The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s11.80

c5.s11.80

Makula-Parvata—Kaluhā-pāhāḍ which is about 26 miles to the south of Buddha-Gaya and about sixteen miles to the north of Chatra in the district of Hazaribagh, is evidently a corruption of the name of the Makula Parvata (see Bigandet's Life of Gaudama). Buddha is said to have passed his sixth vassa (or rainy season retirement) on the Makula mountain, which forms the western boundary of a secluded valley on the eastern bank of the Lilajan river, containing a temple of Durgā called Kuleśvarī (Kula and Īśvarī). But the place abounds in Buddhist architectural remains and figures of Buddha. On a plateau just in front of the hill on which Kuleśvarī's temple is situated, and on the eastern side of the ravine which separates the plateau from the hill, there is a temple which contains a broken image of Buddha in the conventional form of meditation. There are also two impressions of Buddha's feet on the top of the highest peak of a hill on the northern side of the valley called the Ākāśalochana, and figures of Buddha carved in the central part of the hill with inscriptions which have become much obliterated by time and exposure. The large bricks found at this place also attest to the antiquity of the place. The letter "Ma" of Makula must have dropped down by lapse of time, and kula was corrupted into Kaluhā. There can be no doubt that the Brahmins appropriated this sacred place of the Buddhists and set up the image of Durgā at a subsequent period after the expulsion of Buddhism [see my article on the Kaluhā Hill in the District of Hazaribagh in JASB., vol. LXX (1901), p. 31], but as Dr. Stein does not approve the above identification (see Indian Antiquary, vol. XXX, p. 90), the Kaluhā-pāhāḍ may be, as is locally known, the Kolāchāla mountain of the Purāṇas.