After that, causing
the rock to be moved at His command, the Tathagata made it divide itself
into a seventh additional chamber, remarking that a rock too was
septenary, and had seven stages of development. From that time it was
called the Sattapanni or the Saptaparna cave. After the first Synod was
held, seven gold statues of the Bhagavat were cast by order of the king,
and each of them was placed in one of the seven compartments." These in
after times, when the good law had to make room to more congenial
because more sensual creeds, were taken in charge by various Viharas and
then disposed of as explained. Thus when Mr. Turnour states on the
authority of the sacred traditions of Southern Buddhists that the cave
received its name from the Sattapanni plant, he states what is correct.
In the "Archeological Survey of India," we find that Gen. Cunningham
identifies this cave with one not far away from it and in the same
Baihbar range, but which is most decidedly not our Saptaparna cave. At
the same time the Chief Engineer of Buddha Gaya, Mr.
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