“S. 1574 Magh (sudi) 5th, and Revati Nakshatra, the stone-cutters Kalu, Kaimer, and thirty-six others (whose names are added), enlarged the fountain of the sun (Suryakunda), adjacent to the temple of Kalika Devi.” Thence I passed to the vaulted cenotaph of Chonda, the founder of the Chondawats, who surrendered his birthright to please his aged sire. A little further, are the mahalls of Rana Bhim and Padmini. Beyond this, within a stone enclosure, is the place where the victorious Kumbha confined the king of Malwa; and touching it is the mahall of the Raos of Rampura.
Further south is a spot of deep interest: the tank and palace of Chitrang Mori,[[25]] the ancient Puar lord of Chitor, whose inscription I have already given. The interior sides of the tank are divided into sculptured compartments, in very good taste, but not to be compared with the works at Barolli, though doubtless executed under the same family. Being now within two hundred yards of the southern bastion, I returned by the mahalls of the once vassals of Chitor, namely, Sirohi, Bundi, Sunth,[[26]] Lunawada, to the Chaugan, or ‘field of Mars,’ where the military festival of the Dasahra is yet held by the slender garrison of Chitor. Close to it is a noble reservoir of a hundred and thirty feet in length, sixty-five in width, and forty-seven in depth. It is lined with immense sculptured masses of masonry, and filled with water.
COLUMNS IN THE FORTRESS OF CHITOR.
To face page 1822.
The Jain Pillar.
I found also another old inscription near the very antique temple of Kukkureswar Mahadeo; “S. 811, Mah sudi 5th, Vrihaspativar (Thursday), A.D. 755, Raja Kukkureswar erected this temple and excavated the fountain.”
There are many Jain inscriptions, but amidst the heaps of ruins I was not fortunate enough to make any important discovery. One in the temple of Santnath was as follows; “S. 1505 (A.D. 1449), Sri Maharana Mokal, whose son Kumbhakaran’s treasurer, by name Sah Kola, his son Bhandari Ratna, and wife Bilandevi, erected this shrine to Santnath. The chief of the Khadatara Gachchha, Janraj Sur and apparent successor, Sri Jan Chandra Surji, made this writing.”
Close to the Suraj-pol, or gate in the centre of the eastern face, is an altar sacred to the manes of Sahidas, the chief of the Chondawats, who fell at his post, the gate of the sun, when the city was sacked by Bahadur Shah.
At the north-western face is a castle complete within itself, the walls and towers of which are of a peculiar form, and denote a high antiquity. This is said to be the ancient palace of the Moris and the first Ranas of Chitor. But it is time to close this description, which I do by observing, that one cannot move a step without treading on some fragment of the olden times:
Columns strewn, and statues fallen and cleft,