Jainism in Bihar

Author(s): P C Roy Choudhary
Publisher: P C Roy Choudhary Patna

Page 56

CHAPTER V
KULUHA HILL. Kuluha hill is in Chatra subdivision of Hazaribagh district. It is now approachable by a good motorable road which branches off from near Dobhi on the Grand Trunk Road, or by a direct road from Chatra. Chatra is well-connected with Hazaribagh, the district headquarters. There are two roads : one is a direct road from Hazaribagh to Chatra is not so good and the other road branches off from Chauparan on Grand Trunk Road within Hazaribagh district and connects Chatra. There is a rest bungalow at Huntergunj, six miles from Kuluba hill. One has to walk up the hill by a bridle path.
Kuluha hill is the birth place of the Jain Tirthankar Shitalanath. But the importance of the place for the Jains was almost lost. This hill was mentioned as an object of a local pilgrimage by Sir William Hunter. It also finds mention in the list of Ancient Monuments of Bengal. Mr. Nandlal De visited the hill in June, 1899 and gave a report to the Government. Dr. M. A. Stein, who had visited the hill after Nandlal De, contributed an article which was published in the Indian Antiquary' in March, 1901. Mr. Nandlal De took the ancient remains in the hill to be exclusively Buddhistic. He thought Kuluha hill was the “Makula Parvata” of the Burmese Annals of Buddhism where Buddha passed the sixth rainy season.
Dr. Stein rightly controverted the erroneous theory of Mr. Nandlal De that the antiquities on the Kuluha bill are Buddhistic and strongly held the view in his article published in the "Indian Antiquary” that they were Jain in origin. 40