28 Notes of a tour in the Tributary MeJials. [No. 1, 



weapon of the tributary mehals. Close to the temples there is a stone- 

 faced tank. 



Six miles to the west of the above ruins at Sirnidee there is another 

 small temple which appears to have been overlooked by the destroyer. 



The dome over the fane is still standing, and part of the vestibule, 

 the latter a pyramidal roof supported on columns. The stones forming 

 the lintels and uprights of the entrance to the fane are elaborately 

 carved with minute representations of all the principal Hindu gods. 

 Shiva and his wife on Nandi occupying the place of honour in the 

 centre of the lintel. 



The Ruksale Rajpoot family who now hold Sirgoojah, have no 

 tradition regarding the antiquities I am describing, but they tell me 

 that under the Mahratta rule, their ancestors often availed themselves 

 of the retreat of the Hathphor to save their property from pillage and 

 their women from dishonour. 



The ruins of an ancient castle of the Ruksale Rajahs of Sirgoojah 

 are to be seen on a hill near Bisrampore, and this appears to be the 

 Sirgoojah, marked as the chief town on the map, shewing again the 

 antiquity of the information from which the maps of these unsurveyed 

 tracts had been filled in. 



According to the tradition preserved in the family, the first Ruksale 

 was called into existence by a ' Muni' or sage, to destroy a demon 

 that troubled the holy man in his devotions. The hero thus created 

 was the ancestor of the lovely Rukmini carried off by Krishna. In 

 about Samvat 251, a lineal descendant of Rukmini's brother, Ruk- 

 man, entered Sirgoojah and fought with and killed the Rajah of the 

 place called ( Balind,' and became Rajah in his room. The present 

 Maharajah Inderjeet Singh has a family tree to shew that he is the 

 111th in descent from the conqueror of Balind ! but I have been told 

 there is a popular tradition assigning to the family a local origin, and 

 considering there are no Ruksales in any other country, it is not un- 

 likely that it is the most truthful of the two. If so, it is probable 

 that the family are derived from the same stock as the ' G-ours,' the 

 most influential and numerous of the races now inhabiting Sirgoojah. 



In A. D. 1758, a Mahratta army in progress to the Granges 

 overran the district of Sirgoojah, and the chief was compelled 

 to acknowledge himself a tributary of the Berar government, but 



