A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of IndiaAcland, Charles
History
A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of India
Acland, Charles
India -- Description and travel; India -- Social life and customs
It must have been once very strong, and was probably built by the
Mahrattas as a depôt for plunder when they overran this part of the
country. In the inner court is a three-domed building, resembling,
except in ornament, a mosque. The walls are several feet thick,
built of hard stone strongly clamped together with iron. High up in
the interior of the centre dome are four niches, which I hope to
explore on some future occasion. The inner enclosure is surrounded
by a strong stone wall and a deep moat now dry. Beyond this is a
level space of a few yards in width, and then again, in another part
of the wall, there are signs of a narrow sallyport, and opposite to
this, between the trenches, as if it might have been reached by a
drawbridge, is a very high mound of earth. Over the sallyport there
has evidently been a strong tower, and above the central entrance
into the interior building is a stone with an inscription. It
appears very perfect, but no one can read it; it is neither Ooriah,
Hindustanee, Sanscrit, nor Persian. I have called this a Mahratta
fort, because that is the general opinion amongst Europeans. I
myself doubt it, and from its age and appearance think it much more
likely that it was erected by the Moguls when they first invaded the
country; how I wished, as I stood there, that I could have seen it
as it was in former ages, with its garrison, and its horsemen, and
its despotic governor. The next time I go I shall provide myself with
some paper covered with charcoal, and try to take an impression of
the inscription. We were in some fear, during our examination, lest
we should be interrupted by the natives, as they have very recently
got the idea that it was once inhabited by one of their gods, and
therefore consider it a sacred place. I fancied, as well as the
darkness would allow me to see, that far back in one of the niches I
could dimly perceive a coloured statue of a female. Before we went
to see this ruin my kind host took me into his garden to show me the
India-rubber tree. We scraped the bark with a piece of rough glass,
and a white sticky juice oozed out; this we took between our fingers
and squeezed until it became a sort of brown gluey substance. In
this state it is used by the native hunters as birdlime. After being
exposed to the air for some time it gradually hardens and becomes
what we call India-rubber. A large part of this garden was planted
with arrow-root.
[Sidenote: ATTACK BY A TIGER.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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