878 Notes of a journey to Gimdr. [Oct. 



western side. Of this the position of the rock with its inscriptions, in- 

 tended as they must have heen, to attract attention in the vicinity of 

 a great thoroughfare, is sufficient proof ; and hence the former necessity, 

 as now, of a bridge, to enable travellers to Girnar to cross the ravine, 

 or " Paleshini river." In the absence of even the slightest remains, 

 (so far as I could trace,) of the ancient bridge, the only difficulty 

 in determining its site, is to be found in the measurement given 

 (400 cubits long) ; but I think that even this difficulty may be explain- 

 ed away, without departing far from local evidence. A bridge to have 

 been of any use on the road to Girnar, could only have been erected 

 on, or near the site of the present one, as it is the narrowest part of 

 the valley, and must have stretched the whole breadth of the ravine ; 

 which must be crossed at this precise spot. The greatest distance between 

 the two hills is here only 120 feet, whilst the length of the bridge, 

 according to the measurement in the inscription, calculating the cubit 

 at 19 inches, would be 633 feet — a difference too great to allow of 

 the standard of the cubit in those days being altered to adapt itself 

 to it. But the word " bridge" has, I doubt not, in the inscription, 

 been applied not only to the masonry, &c, spanning the ravine, but also 

 to some portion of the causeway or approach to the same. This I 

 think more than probable, for although the present causeway, actu- 

 ally crosses the nullah in a bridge at one spot only, yet for its whole 

 length, it is necessarily so immediately on the edge of the ravine, and 

 indeed in some places may be said so much to overhang it that the 

 word " bridge" would probably be applied by the natives, to a greater 

 portion, than that actually connecting the opposite banks of the ravine, at 

 the single point where such connection could be of any use to travel- 

 lers to Girnar. Unless the " Paleshini Nuddee" is to be looked for in 

 another direction altogether, there is no other way than the above, of 

 accounting for the dimensions of the bridge ; but as there happens to 

 be only this approach to Girnar from the westward, and as its position 

 is immediately at the foot of the hill — coupled with the position of the 

 rock and inscriptions — there can be no doubt that it is the place referred 

 to. The only remaining pathway to Girnar through the jungle from 

 the southward, has no river, torrent, or corresponding feature about it*. 



* This is an accessible but unfrequented pathway, considered dangerous by tho 

 natives, from the fear of wild beasts, (lions abound in these hills,) and tbe Khants ; 

 this tribe of freebooters still infest the jungles around Junagarh, as described by the 

 author of the Mir at i Iskandari. Even the high and well frequented road from the 

 westward, is not considered safe from these depredators, and nil the visitors to 

 Girnar who can afford it, hire Arab and Mekrani guards to escort them to the 

 temples. Captain Lang and myself were fired on by a party of these outlaws in 

 passing through the jungle on the eastern side, and at the foot of the Girnar. 



