Brahmins, Buddhists, and Jains.

207

things were where all is now wild and without a trace of habitation. The land was completely lost to the civilized world for more than a thousand years-its name and history were forgotten; and until the opening of the Grand Trunk Road, except to solitary pilgrims, its very site was unknown.

The Jews have their Sinai-the Jains their Parisnath. The hill is named after the principal demi-god of that sect. Its founder meant to have steered the same middle course between Brahminism and Buddhism, that Nanuk Shah intended in a later age-to have the Hindoos and Mussulmans amalgamated by the doctrines of Sikh-ism. But the Brahmins can never bear a brother near the throne.' They were touched in the sore point by their antagonists inculcating against a hereditary priesthood, and could have no rest nor respite until they had driven their dangerous adversaries from every city, town, and haunt of men what

soever.

In a council of twenty-four, forming a divine hierarchy, Parisnath is the head. He and his colleagues, however, are so absorbed in meditation as to be blind and deaf to the concerns of this nether world. It is no wonder then that their religion should have failed, when deities, like Eastern despots, never chose to open their ears and eyes to the affairs of humanity. Their godships must excuse us this bit of reflection.

There is now no trace of the Buddhists-they have been chased clean from India. The Jains still hold a footing in the land,—the last ray of a flickering

religion having long been cherished by them in the depths of caverns or on the heights of mountains,

'The world forgetting, by the world forgot,'

till under better auspices it has begun to flourish with a renewed vitality.

In the range the eastern peak is the most noted. On its top Parisnath obtained nirvan or emancipation from matter. The spot is especially sacred for that circumstance, and forms the holiest place of worship to the sect. Upon that spot is a small but handsome temple, with marble floors and open verandahs. In passing along is caught a glimpse of the white dome of this temple from the valley below, like a speck on the brow of the hill.

It would make a pleasant excursion to go up to see this temple, and also enjoy the views commanded from the top of the hill. The cost is little, and there is a pathway from this side to make the ascent. In introducing the reader to the hills, he is not the less surely than sorely to regret his being landed only at their foot, and not carried up to their top-to feast his eyes thence on the long sweep of hills and valleys, apparently tossed about in the wildest confusion, and yet all of them settled into the perfect loveliness of Nature's most exquisite handiwork. Such a diversion had been omitted to be provided for in the programme of our journey, and we have to warn the reader against a mistake that lost to us a rich treat-and tasting the pleasures of the uphill work of old Sisyphus.

Jain Temple and Reservoir.

209

By itself, the Jain temple is not a little curious object for sight-seeing. It crowns the hill only some 800 feet below the highest summit. The site is on

the top of a detached peak protected on three sides by protruding masses of rock thrown out from the hill. Parisnath must have had a fine poetic taste to pitch upon this spot for a romantic seclusion, and an undisturbed communion with the heavens. He was born in populous Benares, and he died here upon this lonely mountain-top. The pilgrims, climbing to see the last scene of his life and labours, are shown his foot-prints, marking the spot where he obtained his nirvan. The footprints are quite Brobdignagian,-from which not Gulliver only, but any man might be in imminent danger of being trodden to death. The space for half a mile in circumference is cleared of all forest, and covered with temples and platforms of masonry. There is a reservoir of water, without which the residence of the priests and monks would have been quite out of the question. This reservoir is an artificial excavation, and a proof that Buddhists could as well call forth waters from the barren rock.' The few human beings who live here isolated from all mankind are amply compensated by that fine health which is owed to a pure atmosphere. An intercourse, like a still under-current, passes throughout the year with the outside world, and supplies the religieuses perched above the smoke and stir' of this world with many of the dainties of life. The temple is about 100 years old. The reservoir must be of anterior date-probably of the age of Parisnath himself.

The season of pilgrimage is in March, when a great mela is held in the depths of this wilderness. Crowds of pilgrims, sometimes numbering 100,000 persons, then resort hither from distant parts of the Peninsula, and their annual offerings accumulate a large wealth at the shrine. The route from the north, lying through dry beds of torrents, and amid gloomy glens over-arched with foliage, is less steep and precipitous, and has been preferred from remote times. Immediately at the foot of the hill is a forest-clearance, which forms the encamping ground of the pilgrims. This spot is called Modoobun. Here also are some grand temples, in the principal of which is a black image of Parisnath. Over the god, a cobra spreads out its seven expanded heads as a canopy. There are other deities-Khetropal, which may be identified with the Nirsingha of the Brahminsand Chukreswari and Pudmabatti, with Doorga and Luchmee. A large aged banyan-a sacred tree with the Jains-is also an interesting object. The principal temple has been built by Juggut Sett-the famous Jain banker at Moorshedabad, of great wealth and influence in the days of Clive.

From all yesterday we have been accomplishing our journey with horses, each of which might furnish a subject for comment. How audacious the dawk-companies are to run such horses within ken and under the very cognisance of Parisnath. Lucky is it for them, that his godship never opens his eyes to their doings. *

* Non-cruelty to animals is the grand doctrine both of the Buddhists and Jains. In a remarkable sunnud or document bearing the

Doomree,—a rugged Country.

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Doomree is situated in a valley shut in by lofty rocks. The spot is rich in natural beauties. The country hereabouts is wilder and more rugged than any we have yet seen. It is one continued series of hills and dales, rocks and ravines, and crags and caverns-agitated and torn all over, as if nature had been under a mighty convulsion. Here and there, the road passes over wide-yawning ravines, through which during the rains sweep down headlong torrents to form the far-off rivers. Detached boulders lie strewn in all directions, and woods of a dark imbrowned hue cover every inch of the land-forming those abodes of everlasting shade which are scarcely penetrated by the sun. In the distance rise monstrous masses that nature has piled one upon another in every mode of shapeless desolation. The table-land has reached here its highest elevation. This labyrinth of hills and jungles is not without its own attractions. The sublime and the awful largely enter into the ingredients of its character. But the sublime and the awful at last tire by their unbroken monotony. One misses the charm of a variegated landscape-the 'cottage peeping through the trees'—the 'waving cornfields'-the 'lowing herds '-the 'whistling ploughboy'all, in short, to awaken interest or sympathy. The scene, no doubt, has its grandeur and magnificence bonâ fide seal of Akber, which has recently come to light, the name under which Parisnath was known in that emperor's age appears to have been Somed Sekhur. This whole hill, together with others in Behar and Guzerat, was granted to and bestowed upon Heer Bijoy Soor Acharya, the then pontiff of the Setamburry Jain sect, by Akber. They were given in perpetuity; and there is an especial clause prohibiting the killing of animals either on, below, or about the hills.