1917.] 



if liajpiitana. 2o."i 



account of Napo's services, says Nena Si, that his descendants 

 to this day enjoy the privilege of keeping the keys of the 

 Fort of Bikaner.' Jn the later chronicles, Napo is represented 

 as having devoted a great part of his life to the service of 

 Jodho also, and having given him invaluable assistance by 

 staying at the court of Citora and sending hiin intelligence of 

 all that the Rana was scheming against him. 



The few antiquarian remains which I have discovered at 

 Jagalu, tend to confirm, in part, the old traditions mentioned 

 above. They were found in three places : the site of the ancient 

 fort, the Kesolal, and the Sivalaya, a modern little shrine 

 of Mahadeva. The old fort was situated close to the modern 

 village, to the north, and all that remains of it nowadays is 

 an elevation in the form of a ring, enclosing an irregular 

 circular or quadrilateral space. The elevation which evidently 

 marks the place of the old wall enclosure, has four openings or 

 depressions : one towards the east, one towards the south-west, 

 and two towards the north-east., but three of these openings 

 were probablv cut by the rains, and only the fourth one, 

 that facing the east, marks the place of the ojd Purabiyo 

 darvajo of the fort. Walking along the crest of the elevation, 



which forms the periphery of the old fort, I have counted 

 only about 800 steps. Traces of wall structures seem to be 

 emerging on the surface of the ground at several poini almost 

 all around the elevation, but sure relics of the original wall 

 enclosure were discovered by me nea; the old eastern gate, 

 where I had the elevation dug a few inches, and a thick wall of 

 baked bricks came to light. The bricks seen by me were 

 from 8 to 13 inches long bv 4 J to 7 inches broad, and 2 to 2| 

 inches thick. Thev were laid in stratums superposed one upon 

 the other, and cemented with mud. In the middle of the 

 enclosure of the fort there is a small elevation wduch the local 

 tradition identities v ith the site where the kacerl stood. On 



the crest of the peripherical elevation, towards the south-east, 

 there is a small inscribed devall in honour of Khiva SL the 

 third Sakhalo ruler of Jagalu.. in which he is represented as a 

 bhomiyo. but it is a posthumous and quite recent monument. 



The Kesoffi is found to the east of the fort and is a small 

 Pond cut into the bard magam soil, without any masonry 

 embankments and looking more like a natural hole than any- 

 thing else. The legend is that Keso. the upadhiyo brahmin of 

 the Dahivas. caused the bhutas to dig it. In fact, the name of 

 Keso appears on a stone inscription on the Jmmj rf the to^ 

 and there can be no doubt that it is from him that the tula* 

 has derived its name of Kesolai. The inscription is incised on 



' They were deprived of this privilege under maharaj a S^J.S;gj; 

 when SSkhalo Dolat Sincha conspired to betray the Fort to Bakhat fcmg 



of N 



agora. 



