VISHVANTARA, Mekha Sanda (Cave of)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A troglodyte but otherwise unspecified 'cave' reports LONELY PLANET (1993 ed. KING & St. VINCENT: 261) from the vicinity of Shahbazgarhi (note 1), a small town 13 km along the road approximately east of Mardan (note 2): On a hill called Mekha Sanda, about one km north [north-west?] of the village on the road to Rustam [note 3], are the ruins of a stupa and monastery… a thorny track to the right climbs for half an hour to the site just below the summit… On the far side of a rise just north of this is a cave where Visvantara [Vishvantara] –and, in more recent times, bandits [thugs?]– are said to have lived.A troglodyte but otherwise unspecified 'cave' reports LONELY PLANET (1993 ed. KING & St. VINCENT: 261) from the vicinity of Shahbazgarhi (note 1), a small town 13 km along the road approximately east of Mardan (note 2): On a hill called Mekha Sanda, about one km north [north-west?] of the village on the road to Rustam [note 3], are the ruins of a stupa and monastery… a thorny track to the right climbs for half an hour to the site just below the summit… On the far side of a rise just north of this is a cave where Visvantara [Vishvantara] –and, in more recent times, bandits [thugs?]– are said to have lived.