GIRNAR, in lat. 21° 30' N., long. 70° 42' E., a hill 3500 feet high, near Junagarh in Kattyawar, and 40 miles to the north of Somnath. The Jaina religionists regard it as sacred, only second in iniportance to Palitana, and it is also reverenced by Hindus. Of the holy objects on and near it may be mentioned, a rock at the foot of the hill out side the town, and which is covered with a set of Asoka's inscriptions, 250 B.c. Another inscription (150 A.D.) relates how the local ruler, Rudra Dama, defeated the king of the Dekhan ; while a third (457 A.D.) records the bursting of the embank ment of the Sudarsana tank, and the rebuilding of a bridge which was destroyed by the flood. The principal group of temples at Girnar is situ ated on a ledge, about 600 feet from the summit, and nearly 3000 feet above the level of the sea. The largest, and possibly the oldest of these, is that of Neminath. About 2700 feet above the sea, and 2500 above Junagarh, are a series of Jain temples on a ledge of the mountain. In a small underground chamber is the Jaina statue of Arni jhara, or perspiring idol. The meaning of this is unknown, but it is supposed to be Amrit-jhara, or nectar-drop. On the highest peak at Kalika is Amba Mata, the dread mother, the universal mother, called also - Sri Mata Ambika. The famous Bhairava J'hap, or death-leap, is near the Jain temples. It is a huge rock that rises on the edge of the ledge, and slightly overhangs the great precipice. The leap has been forbidden, though
even now it is occasionally taken. The peak of Gorukha Natha rises about 3500 feet above the sea, and Datatrya peak is almost the same height ; it is sacred to Neminath, whose first coavert was king Datatri. There are many ascetic devotees, and in the jungles below there were said to be some of the Aghora. The Jain temples on Girnar Hill are very elaborate and beautiful, much in the usual style of Hindu architecture. The most striking charac teristics of their interiors are their fine te,sselated marble pavements, their painted domes, their exquisitely shaped and carved pillars,—sometimes of granite and green syenite, — their antique porticoes, beautiful small sculptures and colossal statues. The central dome of the temple to Nerninath is curiously painted, and surrounded by female fig,ures. It has beautiful marble pillars composed of alternate black and white marble. GIRONNIERA RETICULATA, Thw., Koditani, TAM., a large and valuable timber tree found in the Peninsula in the ghat forests, up to 3000 feet elevation, from S. Canara down to Travancore and Tinnevelly, also in Ceylon. The wood is very hard and heavy, and is a valuable engineering timber.—Beddome, FL.Sylv. g. 313.