Page:Report of a Tour Through the Bengal Provinces of Patna, Gaya, Mongir and Bhagalpur; The Santal Parganas, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Birbhum; Bankura, Raniganj, Bardwan and Hughli in 1872-73.djvu/101

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IN THE BENGAL PROVINCES, 1872-73
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the jogi saw the pir approach, he happened to be seated on a wall brushing his teeth with the usual native tooth-brush; he stuck this in the ground and said to the wall he was seated on, "Don't you see the pir coming? Why do you not advance and receive him with due respect?" The wall thereupon advanced with the jogi on it towards the pir; they met in a friendly spirit, and the pir, acknowledging the power of the jogi, agreed that thenceforth they should live in peace with each other, the Hindus consenting to hear the Muazzin’s call to prayer, and the Muhammadans the sound of the shell, without offence, and thenceforth there has been peace between the followers of the two religions. The tooth-brush stuck in the ground grew up to a nim tree, and an old nim tree is now pointed out as the identical one that grew out of the jogi’s tooth-brush.

SOH.

There is a temple at Soh close to Bihár which is partly built of the materials of an old temple.

PÁWÁPURI.

Páwápuri is a small village close to and about 3 miles north of Giriyak, and is a great place of pilgrimage for the Jains, who have here two temples, one in the middle of the tank and connected with the land by a long causeway, the other in the village. Both of these are of very recent date; the one in the village appears, however, to stand on the site of an old temple. When I first saw it, it had not been quite finished, but it has since been completed. The statues may be ancient. There certainly are some ancient statues here, and I saw several about the temple in the village. These were slightly defective and consequently not worshipped; but I was not allowed to see the ones that are worshipped. (Captain Kittoe has noticed this place in Journal, Asiatic Society, Bengal, for 1847, p. 955.) This is said to have been the place where Mahâvira died. On the banks of the tank in which stands the temple is a round chaubutra with smaller chaubutras rising up in steps in its centre; a pillar occupies the centre of the whole. I could not ascertain what it was meant to represent, and I was not allowed to go up and see for myself. In the map which accompanied Mr. Broadley’s paper in the Journal, Asiatic Society, for 1872, Páwápuri is