346 
Some Account of Mandu, fyc. 
[Nov. 
made to release it from confinement below. The purpose it was intended to serve, 
is as difficult to conjecture as its perfect immoveability (which the guides solemnly 
assured me was the case) is ridiculously untrue. Held by some invisible power, 
the impossibility of taking it away, though quite loose in the earth, was dwelt on as 
a proof of its magic origin, among my servants ; who with the usual shout of wah 
wah ! each shook the iron staff, and seemed perfectly convinced. It is always 
prudent to give up to the belief, on these occasions, which the ignorant about you 
so readily grant to fables of the kind. I have often indeed thought the loss which 
the better informed suffer by not being able to yield credence to such tales is fre- 
quently a source of chagrin and disappointment. To have disputed with my 
Ciceroni, the truth of their absurd assertions in this instance, would only have 
prevented them from showing me perhaps some other objects more worthy of my 
curiosity, than this resisting iron pole, thought by them to be of such wonder- 
ful attraction. On the first morning after my arrival, and when on the point of 
sitting down to partake of the only meal I ever relish in India — breakfast — my 
ears were somewhat very unexpectedly greeted by the mellow, musical sounds of 
a bell ; such as the votaries of Hinduism use in worshipping their gods. Nor 
was the piercing shrill conch absent on this occasion to increase my surprise, in a 
spot where I had erroneously enough supposed no followers of that or any other 
religion dwelt. My guides, however, ever ready to furnish information, quickly 
satisfied me on this head, by pointing to a square brick building, not very far off ; 
from the centre of which arose a couple of the usual whitewashed tapering tem- 
ples, plainly of recent erection, and, to all appearance, indebted to some more 
modern artist, than any other thing about them could boast of having been built 
by. Their history was as follows The Rajah of a neighbouring province (Dliar) 
had in his household, as is usual, a family priest of great acquirements, who 
dreamt that Mandu was of Hindu foundation, though subsequently of Mahomedan 
conquest, and that an idol, much venerated by those of the former persuasion, was 
lying somewhere buried within its walls. To rescue the image from obscurity, was 
certainly an object ; and while I don’t exactly see how the founding of a college 
for the education of Pundits could tend towards discovery, such, at any rate, proved 
the consequence of the dream; and to this establishment, containing some ten or 
a dozen pupils, did I owe my interruption. It appeared the worthy dreamer him- 
self was principal, and the expense attending his delusion was not spoken of as 
of trifling amount, to its pious, but far from affluent supporter ; owing to provi- 
sions, &c. having to be carried to it every day from a Bazar, as distant as Che- 
caldra. The only other temple for Hindu worship at present to be found within 
the extensive space these ruins cover, was showed us down a steep declivity, formed 
out of the almostperpendicular rock, which acts as a natural defence to the town. It 
consisted of two or three low roofed cells, out of which a spring of the purest 
water arose ; various statues of Vishnu, &c. surrounded the platform immediately 
outside the entrance, which was itself laboriously carved in the usual style of 
Hindu embellishment. Beyond this nothing remarkable was to be seen here, though 
the excessive coolness of the atmosphere was too inviting, not to continue longer 
within its sacred precincts, than strictly speaking, the little it contained justified. 
The fact of the existence of this ancient shrine, dedicated to deities so hateful to 
those of the Mussulman belief, is a pleasing proof, that numerous sect, with 
all their bigotry and love of proselytisin, were yet tolerant enough to permit an 
establishment, for the celebration of the rites appertaining to so idolatrous a 
creed, as that of Brahma. 
During the heat of the day, when unable to range with any comfort far from my 
retreat, I paid a visit to an extensive mausoleum directly behind where I lodged. 
- — It was entirely composed of marble, with its dome and windows in no way di ei- 
ing from the common plan of Mahomedan sepulchral buildings. In the middle, walk- 
ed by two tastefully designed and sculptured tombs, repose the bodies of those to 
whose memory the whole had been consecrated. For about three or four feet roun 
them, ran a singularly beautiful tesselated pavement of variously coloured marble , 
and one of these handsome stones it was, which had been torn up and taken away, 
that I regretfully referred to, when speaking of Sir David’s presence here having 
been commemorated by an act, similar to what he himself strongly condemned m 
another case. It was particularly wanton to deface that which belonged to the 
dead; on whose perishing bones, so much care had been bestowed, by friends, to 
preserve them from oblivion. It was injuring a costly structure, until then quite 
perfect ; and hastening the arrival of that decay, which had scarcely spared another 
edifice of a city confined by thirty- six miles in circumference, and exhibiting on 
