Morakara, about half a mile east of Bijolia, is now in ruins; but there are remains of a Kot, or castle, a palace called the Nauchauki, and no less than five temples to Parsvanath, the twenty-third of the Jain pontiffs, all of considerable magnitude and elaborate architectural details, though not to be compared with Barolia. Indeed, it is everywhere apparent that there is nothing classical in design or execution in the architecture of India posterior to the eleventh century. One of my scribes, who has a talent for design, is delineating with his reed (kalam) these stupendous piles, while my old Jain Guru is hard at work copying what is not the least curious part of the antiquities of Bijolia, two inscriptions cut in the rock; one of the Chauhan race, the other of the Sankhya Purana, appertaining to his own creed, the Jain. It is fifteen feet long by five in breadth, and has fifty-two lines.[[5]] The other is eleven feet six inches by three feet six, and contains thirty-one lines; so that the old gentleman has ample occupation. A stream runs amidst the ruins, called the Mundagni (fire-extinguishing); and there is a kund, or fountain, close to the temples of Parsva, with the remains of two noble reservoirs. All these relics indicate that the Jains were of the Digambara sect.[[6]] The genealogy is within the Kot, or precincts of the old castle.
There are likewise three temples dedicated to Siva, of still greater magnitude, nearer to the town, but without inscriptions; though one in an adjoining kund, called the Rewati, records the piety of the Gohil chief Rahal, who had bestowed “a patch of land in the Antri,” defining minutely its limits, and inviting others (not ineffectually, as is proved by other bequests), in the preamble to his gift, to follow his example by the declaration that “whoever bathes in the Rewati fountain will be beloved by her lord, and have a numerous progeny” [745].
The modern castle of Bijolia is constructed entirely out of the ruins of the old shrines of Morakara, and gods and demons are huddled promiscuously together. This is very common, as we have repeatedly noticed; nor can anything better evince that the Hindu attaches no abstract virtue to the material object or idol, but regards it merely as a type of some power or quality which he wishes to propitiate. On the desecration of the receptacle, the idol becomes again, in his estimation, a mere stone, and is used as such without scruple. All around, for several miles, are seen the wrecks of past days. At Darauli, about four miles south, is an inscription dated S. 900 (A.D. 844), but it is unimportant; and again, at Telsua, two miles farther south, are four mandirs, a kund, and a toran, or triumphal arch, but no inscription. At Jaraula, about six miles distant, there are no less than seven mandirs and a kund—a mere heap of ruins. At Ambaghati, one of the passes of descent from the table-land into the plain, there are the remains of an ancient castle and a shrine, and I have the names of four or five other places, all within five miles of Bijolia, each having two and three temples in ruins. Tradition does not name the destroyer, but as it evidently was not Time, we may, without hesitation, divide the opprobrium between those great iconoclasts, the Ghori king Ala and the Mogul Aurangzeb, the first of whom is never named without the addition of Khuni, ‘the sanguinary,’ whilst the other is known as Kalayavana, the demon-foe of Krishna.
The Bijolia chief is greatly reduced, though his estates, if cultivated, would yield fifty thousand rupees annually; but he cannot create more vasi, unless he could animate the prostrate forms which lie scattered around him. It was his daughter who was married to prince Amra, and who, though only seventeen, withstood all solicitation to save her from the pyre on his demise.[[7]] I made use of the strongest arguments, through her uncle, then at Udaipur, promising to use my influence to increase his estate, and doubtless his poverty reinforced his inclination; but all was in vain—she determined “to expiate the sins of her lord.” Having remained two or three days, we continued our journey in quest of the antique and the picturesque, and found both at Menal.
TEMPLES OF MENĀL.
In Mewār.
To face page 1800.
Menāl or Mahānāl, February 21.—It is fortunate that the pencil can here portray what transcends the power of the pen; to it we shall, therefore, leave the architectural wonders of Mahanal, and succinctly describe the site. It is difficult to conceive what [746] could have induced the princely races of Chitor or Ajmer to select such a spot as an appanage for the cadets of their families, which in summer must be a furnace, owing to the reflection of the sun’s rays from the rock: tradition, indeed, asserts that it is to the love of the sublime alone we are indebted for these singular structures. The name is derived from the position Mahanal, ‘the great chasm,’ or cleft in the western face of the Patar, presenting an abyss of about four hundred feet in depth, over which, at a sharp re-entering angle, falls a cascade, and though now but a rill, it must be a magnificent object in the rainy season. Within this dell it would be death to enter: gloomy as Erebus, crowded with majestic foliage entangled by the twisted boughs of the Amarvela, and affording cover to all description of the inhabitants, quadruped and feathered, of the forest. On the very brink of the precipice, overhanging the abyss, is the group of mixed temples and dwellings, which bear the name of Prithiraj (vide Plate); while those on the opposite side are distinguished by that of Samarsi of Chitor, the brother-in-law of the Chauhan emperor of Delhi and Ajmer, whose wife, Pirthabai, has been immortalized by Chand, with her husband and brother.[[8]] Here, the grand cleft between them, these two last bulwarks of the Rajput races were accustomed to meet with their families, and pass days of affectionate intercourse, in which no doubt the political condition of India was a prominent topic of discussion. If we may believe, and we have no reason to distrust, the testimony of Chand, had Prithiraj listened to the counsel of the Ulysses of the Hindus (in which light Samarsi was regarded by friend and foe), the Islamite never would have been lord of Hindustan. But the indomitable courage and enthusiastic enterprise of Prithiraj sunk them all; and when neither wisdom nor valour could save him from destruction, the heroic prince of Chitor was foremost to court it. Both fell on the banks of the Ghaggar, amidst heroes of every tribe in Rajputana. It was indeed to them, as the bard justly terms it, pralaya, the day of universal doom; and the last field maintained for their national dependence. To me, who have pored over their poetic legends, and imbibed all those sympathies which none can avoid who study the Rajput character, there was a melancholy charm in the solemn ruins of Menal. It was a season, too, when everything conspired to nourish this feeling; the very trees which were crowded about these relics of departed glory, appearing by their leafless boughs and lugubrious aspect to join in the universal mourning.
SECOND GROUP OF TEMPLES OF MENĀL.
In Mewār.
To face page 1802.