206 



INSCRIPTIONS. 



as the main lines of railway from Bombay and Madras form 

 their junction at this station; but beyond this few Europeans 

 know much about the place. 



The old fort, however, presents a striking appearance, even 

 to the casual observer who sees it from a passing train, and 

 is well worthy of description. Its general form resembles a 

 square, with the southern corners rounded off, and the south 

 and east sides curved outwards. Three sides of this square 

 are defended by a high stone wall, strengthened by a number 

 of substantial bastions, and surrounded by a moat ; whilst a 

 steep isolated rock, rising 290 feet above the plain and pro- 

 tected by a double line of fortifications and the moat, forms 

 an appropriate boundary on the south. The outer wall passes 

 close round the southern base of this rocky hill, but encloses 

 on the northern side a strip of level ground about 1,000 yards 

 long from east to west, and 600 yards wide, on which a part 

 of the present town is built. "Within this first line of defence 

 a second wall is found, which, passing round the south of the 

 hill about half way up the rock, encloses on the north a square 

 piece of level land having an area of about 50 acres. 



On the west side the two walls are very nearly parallel and 

 about 150 yards apart ; this space is now waste land marked 

 by the signs of ruined dwellings. The interval between the 

 eastern walls is twice as great, and is covered with houses, 

 whilst a large part of the present town lies still further to 

 the east. From this it is plain that the town has had a 

 gradual tendency to extend eastwards ; for the inscription 

 shown in the accompanying photograph proves that the inner 

 wall was built 300 years before the outer, and it seems fair 

 to infer that when the outer wall was built it enclosed all 

 that part of the town which then lay outside the original 

 limits. 



The age of the outer wall is definitely fixed by the dates 

 on a number of stone tablets which are built into niches in 



