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PLACES
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GAURALA.
Gaurala is a small village with 1,119 inhabitants in 1961 in Waroda tahsil situated at a distance of one and a half miles (2.40 km.) south of Bhadravati. To the west are several fine tanks, beyond which is a low hill crowned with the remains of several temples. There are also many detached rocks, several of which have been hollowed out to form sort of caves and niches. The principal temple is called Yauvanasva's palace and the two chief caves are called his little and big fowl houses. Of these the bigger one contains statues of Visnu on the serpent and in his dwarf or Vaman and boar or Varah incarnations, but their small size would argue that they are not the original objects of worship. From the presence of eight socket holes for the reception of statues in a raised platform running round three walls of the cave, Cunningham conjectures that the cave might have been a Buddhist one, and in fayour of this theory he advanced the existence of a draped figure of Buddha which lies at the bottom of the hill, and the fact that the little fowl-house was almost certainly a monk's cell. In the Yauvanasva's temple is an inscription on the left jamb dated in the Samwat year 1166 or 1109 A.D. There is also a small side temple, containing a large statue of Ganes. It lies in a disfigured condition. Traces of several other temples are visible in the vicinity. An old idol of Maruti has been recently housed under a tin shed. Gaurala is not far away from the Bhandak railway station on the Delhi-Madras route and has a primary school. Water supply is obtained from the tanks.
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