MADRAS JOURNAL 



OF 



LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 



No. 37. January — June, 1850. 



I. — Statistics of the City of Aurungabad. By Dr. A. Walker, 

 M. D., Surgeon of His Highness the Nizam's Army. On 

 Special Duty. 



Aurungabad is better known at the present day as having once 

 been the capital of the Nizam Shahee dynasty than from any impor- 

 tance of its own, either in a political, or commercial 

 point ; it is now but the chief city of a district of the 

 same name, forming a portion of the Nizam's dominions. It was 

 originally called Khirkee, from the village on whose site its first 

 foundations were laid, then changed to Futtehnuggur, and finally to 

 its present one by Aurungzebe on selecting it as his residence. 

 WaJ1 A terraced wall, of solid masonry, encircles the 



town, of no great height; in many parts not even 

 exceeding fourteen feet. The battlements are loop-holed and lof- 

 ty ; over the gateways, and at certain places around the walls, the 

 merlons are frequently observed to be machicolated : semi-circular 

 bastions surmounted by towers, occur at each flanking angle, and 

 at regular intervals along the works. A few heavy honey- combed 

 guns are to be seen mounted on the towers generally at the gate- 

 ways, but the carriages on which they traversed, have long since 

 rotted beneath their weight, and left them on the ground. The 

 walls have neither ditch nor moat, the manifest object for their erec- 



YOL. XVI, NO. XXXVII. A 



