BEZWADA CUTTINGS, Vijayawada

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Man-made rock chambers. SITUATION: Somewhere … on the hills overhanging the town on the west (IMPERIAL GAZETTEER 1907-1909, 8: 19). Bezwada [Vijayawada] Town … on the northern bank of the Kistna river [Krishna Ganga] … Attempts have been made to identify it with the place at which the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang [Xuanzang], who visited India in the 7th century A.D., resided for some months in a Buddhist monastery. The foundation for this belief rests on the view that the cuttings on the hills overhanging the town on the west mark the site of the monasteries he mentions. The authorities, however, are not agreed on this point; Dr. Burgess, who examined the spot in 1881, holds that these cuttings are nothing more than old quarries. It is a significent fact that Hiuen Tsiang in his narrative makes no mention of the Kistna, which he could hardly have failed to do had the place he describes been on the site of the modern Bezwada (IMPERIAL GAZETTEER 1907-1909, 8: 19). DESCRIPTION 1882: Bezwra, on the Kistna, at the gorge of the E. Ghats, 20 m. N.E. from Gantoor [Guntur] … is the Dhanakaketa of Hwen T'hsang, with rock-cut temples, the most S. Boodhist remains (SMITH, G 1882: 383).