AN EXPLOEATIOK" IN THE FAR EAST. 419 



ancient capital of a Kajpiit dynasty which ruled over the 

 greater part of this eastern country from the earliest 

 times till the invasion of the Marathas in the eighteenth 

 century. This ancient place is an example of the decay 

 which has overtaken many of the old Hindii cities 

 since the extinction of the native dynasties, and the 

 decay of orthodox Hindu religious sentiment. Standing 

 on a little central hill, on whose summit the white 

 painted dome of a temple forms a landmark to the 

 surrounding country, the eye looks over great vistas 

 of enormous banyan and mango groves, embosomed 

 in which sleep the waters of a hundred and fifty 

 tanks, and shrouded in whose recesses, with here and 

 there a ribbed spire visible above, lie the crumbling 

 ruins of a vast number of temples, palaces, and forts. 

 A day's ramble scarcely discovers a tithe of the archaeo- 

 logical treasures which here await the inspection of the 

 curious. Much of the city has already fallen to pieces. 

 Great untenanted masonry buildings attest the former 

 wealth and state of its inhabitants, while mean little 

 mud shanties and thatched hovels clustering- aofainst 

 their walls witness to the poverty of the diminished 

 number of its modern residents. As the temples of 

 the old faith have sufi'ered decay, so, too, has the 

 religion itself; and orthodox Hinduism has over all 

 this country been extensively displaced by a deism, 

 planted less than fifty years ago among the Chamar 

 inhabitants of Chattis'garh by a prophet of their own 

 race. It is, like the Buddhism of old, an uprising of 

 the down-trodden low castes against the tyranny of 

 Brahmanism, its leading principles being abjuration 

 of priestdom and caste, and substitution for the Brah- 

 manistic pantheon of the worship of one God, whom 

 they call Sal Nam, or the " True One." 



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