BOORHANPOOR. 
131 
bank of the river, commanding a fine view of the 
country above described ; it is a spacious, but not 
particularly elegant building, the principal interest 
attached to it arising from its antiquity, its excellent 
preservation in defiance of neglect and exposure, and 
the evidence which its design and structure exhibit 
of the refined luxury of those by whom it was 
planned. The inhabitants affirm that it was the 
work of Aurungzebe, but it is plainly of much 
greater antiquity. Its halls and courts, its baths, 
reservoirs, fountains, pavilions, and shaded terraces, 
though disfigured by weather -stains, and polluted 
by noxious vermin and all sorts of unclean birds and 
beasts, bear evidence of having been designed with a 
strict attention to the most extravagant modes of 
gratifying voluptuousness, and with less regard than 
usual to unnecessary ornament. The building was 
probably used as a seraglio, rather than as the court 
residence ; for it is entirely surrounded with a high 
wall, such as usually encloses only the apartments 
of the women. A broad space around the walls is 
planted with pepul and tamarind trees of the most 
luxuriant growth, and of a venerable antiquity, pro- 
bably not inferior to that of the building ; for both 
species are of peculiarly slow vegetation, and of 
great longevity. The fruit gardens, which were 
very extensive, are now overrun with jungul and 
rank weeds, of a gigantic stature peculiar to the 
tropics. Altogether, the scene is one of wild desola- 
