1868.] Description of a Hindu Temple converted into a Mosque. 75 



like it) has, instead of seven or eight stones in arch, only one cut 

 like a key-stone. But as the entrance is cut through solid masonry 

 and is small, there was no need of any key-stone,andit has sunk down 

 for want of pressure on its sides. I note this, because it is difficult 

 to guess why the key- stone was put there at all, unless it was to give 

 the appearance of an arch. The dome is only a weak rubble and mortar 

 thing, which is falling in. There was once a village of 300 houses of 

 Muhammadans near Gaganes'var. Nothing is left of them but the 

 mounds of the village and this mosque, and some Persian words in 

 the Zemindari vocabulary. The Zemindar has no records of them in 

 his papers. I do not suppose the original building is more than three 

 or four hundred years old. In the inscription it is called a " bera," 

 and its name among the villagers is " the Karambera." 



Note by the Editor.— The inscription alluded to above is in the Uriya 

 language and character, but seven out of eight lines of it being defaced 

 by the strokes of a hatchet or some other blunt iron instrument, the 



