Barabar Hills
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Barabar Hills
Hills on the northern boundary of the head-quarters subdivision of Gaya District, Bengal, lying between 25 o' and 25 3" N. and 85 i' and 85 5' E., 6 to 8 miles east of the Bela railway station on the Patna-Gaya branch of the East Indian Railway. The range contains many remarkable antiquarian remains. On the highest peak (Barabar) is an ancient temple sacred to Sidheswara, containing a lingam said to have been placed there by Bana Raja, the Asura king of Kamariipa, whose bloody wars with Krishna still live in the remem- brance of the people. A large fair, attended on an average by 15,000 persons, chiefly men, is held here in the month of Bhadra (September).
The pilgrims begin to arrive at daybreak, and spend the day on the hill ; the night is devoted to the worship of the image, and in the morning the crowd begins to disperse. To the south and near the base of this hill, the path up which is freely adorned with images of all kinds, lies a small recess enclosed on two sides by the mountain, on the third by an artificial barrier of stone, and on the fourth by a long low ridge of granite. Here in the solid rock have been cut the remarkable caves from which, it has been held, the glen derives its name of Satghar (' seven houses '). The four caves found in this part of the mountain average 32 feet by 14 feet ; three of them are chiselled to a wonderful polish, but the fourth was never finished.
Inscriptions show that the oldest was cut in 252 B.C., and the others within the next thirty-six years ; these are on another spur of the hill called Nagarjoni. Not far off is the sacred spring of Patalganga, and at the base of the rugged peak of Kowadol ('crow's rocking stone') is an enormous figure of Buddha. The Kowadol peak is identified as the site of the ancient Buddhist monastery of Silabhadra visited by Hiuen Tsiang. Many other figures and sculptures are found among these hills, which have been fully described by Buchanan-Hamilton and General Cunningham. In the Bengal Atlas of Major Rennell, this cluster is called the Currum- shaw hills; this name is a corruption of Karna-champar or 'Kama's seat,' the name of an ancient ruin on the hill.
