Along the fields, and by the road-side, between Jétis and Mágelan, are seen in ditches or elsewhere many beautiful remains of sculpture, and among them many yonis and lin-gams, where they seem not only to be entirely disregarded by the natives, but thrown on one side as if in the way.
Thee following is the account given by Dr. Horsfield of the ruins found in the Eastern Provinces of the native princes, in the year 1815.
KEDÍRI, &c.
In the districts of Jagarága, Charúban, Ráwa, Kalángbret, Trengáli, Pranarága, and Magetán, these antiquities are dispersed solitary at occasional points, and consist principally of images or réchas. The remains of buildings, and of towns and cities, generally distinguished by the name of Kóta-bedáh, are also noticed; but Mádion, Kértasána, Kedíri, and Sreng'át, contain very important and interesting antiquities.
In regarding them, the vicinity of the former capital of the princes of the house of Majapáhit strikingly offers itself for consideration; and a traveller perceives them to increase in number, as he proceeds from the western to the eastern districts.
Commencing my notices from the westward, I have to point out in Mádion four monuments, or stones covered with inscriptions: these, with several pedestals and other remains of ancient buildings, have been collected and employed at Mauspáti, the capital of Mádion, lately established by Ráden Ráng'ga, the well known rebel of the Yúgya-kerta court. On the largest of these monuments the characters of the inscription are still in a great degree distinguishable, and these I have carefully taken off; on the others, which are smaller, the characters, although completely perceivable, are too much obliterated by the decomposition and decay of the substance of the stone to afford a copy. Besides these inscriptions; remains of buildings, pedestals, and réchas of different sizes, have also been collected from various parts of this province, and employed to decorate a well and bath near the capital. After a considerable interruption, which contains no remains at present, I discovered, in a direction almost due east from Mauspáti, in the district of Anjóg, a monument with an inscription, in a more perfect state. In form this, as well as the others, resembles the common tomb-stones of our burial grounds, exceeding them only in size: its dimensions have been carefully taken. Four sides are covered with characters; two of these were in a state sufficiently preserved to be copied with only occasional deficiencies. This stone was placed near a chándi, of which the ruins only remain. It was two stories high, built of elegant bricks, according to the usual plan and distribution. In size, it nearly agrees with that of Jábung, near Probolíngo. It is obvious, that both the dimensions and the general plan of the numerous chándis found in these eastern districts, built of these materials, are similar; at least they do not exhibit that variety, both in size and distribution, that is observed among the larger edifices built of stone.
Anjóg is connected in the east to Kértasána. In this province I found two monuments covered with inscriptions, a kótah bedáh, or destroyed capital, and various réchas. The district of Brébeg has lately been separated from Kértasána. The newly-appointed Tumúng'gung, in clearing and levelling the ground for a dwelling and for a new capital, on the site of the village Brébeg, discovered, by following the indication of water oozing from the surface, in a slight concavity covered by a wild vegetation, the remains of a bath, constructed with neatness, and not without taste and art. The principal excavation, which appears to have been employed as a bath, is oblong, and about ten feet in length. Six small outlets or fountains pour the water into it, which was conducted from a rivulet flowing at some distance, by small canals cut of stone, but bedded in a foundation of brick. The fountains discharging the water are covered with sculpture in relief, tolerably executed: one of these is a female figure pouring small streams from the breasts. Adjoining to this bath are several other reservoirs of water, included in the same square, and receiving the supply by the same channels. Every thing is constructed massy of regular and elegant bricks. The present Tumúng'gung has collected, near this bath, many réchas and other antiquities from various parts of the district: among these was found one small inscription. Towards the foot of mount Wílis, in a southern direction from Brébeg, I visited, at the village Ng'etos, a chándi constructed of brick, and still entire, with only partial dilapidation of the ornamental parts. It is on the whole very similar to the appearance exhibited by the remains of the chándi at Anjóg, and to the others constructed of bricks in the eastern districts above mentioned. Near this is a smaller chándi, of the same construction, in ruins, with various other remains of antiquity.
The environs of the capital of Kediri abound with antiquities of every kind; but it is evident that here, more than at other places, great expense and labour has been bestowed to demolish the buildings and to mutilate the images. In all parts of the site of the present capital I noticed fragments covered with sculpture in relief, broken réchas, and regularly chiselled oblong stones, of that kind which was employed in the construction of the chándis, besides very extensive foundations, in brick, of walls, buildings, &c. I am further led to suppose, from the regularity and elegance of the materials employed, that a Mahomedan temple and grave have been constructed almost entirely from an ancient building demolished for the purpose, at the period of the introduction of the Mahomedan religion. This temple is called Astána Gedóng, but none of the present inhabitants can give any information as to the period of its construction. As it is of Mahomedan origin I took only a very slight view of it, to avoid the disagreeable gesticulations which the natives always exhibited on the approach of one of their sanctuaries; and it is a very comfortable circumstance that a traveller is freely permitted to examine undisturbed, all those antiquities which are unequivocally derived from a period preceding the introduction of Mahomedanism, or from what the natives call "wong kúna, kapir, or buda."
I shall shortly enumerate the principal antiquities of Kedíri which I visited, and only mention the names of those villages where the greatest number of réchas are dispersed. These are Pápar, Kebo-gádung, Gadúngan and Págot.
The cave of Séla-mángleng is situated about two miles in a western direction from the capital, at the foot of the hill Klótok, an appendage to the large mountain of Wílis: it consists of four small apartments cut into the solid rock composing the hill, on a very gentle eminence. The apartments are adjoining to each other, forming a regular series, which stretches from north to south. The two middle apartments, which are the largest, have each an entrance from without, while those at the extremity communicate by an interior door, each with the apartment next to it. They differ but little in size. Their form is square or oblong; the largest is less than twenty feet in length. The walls of the two principal apartments are covered with sculpture, and various platforms and projections indicate the places of devotion or penance. Several réchas now arranged in the avenue leading to the cave, as well as the sculpture covering the walls of the apartments within, are handsomely worked; but the external sculpture of the rock is coarse, and the steps by which one ascends, which are cut out of the same general mass of rock, appear to have been made intentionally rude. Several niches for réchas, lamps, &c. are cut in various parts of the walls; a lingam, several reservoirs of water, and other figures are arranged on the vestibule. Of an inscription on the external rock, one regular line, stretching from the door of the outer apartments to the northern extremity of the rock, is still discernible, but many of the characters are probably too much effaced to afford an explanation.