72 
W. Vost —The Bog it m Mint. 
[So. 1 , 
The people of the villages named use the old city wells. There 
are still a great number of these all about, with the cement lining still 
perfect. Some only require cleaning out to be almost as good as ever. 
At the time of my visit the ground was covered with mustard crops, 
and the different fields were separated by ridges of broken bricks. Some 
of the bricks were perfect. They were mostly thin, measuring about 10 
inches square. From one well a large tree has grown. It was close to 
this that an old inhabitant pointed out to me the square foundation of a 
building which, he remembered, when a young man had high walls and 
was surrounded by a ditch, perhaps a moat. It was here, he said, Raja 
Har Siijgh lived in Dogam-garh. 
There are traditions of other Rajas who lived in the city. Their 
names are Durag Mall and Soliail Dali. The last is no doubt one of 
the many names of the famous Sohil-deo who lived about 1000 A.D., 
and defeated Sayyid Salar Mas‘ud, the nephew of Sultan Mahmud. I 
cannot make out who Durag Mall was. Har Siggh may possibly be 
the Raikwar Harhardeo who rendered Akbar such service against Idgar, 
the rebellious Governor of Ka^mir, and who after a long absence 
returned to the district in 1590 A.D., to find he had been considered 
dead. He refused to oust his son Jitdeo from the gaddi and retiring to 
Tappa Bownraha married the Brahman owner’s only daughter and 
child. 
The ruins of Dogao cover ground over a mile in length and about 
half that in width. I have no doubt at one time the town must have 
been much bigger. The people hereabouts assert it was connected 
almost the whole way along Anarkalli, an old bed of the Ghagra, with 
Bahraich, and in the opposite direction, with only a slight interval, 
extended as far as Parsa and Khatghar, places all a long way off. The 
name of the city implies there were two villages under one designation. 
It is likely the other was not far distant from the ruins described. 
The following account of what happened to Dogao is both new 
and interesting. Once upon a time to the city, which was a populous 
and wealthy but very wicked place, there came a faqir who was so 
enraged by boys of the city constantly throwing mud at him and mak¬ 
ing his life a burden, that he cursed them and prophesied that the city 
would be punished for its deeds. After some time a pandit learned in 
astronomy made it known from observations he had taken, that the city 
would be totally destroyed in 3 days’ time. He that night got his 
property together and with his family secretly left for Nanpara, first 
barring his house from outside. Before starting he had a shallow pit 
dug in the courtyard of his house, and into it put three pigeons one above 
the other, but each separated by a basket. One of the pigeons was in 
