270 Report of the Archeological Survey. [No. 4, 
the Gumti. 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 Bij. 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 84 broad and 51} feet deep to the water level. 
858. 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 AHdhajal, a renegade Hindu, 
who is said to have been the Vazir of Ala-ud-din Ghort. For Ghori 
we must read Khzlji 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 
Ghoris, the alteration is perfectly allowable. But who was Hahdjdl ? © 
As a renegade Hindu and the Vazir of Ala-ud-din, he might perhaps 
be the same person as Ka/tér, 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. 
XXIL—BARIKHAR, OR VAIRATKHERA. 
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 

