412 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



capital of a Rajput 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 Hindu cities since the extinction of the native 

 dynasties, and the decay of orthodox Hindu religious senti- 

 ment. Standing on a little central hill, on whose summit the 

 white painted dome of a temple forms a landmark to the sur- 

 rounding 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 against their walls witness to 

 the poverty of the diminished number of its modern residents. 

 As the temples of the old faith have suffered 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 Chamdx 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 Br&hmanism, its leading principles 

 being abjuration of priestdom and caste, and substitution for 

 the Bralim&nistic pantheon of the worship of one God, whom 

 they call Sal Nam, or the " True One." It is one of the 

 most singular social and religious revolutions in Hindu history, 

 and is but an example of similar movements which are stir- 



