1838.] Ruins of Jdjipur. 203 



of fourteen gates," if I may rely on the local authorities ; history 

 does not inform us when and why this once extensive city was 

 abandoned, but there is a leg-end told by the Ooriahs, that the place 

 was neve rfinished, that while it was being built, and near com- 

 pletion, the raja one day went out hawking and let his hawk at a 

 small white heron ; they flew across the Mahanuddee, when both 

 alighting on the opposite bank, the heron killed the hawk ; the raja 

 upon this consulted his learned men and astronomers, who pronounced 

 that it was a warning to abandon Chaudwdr and to build his fort on 

 this more auspicious spot : he accordingly built the present fort of Cut- 

 tack upon it and called it B&rahbattee : he then forsook Chaudwdr 

 which was never after resorted to. 



We remained at Cuttack several days, the fort (Barahbattee) being 

 the first object that attracted my notice. I shall first describe it, or 

 rather, what is left of it ; for it is fast disappearing, the stones being taken 

 for various public works ; the greatest drain has been for the lighthouse 

 at False Point and for the macadamizing the cantonment roads. 



The figure of the fort deviates little from a regular parallelogram 

 having its longest faces to the north and south, the river running paral- 

 lel with the former at a short distance from it. 



The walls were originally defended by high square bastion towers, 

 projecting at different distances ; the place could never at any time have 

 offered much resistance, as the walls were barely five feet thick on the 

 three land faces, which a six lb. shot could have perforated, except on the 

 river face, where they were not only of great height but of proportional 

 thickness with numerous square bastion towers ; the broad and deep 

 moat faced with stone, was what the natives depended upon as their chief 

 defence, before the invention and introduction of artillery; there is only 

 one gateway and that in the centre of the eastern face ; it is narrow and 

 between two square towers, like the others, wide at the base and decreas- 

 ing toward their summit ; the archway is of comparatively modern date, 

 and is the work of the Mogul governors of the province : there was an 

 inner gateway which has been lately taken down to build the lighthouse 

 with. This part of the structure, with several adjacent buildings, were 

 the work of a Mahratta governor in the 4th year of the reign of Ma- 

 homed Shah, which I found thus recorded on a small stone neatly cut 

 which was let into one of the walls. 



