166 Notes on Atranji Khera. [No. 3, 



not quite regular ; and there are two openings, evidently artificial, 

 called " gates" by the natives. These are at their base about 75 

 feet in width, and they had buildings on either side. One of these 

 is on the east side near to the north-east corner, and the other on the 

 west side near to the south-west corner. There is also a modern 

 cart-track running through the midst in a kind of hollow. 



The surface of the Khera undulates much, making a series of 

 miniature downs. This effect has been caused chiefly by the agency 

 of water ; but there were doubtless elevations and depressions in the 

 original city, the site for which was finely chosen. Around the 

 whole is cultivation, and at a little distance in the east flows the Kalee 

 Nuddee river, so that the view from the top is very striking and 

 beautiful ; masses of mango trees in the distance fringed in front with 

 many thousands of palm trees, with a carpet of green winter crop at 

 their feet, stretching to the shining expanse of the bounded water of 

 the Kalee Nuddee in the foreground, form a picture which led my 

 companion to remark upon it, and would captivate the eye of the most 

 apathetic of observers. 



At the south-eastern corner, distant a few hundred yards, is an out- 

 work — a mound on which had once stood extensive buildings, 

 now being excavated to their very foundations for the bricks they 

 contain. These bricks measure 14" X 8f-" X 2" only, are not very 

 well burnt, and do not carry the appearance of great antiquity. None 

 of them bore any inscription stamped on them ; although some seemed 

 to have been moulded thus r i — ■*■ as though they had formed 



part of some ornamental 



of others bearing marks *« 



moulding, and I was told 

 like this 



<P<?^ 



evidently those of the finger on the moist clay — which 

 I have often found in other places, and the meaning 

 of winch I do not know. On this mound, irregularly placed, are three 

 lingams which appear very recent. They are of sandstone and may 

 have been cut from columns. I measured one of them 1 foot 6 inches in 

 height, and about 2 feet in diameter, whilst within a small recent 

 enclosure were two more : one of which was placed in the 

 middle in a pavement of stucco, without any Yoni ; and the other 

 leaning against the back wall — a slab in relief and perhaps 5 feet in 

 height. 



