The Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society (New Series) April 1934

Of these two pillars one stands in the village of Lauriya Nandangarh which is situated in the Bettiah Sub-division of the district of Champaran and lies at a distance of fourteen miles to the north-west of the town of Bettiah. [...] (1) supra I may state that the evolution of the cult of the pillar-godling Laur Baba is most likely to be attributed to the fact that after the fall of Buddhism the Hindus removed from the pages of their Purtiuus all historical accounts of Buddhism that were emboded in them and at the very same time altered all the legends and traditions of the country with the object of effacing all traces [...] Though the Buddha is recognized by the Vaisnvas as the ninth incarnation of Visnu the Hindus did not tolerate his worship or any connected with Buddhism in this country during the early days of the Renaissance."* Another characteristic of the popular religion in Bihar is the worship of natural phenomena. [...] It is characteristic of this caste that they worship or present offerings to the east wind for the purpose of obtaining a copious flow of the toddy wine from the palmyra-palms they have tapped.t * For a fuller discussion of the cult connected with the Asoka-pillars in the district of Champaran see my paper entitled: Studies in the Cults of the District of Champaran in North Bihar which has been [...] What then was the view of the Siltrakar as understood by the people beginning from the Vaigesikas down up to the Pancharatrins whose views Ile attacks I Many modern scholars think that on account of the sketchy and enigmatic wording of the sutras it is very difficult to find out the original intention of the author or to come to any definite conclusion.