156 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. ["No. 2. 



name of the rival city known to Europeans as Delhi. The site is 

 now the centre of a large Dhak forest, as the debris and inequalities 

 of the broken ground render it less favorable for agriculture than 

 the surrounding country. So completely has all vestige of the old 

 town disappeared, that the Hindus ascribe it to a miracle of the 

 gods, who are said to have subverted the city, leaving the founda- 

 tions uppermost. The only old buildings in the vicinity are a few 

 Musulman tombs near, and the ruins of Acbar's mosque, on the 

 mound of the old fort. A large Parisnath temple, of recent erection, 

 occupies the northern base of the mound. The name of Hustina- 

 poor no doubt originated from the wild elephants, likely to have 

 frequented the neighbourhood in the days of which tradition speaks, 

 when the forest, still found fringing the hills to the eastward, ex- 

 tended unbroken beyond the Ganges into the Dooab ; an epoch so 

 extremely remote as to render it no matter of wonder, that not a 

 relic remains of the former grandeur of this noted city : not a 

 building or a fragment of a building remains, merely extensive 

 mounds of rubbish interspersed with bricks of the larger size, dis- 

 tinctive of the early Hindu architecture. Even the extent of 

 these mounds is now hardly to be distinguished, as they mingle 

 with the raised broken ground that for many miles north and south 

 of this spot marks the western edge of the course taken by the 

 Ganges in former ages. The main river now rolls 15 miles farther 

 east, but this intermediate space is entirely low alluvial soil tra- 

 versed by numerous small water-courses, and liable to inundation 

 in heavy rains: and immediately under the steep bank on which 

 the fort of Hustinapoor is situated, creeps sluggishly a small branch 

 that quitting the principal stream a little below Hurdwar rejoins 

 about 40 miles lower at Gurmukhteesur, and still bears the name 

 of the Boori-Gunga or old Ganges. That this small stream has 

 intermediately been the main channel of the Ganges, is evident 

 from the fact that only one-half of the fort mound now remains 

 the Eastern half having been entirely carried away by the river. 

 During the three years that I was Magistrate and Collector of Meruth, 

 1 made every research to discover vestiges of Hindu occupancy, 

 « ut failed to discover any thing antecedent to the Musulman era, 

 save these bricks. The fact that this old site includes one of the holiest 



