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XVI. Sm7ie Jcroiint of the Caves near Baug^ called the Panck 

 Pandoo. By Captain F. Dangerfield, of the Bombay 

 Military Establishment^. 



AJEFORE entering on a description of these caves, a slight sketch 

 of the uiki, mountainois, woodv tract of country in which they 

 are situated may perhaps be desirable. 



This mountinous tract is contained l)etvveeti the twenty-second 

 and twenty-third degrees of north latitude, ranging for a consi- 

 derable extent in the direction of the course of the Nurbuddah, 

 letiving however generaliv an intermediate plain, about ten or 

 twelve mile'' broad, between it and the banks of that river. In 

 this range few towns or villages are to be found, it lieing for 

 the most part peopled by Bheels of the wildest description, few 

 having any fixed habitations. 



In the midst of this range, in north latitude 22" 22' 15'', and 

 in nearly 75" east longitude, is the small town of Baug, three 

 miles and a quarter S. S.E. of which the caves are found. 



The town is situated at the foot of a low range of hills about 

 one hundred feet high, which forms the western boundary of a 

 pleasant valley extending north and south about three miles, by 

 an average breadth of one mile. It contains, within a small 

 area surrounded by a low mud wall, about four hundred houses. 

 At the summit and extremity of the range near which it is placed, 

 overlooking the town, is a rudely built stone fort now falling fast 

 to decay. The ascent to it is by a small footpath very steep. 



Baug is on the road leading from Guzerat to Malwa, by what 

 is termed the Oudipoor Pass. From this place the two roads 

 leading into the latter province diverge; one constituting the 

 Tanda Gant to the eastward, the other the Tirrella Gaut, leading 

 to Indore, Oujein, or by Rajghur to the northward: this last is 

 by far the best carriage road. 



Previous to these last twenty years of anarchy and desolation 

 Baug is said to have contained between two and three thousand 

 houses, and to have covered a considerable portion of the plain 

 in which it is situated : but, with the exception of two or three 

 pagodas, few vestiges now remain to point out its former ex- 

 tent. 



As a town, however, Baug does not claim any anticjuitv, it 

 having risen into importance about a hundred years ago, from 

 becoming the occasional residence of .Tassoo Baumeah, a cele- 

 brated freebooter, who possessed himself of the Kotra district, 

 and who built as places of security for his followers and plunder 

 the forts of Soosaree, Baug, and Kooksee. 



/ • From Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, vol. ii. 



lassoo 



