Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Kherhi
KHERHI.
The hill at Kherhi, 10 miles south-west of Bhagalpur, contains numerous remains; these are to be found both on the hill and in the village below; in the latter, all that now remains are brickbats and low mounds. I saw three of these, but found nothing of interest; perhaps excavation will yield interesting remains. Numerous low mounds also occur at the foot of the hill, along the northern foot of which an old road appears once to have existed; there are also numerous low mounds further west; over most of these the plough has been driven for a long time, and their artificial character is inferred solely from the numerous fragments of brick which have been, and still are, constantly being turned up by the plough.
The principal existing object of interest is, however, the fort on the hill. This is an irregular enclosure, of rough large blocks of stone laid on each other without cement, occupying the whole of the tolerably level top of the eastmost hill, which, though only one of a long series of hills, is quite isolated, being connected with the western range by a low pass. The hill is saddle-backed, the highest portion being an elevated piece of table-land at the extreme west end; this portion was formed into a citadel opening into the fort by one gate and steps, and having a small postern opening outwards, but without any paved approach to it. The outer fort had two gates, each reached by a long, easy, paved approach; the easiest and largest is in about the middle of the south long wall; the other leads down from the peak at the east end; in both these ascents, as well as on numerous stones within the fort, and on the steps or paved approach leading from the fort to the citadel, are numerous detached inscriptions of one or two words, and almost all in the shell characters; some of these are evidently derived from the old Gupta characters, as the disguise of flourish is not in all cases sufficient to mask the characters. I found twenty-two of these curious detached records, among which one was clearly in old Gupta characters curiously flourished: in one of the inscriptions the word Dharmma occurs, but the mere occurrence of the single word Dharmma is not enough to justify its being considered Buddhist. The other remains on the hill consist of a remarkably large and fine well, very deep, built of brick, and evidently very old, a smaller one similar to it, and several lingams, both in the fort and in the citadel: there are no traces of any Buddhist statues or other Buddhist remains. The temples that enshrined the lingams were of stone and of brick, and have long ago disappeared entirely.
There are remains of extensive buildings in the citadel; but what they were it is impossible now to tell without extensive excavations; one was most probably a large Saivic temple.
Below the hill, near the pass to the west, is a stone known as Vagheswari Sthan; the stone is a large black slab; it is inscribed, the inscription consisting of four lines in mediæval characters; it opens with Swaste Pratâpa Râmânuya; the mention of Râmânuj fixes a superior limit to its age.