the Calcutta bar, and holds a respectable post under Government at Bhagulpore.

The Mount Mandar, celebrated in the Pouranic legends for the churning of the ocean, lies southward of Bhagulpore. It is remarkable as being of granite, whilst all the other hills in the neighbourhood are of limestone. Originally, it was a seat of Buddhist worship, and a place of Buddhist pilgrimage, when these wild and uninhabited parts probably formed populous and flourishing districts. This was, we think, when Buddhist kings reigned in Magadha and Gour. On the downfall of Buddhism, Mandar fell into the hands of the Shivites, and became a seat of their god so as to rival Benares, and form, as the Kasikhund states, a second Kailasa. The legend of the churning of the ocean is an interpolation in the Mahabharat, which evidently refers to the contest between the Brahmins (soors) and the Buddhists (asoors) -the great serpent Vasookee-alluding to the sect of the Nagas.

Jangerah and Sultangung.-Sailing up from Bhagulpore, the first object of interest which arrests the attention of the traveller is a singular mass of granite towering abruptly to the height of about a hundred feet from the bed of the river. Its natural beauty and romantic situation have long since dedicated it to the service of religion; and Jangeerah, the name of the rock in question, has been associated with many a tale of love and arms.' The 'Fakeer of Jangeerah' is the subject of a poem by that gifted East Indian, Mr

Jangerah and Sultangung.

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Derozio, who first planted the seed of reform in the Hindoo mind, and ushered into existence the class now known under the designation of Young Bengal.

The rock is separated from the mainland by a distance of about a hundred yards, and stands facing the mart of Sultangung. Crowning the top is a small stone temple, which is visible from a great distance, and serves as a beacon tower to the mariner. The presiding deity of this sanctuary is named Gaibinatha, a form of Siva. The temple bears no inscription, and from its make and appearance does not seem to be more than two or three centuries old.' The surface of the rock is carved in many bas-relief figures of the Pouranic gods. But there are older Buddhist figures, that occupying more centrical positions than the Hindoo ones, and appearing to be more worn than the latter, afford conclusive evidence of the place having been originally a Buddhist sanctuary, which the Brahmins appropriated to themselves since the downfall of Buddhism.'

It is but half a mile to Jangeerah from the Railway station of Sultangung. The space between the mart and the Railway station,' observes Baboo Rajendro Lalla Mitra, forms a quadrangle of 1200 feet by 800. It seems never to have been under much cultivation, and is covered by the debris of old buildings, the foundations of which have lately been excavated for ballast for the Railway.' The high grassy knoll perched with a neat bungalow, that meets the eye of the passer-by in the train, is but a ridge of rubbish lying at the south-east

corner of the quadrangle. There have been discovered here chambers, and courtyards, and halls, and walls having a thick coating of sand and stucco such as are to be seen in modern Indian houses,' and floors 'made of concrete and stucco, and painted over in fresco of a light ochrous colour,' and 'the foundation and the side pillars of a large gateway' from all which the spot is supposed to have been the site of a large Buddhist monastery or Vihara, such as at one time existed at Sarnath, Sanchi, Buddha-Gya, Manikyala, and other places, and at its four corners had four chapels for the use of the resident monks.' The thick, large-sized bricks employed in the construction of the building, have been found to be of the kind that was in use for upwards of seven hundred years down to the fifth or sixth century of the Christian era.' This is a proof of the antiquity of the Vihara at least prior to the lastmentioned centuries. That it was much older beyond that period is satisfactorily proved by the 'inscriptions on the minor figures, in the Gupta character of the third and fourth century, which show that the Vihara, with its chief lares, and penates, had been established a considerable period before that time, probably at the beginning of the Christian era, or even earlier.'

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No doubt remains as to the Vihara from the discovery of a colossal figure of Buddha, full seven feet high, of the tall North Indian and not the squat Bhot type, that seems to have been the principal object of worship. 'The figure is erect, standing in the attitude of delivering a lecture. The right hand is lifted in the act of

Colossal Figure of Buddha.

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exhortation; the left holds the hem of a large sheet of cloth which is loosely thrown over the body. Both hands bear the impress of a lotus, the emblem, according to Indian chiromancy, of universal supremacy, and as such is always met with on the hands of Vishnu, Brahma, and some other Hindoo divinities. The ears are pendulous and bored, and the hair on the head disposed in curled buttons in the way they are usually represented on Burmese figures, and not very unlike the buttons on the heads of some of the Nineveh basreliefs. The lips are thin, and the face, though more rounded than oval, is not remarkable for any prominence of the cheek-bone. On the forehead there is a circular tilak or auspicious mark. The material is a very pure copper cast in two layers, the inner one in segments on an earthen mould, and held together by iron bands now very much worn down by rust; the outer layer of the copper has also oxidized in different places and become quite spongy. The casting of the face down to the breast, was effected in one piece; the lower parts down to the knee in another; and then the legs, feet, hands, and back in several pieces. A hole has been bored through the breast, and chips have been knocked off from other parts of the body since the exhumation of the figure, evidently with a view to ascertain if it did not contain hidden treasure, such as is said to have been found by Mahmood in the belly of the famous idol of Somnauth, but it has led to the discovery of nothing beyond the mould on which the figure had been cast. The substance of this mould

looks like a friable cinder. Originally it consisted of a mixture of sand, clay, charcoal, and paddy husk, of the last of which traces are still visible under the microscope.'*

Minor figures, carved in basalt, and in style and attitude resembling the copper figure, have also been discovered, with the Buddhist creed Ye dharmahetu,' &c., engraved in the Gupta character on their pedestals. The remains of a mud fort, usually attached to a Buddhist monastery for its protection and security, are also found at a distance of about three quarters of a mile -forming a square mound of about 400 yards on each side, raised to the height of about 20 feet from the plain, and now the site of an indigo factory. To the south of it there is a large tank which yielded the earth of which the mound was formed.' Abundance of 'little fictile bell-shaped structures called chaityas, have also turned out with inscriptions in the Kutila type. This character had a long range of four centuries, from the 8th to the 11th, and the monuments on which it is found may fairly be concluded to have existed at least down to the 7th, 8th, or even the 9th or 10th century. Though not spoken of by Fa Hian or Hwen Thsang, the destruction of the Vihara may be supposed to have taken place on the triumph of Brahminism over Buddhism, or otherwise no reason can be assigned for the iconoclastic vengeance which could not have been inflicted unless by the ruthless hands of adverse sectarians.

* 'On the Buddhist Remains of Sultangung.' By Baboo Rajendra Lalla Mittra.