Dhår by the Mahomedan conquerors of
Malwa in the fifteenth century. Mandara-Girl-1. A hill situated in the Banka sub-division of the district of Bhagalpur, two or three miles to the north of Bamst and thirty miles to the south of Bhagalpur. It is an isolated hill about seven hundred feet high with a groove all around the middle to indicate the impression of the coil of the serpent Våsuki which served as a rope for churning the ocean with the hill as the churn-staff, the gods holding the tail of the serpent and the Asuras the head. The groove is evidently artificial and bears the mark of the chisel. Vishnu incarnated as the tortoise (Kurma-avatara) and bore the weight of the mountain on his back when the ocean was being churned (Kurma P., I, ch. 1; Vamana P., ch. 90). There are two Buddhist temples on the top of the hill now worshipped by the Jainas. On a lower bluff on the western side of the peak was the original temple of Vishņu called Madhusudana (Garuda P., I, ch. 81), now in ruins, on the western side of which is a dark low cave containing an image of Nrisimha carved on the rock, and near it are situated a natural cavity in the rock containing a large quantity of pure limpid spring-water called the Akasa-Ganga and a colossal image of Vamana Deva and a huge sculpture of Madhu Kaitabha Daitya (for a description of the figure, see JASB., XX, p. 272). At the foot of the hill and on its eastern side are extensive ruins of temples and other buildings, and among them is a very old stone building called Nath-thân, which was evidently a monastery of the Buddhist period now appropriated by the Hindus. There are also ruins of buildings on the hill, and there are steps carved on the rock for easy ascent almost to the top of the hill. These ruins are said to belong to the time of the Chola Rajas, especially of Raja Chhatar Singh (Martin's Eastern India, vol. II ; Rashbihari Bose's Mandara Hill in Ind. Ant., I, p. 46). There is a beautiful tank at the foot of the hill called Papahirint where people come to bathe from a long distance on the last day of the month of Paush, when the image of Madhusůdana is brought to & temple at the foot of the hill from Bamsi. This tank was caused to be excavated by Konadevi, the wife of Adityasena who became the in løpendent sovereign of Magadha in the seventh century after the Kanauj kingdom had been broken up on the death of Harshavardhana (Corp. Inscrip. Ind., VOL III, p. 211). This shows that Anga was still under the domination of Magadha. The hill is sacred to Madhusa dana, but the image is now kept at Barpsi, the Balisa of the Mandara-mahatmya, where the temple was built in 1720 A.D. For the sanctity of the