"PALIT’HANA – NOVEMBER 17th –…never did pilgrim, Jain or Buddhist, approach the sacred Mount Satrunja with more excited feelings than I, a “barbarian” Frank. I had, however, allowed imagination to outstrip experience, having no right to look for grand discoveries in the lands over which Mahomed [Mahmud of Ghazni] and Alla [Alauddin Khalji] had led their legions, fulfilling the iconoclastic injunctions of Moses, conveyed through the Prophet of Islam…however extensive their demolition of religious edifices, it was beyond the power of these conquerors to destroy the memorials of a sect which, more than any other, depended on tradition for the perpetuity of their tenets. Palit’hana, ‘the dwelling of the Palli,’ is situated at the eastern base of Satrunja, the mount sacred to Adnath (the first of the twenty-four hierophants of the Jains), which rises nearly two thousand feet, and is between two and three miles in ascent, taking the sinuosities of the route into account. My researches in this interesting spot were materially aided by an introduction through my own Yuti to some learned priests, now here on a pilgrimage, who gave me much information on points connected with their religion, as well as details concerning the teerut, from the Satrunja Mahatma, a portion of which work they had with them… Satrunja is one of the Panj-teer’thas, or five places of pilgrimage of the Jains. Of these, three, viz. Arbudha, Satrunja, and Girnar, are at hand. The fourth, Samel-sikra, is in the ancient kingdom of Magadha, now Behar, and the fifth, Chandragir, the Silver Mount, also called Shescuta, or the ‘thousand-pinnacled,’ lies amidst the snowy regions of the Hindu Kho, or Parbut-put-pamer, the Caucasus and Paropamisus of the Greeks… We have no evidence that Mahmoud of Ghizni visited the sacred mounts of the Jains, but it is well attested, that the fury of the “sanguinary Alla” made all sects conceal their gods under-ground, for those they did not hide he destroyed. Many have since been brought to light, but comparatively few of the sculptures of ancient times are now existing. In like manner, the temples suffered, those only escaping which were converted into mosques. The consequence is, that in the Chaok of Adnat’h, although you cannot look around without beholding every where vestiges of antiquity, no entire edifice appears to claim this distinction, as they are for the most part incongruous structures, raised from dilapidated remnants, so that Komarpal’s own temple, from continual deterioration and repair, does not bear any greater signs of antiquity than that recently erected by the wealthy banker…"