The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c8.s9.6

c8.s9.6

On the eastern frontier of the kingdom there was a great mountain with ridges rising one over another, and scarped crests. In former days the Arhat Achâra had built a monastery, with rooms excavated in the rock, and a front of two storeys in height facing a "sombre" valley. The *Vihâr* attached to it was 100 feet in height; and in the midst of the monastery there was a stone statue of Buddha about 70 feet high, which was surmounted by seven stone caps suspended in the air without any apparent support. The walls of the *Vihâr* were divided all round into panels in which were sculptured with minute detail all the great events of Buddha’s life. Outside the north and south gates of the monastery there were stone elephants, both on the right-hand and on the left, which according to the belief of the people occasionally roared so loudly as to make the earth quake. The description of the hill is too vague to be of much use in identifying its position; but if the easterly bearing is correct, the hill of *Ajayanti* is most probably the place intended, as its bluff ridges appear to answer better to the pilgrim’s account than the smoother slopes of Elura. But with the exception of the stone elephants, the account is too vague to enable us to identify the place with any certainty. There are two stone elephants outside the Kailâs excavation at Elura, but that is a Brahmanical temple, and not a Buddhist *vihâr*. There is also an elephant close to the *Indra-sabha* at Elura, but the animal is inside the courtyard, instead of outside the gate as described by the pilgrim. Scenes from Buddha’s life formed the common subjects of Buddhist sculpture, and would therefore offer no special assistance towards the identification of the monastery. But though the pilgrim’s account is vague, it is so minute as to the positions of the elephants and the arrangement of the sculptures that I am inclined to think he must have seen the place himself. In this case I would read “western” frontier of the kingdom, and identify his cave monastery with the well-known excavations of Kânhari in the island of Salsette. Indeed, if I am correct in the identification of Kalyâni as the capital of Mahârâshtra in the seventh century, it is almost certain that the pilgrim must have visited the Buddhist establishments at *Kânhari*, which are not more than 25 miles distant from Kalyâni. The numerous inscriptions at Kânhari show that some of its excavations must date as early as the first century before Christ, and the bulk of them during the first and second centuries after Christ. One of the inscriptions is dated in the year 30 of the *Sakádityakál*, or A.D. 108. No remains of stone elephants have yet been found at *Kânhari*, but as the structural *façades* in front of the excavated *vihárs* have all fallen down, some elephant torsos may yet be discovered amongst the ruins along the foot of the scarped rock. Mr. E. West has already disinterred the remains of a stone stupa with all its sculptured friezes from amongst these ruins, and further research will no doubt bring to light many other interesting remains.