The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s5.54.3

c5.s5.54.3

The indentations and cavities peculiar to such formations are supposed to be the marks left by the wrestlers. Southwards near Udaya-giri, the road is formed by the bare rock in which occur many short inscriptions in the shell pattern [JASB, (1847) p. 559]. Traditionally the princes were confined by Jarāsindhu at the foot of the Sona-giri. Six miles from Rājgir is situated the Giriyak hill containing the celebrated tower called Jarāsindhu-kā-Baiṭhak formerly called the Haṃsa stūpa (see Indrasilā-guhā). The Pañchāna river flows by the side of this hill. Bhīma, Arjuna, and Kṛṣṇa crossed the Pañchāna river and entered Jarāsindhu's town in disguise by scaling the Giriyak hill, a spur of the Bipula or Chaityaka range (Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. V, p. 85). There is, however, a pair of foot-prints within a small temple on the slope of the Baibhāra hill on its northern side which are pointed out as the foot-prints of Kṛṣṇa, and are said to have been left by him when he entered Rājgir. They reconnoitred the town from Goratha hill, which is now called the Bāṭhānī-kā-Pahāḍ, appearing from a distance to have three peaks, five or six miles to the west of Rājgir and north of Sandol Pahāḍ, a hill larger than the Bāṭhānī hill (Mbh., Sabhā P., ch. 20). At the foot of the Baibhāra hill on the north and at a short distance from the northern gate, there are seven Kuṇḍas or hot springs called Vyāsa, Mārkaṇḍa, Sapta-Ṛiṣi or Saptadhāra, Brahma, Kaśyapa-ṛiṣi, Gaṅgā-Yamunā, and Ananta.