586 ' Seeli/'s Wonders of Ehra. 



set about excavating the temples as a 

 mark of his gratitude and piety. 

 History informs us tliat Eeloo Raj 

 tlourislied 930 years a^o. 



Daring my stay at Elora I met with 

 no interruption whatever from the re- 

 sidents or visitors at the temples. I 

 had but little intercourse with the 

 \illage. The small supplies I required, 

 as milk, grass, rice, &c. were daily 

 sent up to my tent by the Kutval, a 

 Brahman, who was the head man of the 

 village. For those necessaries he 

 wished to decline payment. The Baae 

 (Holkar's Mother) defrayed all charges 

 of pilgrims, &c. ; but as I did not 

 exactly come under that denomination, 

 I begged to be under no obligation to 

 her highness's bounty. The good- 

 tempered Brahman was not to be 

 evaded ; he insisted that I had cured 

 several persons by means of my medical 

 skill, and in dispensations of the " most 

 excellent English medicine." If any ra- 

 dical cures wereefFected, it was by means 

 of a good dose of calomel. One cure was 

 ascribed to me which ought to have 

 been ascribed to nature : it was extract- 

 ing a long worm (Narroo) from the 

 foi)t between the toes and the instep. 

 1 believe they are known to us as tlie 

 gninea-Avorm. If they break inside the 

 skin, some danger may be apprehended. 

 While they are forming under the skin 

 or membrane, they cause an excru- 

 ciating pain. I had once seen a worm 

 extracted : the swelling was brought to 

 a head by repeated poulticing, and then 

 delicately perforated, and a small straw 

 worked under the worm, round which 

 with great care by the person perform- 

 ing the operation, he was by the motion 

 of the straw wound round it and ex- 

 tracted. Others of my patients, who 

 were mere hypochondriacs, were cured 

 by a very common medicine in Europe, 

 faith and imagination, whicli in many 

 disorders and with many persons will 

 kill or cure. Some of my patients I 

 am certain were in this case, as, my 

 dispensary running low, I was fain to 

 substitute pills with little more than 

 flour and water. 



AURUNGABAD. 



The extensive and fertile plains lying 

 between Dowlutabad and Aurungabad, 

 though possessing rich soils, and inter- 

 sected by many streams, and in liie 

 vicinity of an imperial cily, might be 

 mistaken for a desert by those accus- 

 tomed to the rich scenes of England, 

 where prosperity and security alike 

 dwell together. During my ride I did 



not meet ten people, nor was a tenth 

 part of the land in cultivation. 



At a distance the view of Aurunga- 

 bad has an imposing effict: lofty mina- 

 rets peeping out from among groves of 

 trees ; the large wl.ite domes of mosques, 

 with their gilded points, shining in 

 the sun ; a number of large terraced 

 houses rising above the walls of the 

 city, the whole covering a great extent 

 of ground ; but, as we approacii, a <lif- 

 ferent scene presents itself. After 

 passing a large gateway, we at once 

 enter the city, nearly half of which is in 

 a state of decay and ruin, with a scanty 

 popu lation. It has the sign in every 

 street of fallen greatness, and shows that 

 its prosperity perished wilh its founder 

 Aurungzebe. 



The wall which surrounds Aurunga- 

 bad is not at all calculated to sustain a 

 regular attack. It is lower than they 

 usually are, with round towers at inter- 

 vals, and is sufficient for resisting the 

 onset of a predatory body of either 

 horse or foot ; but Aurungzebe, in his 

 lifetime, had no occasion to fear a regu- 

 lar attack in his capital : of the future 

 he thought and cared nouglit. The 

 divine precept appears to be very fully 

 and generally acted upon by the princes 

 in India— "Sufficient for the day are the 

 evils thereof," and he had enough upon 

 his hands, what wilh the repeated rebel- 

 lions of his brothers, and the encroach- 

 ments of the Mahrattas in the Deccanr 

 to occupy him in his long and turbulent 

 reign. 



The streets of Aurungabad are broad, 

 and some few paved. There are many 

 large and good houses in diil'erent parts. 

 The public buildings, mosques, and 

 caravanseras, are of a superior construc- 

 tion to those which we generally tind in 

 native cities. Gardens and groves of 

 trees, court-yards and fountains, diver- 

 sify the scene, and ornament the streets. 

 The shops present to view many costly 

 articles of Indian produce, but tiiere is 

 an air of liejection about the whole that 

 tells you the glory of the regal cily has fled. 

 A few groups of grave and fiuc-looking 

 Mussulmans, unoccupied by any thini; 

 but idle talk, are seen lounging at dif- 

 ferent quarters ; or here and there oneot 

 the better order, clad in his flowing robe, 

 passes you with a stately and measured 

 stop, conscious of his manly figure and 

 handsome features. These, and a few 

 solitary Fakcers, are the principal pei- 

 sons met with, cxcej)t in the immediate 

 neiglibouriiood of the markets, where 

 some little bustle prevails; otherwise, 



there 



