PURUS AND PRKRITI BRAHMYONi HILL

Brahmyoni Hill derived from a small natural fissure

Satyendra kumar pathak 

The brahmyoni hill is the highest and lies in the south of the Gaya town. Most of the hill in the vicinity of Gaya have temple and a religious sanctity .Som of them are beauty spots Brahmyoni 793 feet heighest hill , katari hill 454 feet , khajuriya, kapil dhara, bhashmakut, mudali , govchhava hill , Ramshila hill 715 feet , pretshila 873 feet Gaya , Barabar Hill 1023 feet jehanabad district , shringirishi pahad 1850  feet Nawada district and kauwadol pahad 500 feet height Gaya district  etc . Gaya has natural boundaries. it is bounced on the north by the murali hill and Ramshila hill on sauth by the Brahmyoni hill ,on the east by the falgu River and the West by open country broken by the ridge know as the katari hill . The eastern portion stretches along a rocky ridge between the Brahm yoni hill. The Brahmyoni hill is the highest and lies in the south of the Gaya town . The word Brahmyoni contains two word Brahma and Yoni , that is the female energy of Brahma . According to Hindu mythology the Purush and prakriti are the courses of the universe. The name Brahmyoni is derived from a small natural fissure in the rocks at the top of the Brahmino hill through which a person can just manage the crawel , suggesting that by crawling through it the pilgrim escape rebirth . On the top of  the hill is a small temple containing a statue said to be representation of Brahma through it properly belongs to shiva as the figure has five and not four heads as in regular statue of Brahma.This figure is placed on an old pedestal which is said tohave been inscribed with a verse recording the erection of the state in 1633 and on the left there is a small figure with a horse on the pedestal which General Cunningham belived to be most probably a statue of sambhavanath. The third of the 24 jain tirthankar bhagavan mahaveer  , whose symbol is a horse. 

The Brahmayoni hill rises almost precipitously Frome the plain to the height of 450 feet . The ascent most commonly used is to the south - east where there is long flight of stone steps erected about 100 years ago for the convenience of Pilgrim by the Maharatta Deva Rao Bhao sahib. To the right of this path over looking the gorge which separates the Central peak from its northern flank is a gigantic rock.which presents a remarkablance to the head of a man with a wig .The adjoining rifts are serpentine , crooked and at places peaked giving us mounted scenes hanging gardens and patches of small bushes and trees. The people of Gaya flock to Brahmyoni and it's adjacent springs and Brooks to enjoy the day .Gaya is one of the great places of pilgrimage in India and has special sanctity in the eyes of the Hindus.

Historical place Umaga and Konch

Historical place Umga hill and Sun Temple

Satyendra kumar pathak

Umaga hill in the sauth _ east of the Aurangabad district situated 8 miles east of Deo and close to Madanpur block . Umaga village which is also called Munga and Umga , Umaga hill  was originally the seat of the Deo Raj  for it was here as mentioned in the Deo Raj ,that it's founder came to the rescue of the local ruling family. After making himself master of the hill fort and subduing it's rebellion subjects he married the widow of the local chieftain Raja Bhairavendra ,and his descendants remained here for 150 years before leaving the place for Deo . The chief object of interest at the present time is an ancient stone temple picturesquely situated on the western slope of the Umaga hill and overlooking the country for many miles. The height of the sun temple is about 60 feet and it is built entirely of square granite block with out coment , while the column supporting the roof are massive monoliths . A remarkable features of the temple is the presence of some Arabic inscriptions over the entrance doorway on the face of the pillers and on the jambs of the doorway, the latter being limited to the name of Allah.They were engraved by the Mohammadans ,who once used the shrine as a mosque and to their presence may be attributed its preservation from the destructive hands of Musalman fanatics. They are now much defaced som of the letter having been deliberately chiselled off by later Hindu devotees. Outside the Temple a large slab of dark blue chlorite record the dedication of the sun temple by Raja Bhairavendra in 1439 A.D. to jagannath his brother Balabhadr and his sister subhadra. This inscription mentions that the city of Umaga flourished on the top of a high mountain under the rule of 12 of his ancestors , who probably ruled over an extensive tract of country. Captain kutto states that an inscription found on a stone in the Umaga hills of surguja mentions a Raja pahchan dev , who fell in Battle against some Umaga hill chief he had gone to attack and identifies him with lakshman pal . The third of the line. Near fatehpur som 45 miles to the east there is an 0ld Temple of God shiv ling call siddheshwar Mahadev , with an ancient tank and rruns close by and there is another shrine of the same name in sandhail about 4 miles north _ west of Umga. There is every probability that these shrines were erected by the sixth of the line Raja sandh pal. Besides this the ancient kocheshvar shiv temple of konch Gaya 30 miles to the north - east , which closely resembles that at Umga, is attributed to Raja Bhairavendra. It would seem therefore that the domination of thes chief extended over a large area in Gaya  Bihar and Hajaribag jharkhand state.The descendant of Janardan a pando of the court of raja Bhairvendra , who is mentioned as the composer of the inscription lived in purnadih a hamlet of Umga. To the south of the tample there is a large old tank with a flight of stone step on the north and sauth of which part of the old fort is still standing. Higher up the Umga hill are the ruins of another Temple in the same style as that already mentioned and closed by is a curious little altar with a huge Boulder along side of it under which goats and other animals are still sacrifice . Numerous other ruins of shrines are scattered over the Umga hills and according to legend there were 52 temples there at one time. ( Captain kittoe in journal of the Asiatic society of Bengal part 11 vol . XVI , 1847 and The Umga Hill inscriptions  by babu parmeshvar dayal journal of the Asiatic society of Bengal vol . II no. 3 ,1906 ) . 

Koch has now be came the headquarters of koch block district Gaya .It is 4 miles west of Tokari in the headquarters subdivision containing an ancient brick temple.The tample which now Constances a kocheshwar shiv lingam is lighted by a tali opening in front formed by overlapping courses of breaks after the fassion of the original great tample of bodh gaya. Externally how ever ,it differs from that temple in having its sides curved instead of being in straight lines from top to bottom and in having no external niches with figures enshrined in them . It originally had a flats roofed pillared holl in front but  this has now fallen in and the stone pullers supporting its are lying in front of the temple.Inside the shrine the most remarkable piece of sculpture is a slab representing the Avataras of vishnu which differs from 0ther such representation by dividing the Vaman Avatar ,in ti two scenes by living out the ninth or buddha Avatar and by representing bhagavan vishnu in his tenth Kalki Awatar in the company of a female daity with a small houre standing in front of them.The General Cunningham was of opinion that the date of this tample should be asribed to the 8 century A.D.  but as tradition point to Raja Bhairwendra  . Who lived about 1450 A.D. As its builder and as it closely resembles in style the temple at Deo  and Umga which date back to his time. it has been  held that the date ascribed to the Konch temple should be put forward some 7 centuries.Konch also contains a large number of other statues . Buddistic images and remains of minner temple . The row in which these figures have been carved contains a number of sculptured Hindu deities and is a striking example of the fusion of Brahmanism in the period 800 to 1200 A.D.  to which these carvings belong. ( Please see the Archaeological survey of Bengal circle and Archaeological survey of  India vol.VIII ,vol. XVI 1901 - 02 ) .