408 



On the Antiquities of Guzerat, 



[No, 4 



built here. It was a staging-place and the Baolees were provided 

 but no Serai. 



Serai Alumgeer. — The Serai at Nourungabad was built by the Em- 

 peror Aurungzebe, who gave his title of Alumgeer to it. It is impro- 

 perly called the Serai of ISTourungabad which is a village half a mile 

 distant, and altogether out of the Alumgeer lands, which were granted 

 to certain Khutrees to preserve the Serai. But during the Sikh rule 

 there was a cantonment at Nourungabad which properly accounts 

 for the Serai becoming known by that name also. 



Chowkimdee and AlwngTieer. — Besides the above there are no relics 

 of the^ Imperial sway, except the ruins of a hunting residence near 

 Alumgheer in the upper part of the district. The ruined edifice still 

 goes by the old Sanscrit derived name of Chowkundee. It was built by 

 the Emperor Akbur Shah, in the 34th year of his reign, and was the 

 first halting-place after crossing the Chenab, in the royal progresses 

 from Dehli to Cashmere. 



These Serais have long ceased to serve their purposes. After the 

 decay of the empire, their utility was no longer appreciated : the mate- 

 rials were, to a large extent, appropriated to other purposes, and now 

 the walls or their foundations only can be traced through the mass of 

 plebeian habitations which cover their sites, but their remains attest 

 their substantial construction and are still monuments of a large- 

 handed wisdom and public beneficence, which found no imitators in 

 the Sikh or Duranee governments which succeeded. 



