A PILGRIM'S DIARY 37

chaitya-like building covering a spring. The archi-
tectural form, and the fact that on the lintel of the
door is a medallion containing Ganesh, would go to
show that this is more ancient than the shrines near
it, and perhaps belonged to the Birbhadra centre,
before the Vaishnava movement of Ramanuja caused
the building of a Lakshmi-Narayana temple here.
The chaitya form cannot fail to suggest the Buddhist
period. Bhethu Chatty is part and parcel of some
chapter in history, which if it could be unravelled,
would tell us much about a series of religious transi-
tions through which the Himalayan peoples have
passed, beginning with Buddhism, and ending with
Vaishnavism. The centre of which it forms a part
may be said to extend from Gupta Kashi on the
south, to Bhethu Chatty on the north and even to
include Akhi Math on the opposite side of the
Valley. This whole region has been the theatre of
much religious and monastic history.

FATTA CHATTY, where we next passed the night,
was only seven miles in all from Gupta Kashi. It
was a very lovely place, with large mud and timber-
built houses, a stream with a mill-wheel, and one
immense deodar. This is perhaps the place to speak
of the architectural beauty of the chatties. The
room we occupied at Fatta Chatty that night was
the most perfectly proportioned chamber I have
ever inhabited. It was large and low, with great
beams of wood, open verandah-like windows with
wide seats, and mud-floor. The social dignity, and