A RUINED CITY. 305 



centre of resistance of the Oodeypore princes. Besieged 

 seven times, it was sacked nearly as often. Once it held out 

 for nearly ten years, and was only taken when further 

 resistance was hopeless. But the Mahommedan conquerors 

 reaped a barren booty. Women, jewels, gold, all the 

 Bajpoot warriors possessed, all the town held of value, 

 were heaped in one great funeral pyre and burnt to ashes. 

 Then the men, sallying forth, threw themselves on the 

 invaders, and died sword in hand. The town was a«ain 

 sacked after a long siege by the Emperor Akbar, who put 

 every living being to death, and left the city in ruins. It 

 has never been restored, and, as a Rajpoot historian 

 describes, " this royal abode, which for a thousand years 

 has towered above all other towns of Hindustan, has 

 become the haunt of wild beasts, and its temples desecrated 

 and in ruins." 



The hill of Chittore is on the opposite side of the river 

 to the dak bungalow, and we rode there on an elephant 

 sent by the Maharaja's vakeel. A fine bridge is now in 

 ruins, and the stream has to be forded. The outer walls 

 of the old town are little above the level of the plain, 

 and a good road leads up the hill through embattled gates, 

 and past several inner lines of fortification which bar the 

 way to the summit. 



Although the Government of Meywar has been moved 

 to the modern town of Oodeypore, a body of the Maharaja's 



