MARCH 1, 1872.]
GEOGRAPHY OF MAGADHA.
counter the dangers of the road. Now, the soli tary traveller is so confident of legal protection, that, rather than drive his cart up the steep ascent
69
great Bathan. The prevalent trees are the pilu, ber, chhonkar, kadamb, pasendu, papri, and other
species of the fig tribe, which are always inter mingled with clumps of Karil, the special pro duct of Braj, with its leaf-less evergreen twigs
that conducts to the portals of the fortified
enclosure, he prefers to spend the night unguard ed on the open plain. Hence it comes that not one of the saràis is now applied to the precise purpose for which it was constructed. At
and bright-coloured flower and fruit. Somewhat
less common are the arni, hingot, aján, rukh, gondi, barna and dho; though the last named, the Sanskrit dhava, clothes the whole of the hill
Chh it ā one corner is occupied by a school, and another by the offices of the Tahsildar and local police, while the rest of the broad area is nearly deserted ; at Ch a u m u ha, the solid
side at B a r s an a. In the month of B had on
these woods are the scene of a series of melas, where the ris-lila is celebrated in
comme
walls have in past years been undermined and carted away for building materials ; and at Kosi, the whole area is occupied with streets and bazars forming the nucleus of the town. Till the close of the 16th century, except in the neighbourhood of the one great thorough fare, the country was unreclaimed wood-land,
very numerous in some of the villages, who are
with only here and there a scattered hamlet.
ponds, wells, hills and temples, which have all
moration of Krishna's sports with the Gopis ; and the arrangement of these dances forms the recognised occupation of a class of Brahmans called R is dh ár is, and have no other pro fession or means of livelihood.
The number of sacred places, woods, groves,
The tanks and temples which now mark the various legendary sites were either constructed by Rüp Rām of Barsāna, about the year 1740, or are of still more recent date. Many of the sacred groves however, though occasionally dis
to be visited in the course of the annual per ambulation, is very considerable; but the twelve
bans or woods and twenty-four groves or upa bans are the characteristic feature of the pil grimage, which is thence called the Banjätra.
figured by the too close proximity of the village,
Further notice of this popular devotion must be reserved till our next chapter. (To be continued.)
are pleasant and picturesque spots; one of the
host striking being the Kokila-b an at
0N THE IDENTIFICATION OF WARIOUS PLACES IN THE KING DOM OF MAGADHA VISITED BY THE PILGRIM CHI-FAH-HIAN. By A. M. BROADLEY, B.C.S., BIHAR.
(Cotinued from page 21.) PART II.
“LEAVING the south side of the city and pro ceeding southwards four li, we enter a valley between five hills.
These hills encircle it com
Pletely like the walls of a town. This is the site
t
place of Makhdum Sharif-ud-din, one of the greatest saints amongst the faithful in Hin dustän.
These five hills are by no means solitary :
of the old city of king Bimbisara.” This valley they form a portion of a rocky mountain chain is clearly identical with the narrow tract of country surrounded by the five mountains of Rajgir, alittle less than a mile due south of the
stretching nearly thirty miles from the neigh bourhood of Gayå, north-west as far as Giryak in Bihār. Their sides are rugged and precipitous,
fortifications previously described. This spot is and are mostly covered with an impenetrable of the greatest archaeological interest. Here once jangal, broken only by irregular pathways over stood, according to tradition, the impregnable
grown with brushwood, which are yearly trodden
fortress of Jarāsandha, outside whose walls was
by hundreds of Jaina pilgrims from Murshidābād,
fought the celebrated battle of the Mahābhārata;
Banāres, and even Bombay, who throng to
centuries later the valley was the scene of many
Rajgir during the cold and dry seasons to do homage to the sacred charanas or ‘foot-prints'
of the episodes in the life of the Tathâgata; and lastly—during the palmiest days of Muhammadan rule in Bihăr—its solitudes became the abiding
of their saints enshrined in the temples which crown the mountain tops.
- Beal's Fah Hian, Chapter xxviii. p. 112.
