On an initial look, I felt that the sculptures appeared more plastic than those at Patharghata (referred in the article on Vikramshila6), and thus felt that they could be from the early Gupta period, considering an increase in elasticity and better depiction of emotions on stone with the passage of time. Later, however, I discovered that most scholars too had initially ascribed all the sculptures to the Gupta period; but later dated some to the Gupta period and others to the post Gupta period, with only the Sheshashayi and Varaha Vishnu together with another few small figures in the rock, being assigned an early attribution7. In such case, it may not appear surprising as to why the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims Fa Hian and Hieun Tsang failed to mention this prominent site, which, however, still remains so due to presence of the large but again unmentioned Buddhist monastery in the vicinity and thus the reason for skipping the site could have been since this was almost an exclusive Hindu monument, which thus may have received their scant attention. The numerous sculptures include only two representations of the Buddha, of which, according to Cunningham, one may represent the Buddha incarnation of Vishnu. 

To be continued...