The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s9.99

c5.s9.99

Khalatika Parvata—The Barabar hill in the Jahanabad sub-division of the district of Gaya, containing the Satgharā and Nāgārjuni caves of the time of Asoka and his grandson Dasaratha It is about 7 miles east of the Bela station of the Patna Gaya Railway Khalatika is evidently a corruption of Khalatika or Slippery (*Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum*, vol I, p 32) Some of the inscriptions on the cave show that Dasaratha gave certain cave hermitages to the Ājīvakas (a sect of naked ascetics) The Ājīvakas are also mentioned in the seventh pillar edict of Asoka issued in the twenty ninth year of his reign (Buhler's *Indian Sect of the Jainas*, p 39) For a description of the Barabar Hill Caves, see *JASB*, 1847, pp 401 and 594 (Nāgārjuni cave) To the south and near the foot of the hill are the seven rock cut caves called the Sātgharā Out of these seven caves, three are on the Nāgārjuni hill There is also a sacred spring called Pātālagangā Not far from it, is the Kawadol hill (see Silabhadra Monastery)