SURVEY 0-F-.THE GANGES: 4% 



eonstitutes the chord. The principal, street runs through the city, about 

 four furlongs in length, and contains the grand Bazar. The houses are in 

 general two stories high, constructed of large stones^ with a shelving sla- 

 ted roof of shingles. The lower apartments are allotted for shops and 

 merchandize, the upper for the accommodation of the fanulies. Therigid 

 uniformity of the buildings, both in stru(5lure and materialsy shews what 

 little advancement has been made in architecture, at the same time that 

 it detra(5ts from the beauty of the place. A narrow projecting verandah^ 

 or balcony, forms the only apparent difference in the houses of the high- 

 er class of inhabitants; and such a system of equality prevails, that one 

 might suppose it the effeCt of design, or of a cautious fear to manifest an 

 increase of wealth, by an ostentatious display in their outward appear- 

 ance. Even those of the t\\^o chiefs by no means convey the idea of 

 mansions appropriated to the residence of men to whom was committed 

 the government of a province. 



When Gol. Hardwicke visited this capital, in the year 1796, it wa§ 

 under the government of a Raja, to whom it had hereditarily descended 

 through many generations ; and it might be supposed to be in its most 

 flourishing state ; yet it's appeairanee Was not marked with opu'lenc^ef or 

 splendour; but since that period, many 'natural awd fortuitous causes have 

 combined, to reduce it to a lowerstate of' poverty, and insignificance. The 

 encroachments annually made by the- '^ lac an an da, on the houses contiguous 

 to its current, the earthquake of 1803, which shook every building from its 

 foundation, and the Gurc' halt invasion at the close of the same year, formed 

 such an accumulation of evils on this devoted capital, that one might be 

 inclined to believe it a decree of fate, that the city should not survive its 

 Bative princes. Every house appears to have felt tlic shock; in tlic 



