PATALA GANGA, Kalinjar

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 01/05/2016

A »large cavern full of water« (about 12 m by 7 m wide) is accessible by an elaborately modified staircase (keyword: stepwell) excavated along a natural fissure close to the face of the cliff of –>Kalinjar Fort (N24°59'50”: E080°28'50” WGS84), situated at an elevation of about 40 or 50 feet below the top of the hill. MAISEY (1848: 179-181, notes 28-34): »Beyond Sitakund [–>Sitakund] the rampart for a few yards is broken, and you ascend the hill a little in order to past round the gap, immediately on the other side of which is the mouth of the curious descent to Patal Ganga.« Irregular steps wind down abruptly from under a large mass of rocks which abut on the rampart. The almost perpendicular descent along a natural cleft carries marks of the chisel throughout and is situated very close to the face of the rock. About half way down there are two gaps through which a view is obtained of the bottom of the hill and the distant plain. A coarsely executed male figure executed in alto-relievo, resting on a staff, standing on on stools, attended by a cow. »About 30 steps below this [figure] is another aperture in the screen of the rock left by the excavation; it is very small being only large enough to admit the passage of the body --I let myself down to ascertain whether there were any traces of the cave from the outside; however I could discover none. From the level of this opening a descent of 11 or 12 steps leads to the level of the water which is about three feet from the roof. In order to see the nature of the cavern, I had chiraghs lighted and floated to the further end. The roof of the cave is rough, as is also as much of the bottom as is visible from the steps. The Brahmans would not wade far into it, as they said it is very deep in the centre. […] the cave is about 40 feet by 20 or 25; the roof is entirely unsupported, which makes me think that it is a natural cavity, very little if at all enlarged by art, for it is not possible that any workman would have left nearly 1000 square feet [93 square metres] of rock unsupported by pillars. The water appears to be constantly dripping and trickling from the roof and sides (… the structure of the hill is loose strata, and … water from the numerous tanks above percolates all over it and finds the nearest vents). There is a glimmering light from the left which comes through crevices between the horizontal strata of the rock, which are not traceable from the outside.«