270 Report of the Archaeological Survey. [No. 4, 



the Griimti. The gate of the fort, which is at the east end, is arched 

 and therefore of Muhammadan construction. But it is built of Hindu 

 materials, partly brick and partly kankar blocks, which betray their 

 origin by their carvings and by the presence of the Swastika symbol, or 

 mystic cross. The walls were originally of brick, but they have long 

 ago disappeared, and the only parts of the old fort now standing are 

 the gateway and the Shah Burj. The foundation of the latter is, 

 however, of Hindu construction, and as there are many carved bricks 

 lying about, I presume that it was a temple. The fort is provided with 

 a well 8|? broad and 51|- feet deep to the water level. 



358. The tradition of the place is that the building of the fort was 

 finished on Friday, the 9th of the waxing moon of Chaitra, in the 

 Samvat year 1362, or A. D. 1305, by Hdhdjdl, a renegade Hindu, 

 who is said to have been the Vazir of Ala-ud-din Ghori. For Grhori 

 we must read Khilji to bring the King's name into agreement with the 

 date, and as the people are in the habit of styling all the Pathans as 

 Grhoris, the alteration is perfectly allowable. But who was Hdhdjdl ? 

 As a renegade Hindu and the Vazir of Ala-ud-din, he might perhaps 

 be the same person as Kafur, who in A. D. 1305 was appointed as 

 Malik Naib to the command of the army for the conquest of the 

 Dakhan. I procured several of Ala-ud-din's coins at Nimsar, and in 

 his reign I conclude that the fort passed from the hands of the Hindus 

 into those of the Musalmans. The original fort is said to have been 

 as old as the Pandus ; and if the derivation of the name of the place 

 has been truly handed down, it must have been occupied even earlier 

 than the time of the Pandus. 



XXII.— BARIKHAR, OB VAIBATKHERA. 



359. Barikhar is the name of a village on the top of an extensive 

 old mound called Vairdtkhera which is situated on the high road 

 between Nimsar and Pilibhit, at 42 miles from the former, and 68 miles 

 from the latter place. Barikhar is said to be a corruption of Bariya- 

 khera or Vairdt-khera, and its foundation is attributed to Vairdt Raja 

 in the time of the Pandus. The ruined mound is 1,000 feet in length 

 at top from east to west, by 600 feet in breadth, and from 16 to 20 

 feet in height. But the dimensions at the base are much more, as the 

 slope is very gentle, being 200 feet in length on the north side, where 



