COLUMNS OF TEMPLES AT CHANDRAVATI.
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Gāgraun.
Gāgraun, Chhāoni.
We passed over the ridge at the extremity of the town, and descended into another Antri, up which we journeyed nearly due west until we reached our camp at Narayanpur. The valley was from four to six hundred yards in breadth, and in the highest state of cultivation; to preserve which, and at the same time to secure the game, the regent, at an immense expense, has cut deep trenches at the skirt of the hills on each [738] side, over which neither deer nor hog can pass, while the forests that crown the hills to their summit are almost impervious even to wild beasts. We passed various small cantonments, where the regent could collect the best part of his army, some even on the summit of the ridge. At all of these are wells, and reservoirs termed po.
Mukunddarra Pass, December 14, ten miles.—At daybreak, commenced our march up the valley, and midway between Narayanpur and the Darra, reached the ruined castle of Ghati, so called from its being erected on the summit of the ridge commanding an outlet of the valley. Partly from the gradual ascent of the valley, and from the depression of the ridge, we formed rather a mean opinion of the pass (ghati); but this feeling was soon lost when we attained the crest, and found ourselves on a scarped rock of some hundred feet in elevation, commanding a view over all the plains of Malwa, while at our feet was a continuation of the Antri of the Amjar, which we observed gliding through the deep woods the regent has allowed to remain at the entrances of these valleys.
Tradition is eloquent on the deeds of the ‘Lords of the Pass,’ both of the Khichi and Hara, and they point out the impression of Mehraj Khichi’s charger, as he sprang upon the Islamite invaders. There are many cenotaphs to the memory of the slain, and several small shrines to Siva and his consort, in one of which I found an inscription not only recording the name of Mehraj, but the curious fact that four generations were present at the consecration of one to Siva. It ran thus: “In S. 1657 and Saka 1522, in that particular year called Somya, the sun in the south, the season of cold, in the happy month Asoj, the dark half thereof, on Sunday, and the thirty-sixth ghari; in such a happy moment, the Khichi of Chauhan race, Maharaj Sri Rawat Narsinghdeo, and his son Sri Rawat Mehraj, and his son Sri Chandarsen, and his son Kalyandas, erected this sivala (house of Siva); may they be fortunate! Written by Jaya Sarman, and engraved by Kamma, in the presence of the priest Kistna, the son of Mahesh.”
ENTRANCE TO THE SANCTUARY OF A TEMPLE AT CHANDRAVATI.
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