28 
Chandrasekhara Banurji —The Kaimur Range. 
[No. 1, 
held by a Moslem. The history of Harsha Brahma is, however, enveloped 
in a myth. Harsha Brahma is said to have been the high priest of Raja 
Salibahan, a Rajput chief of the country. Falling out with the Raja, the 
Brahman was deprived of his lands, and he waged a little war in which 
he invited the Emperor of Delhi to assist him. Whether the curse of the 
Brahman or the valour of the Pathan was the cause, we will not undertake 
to determine, but the Raja’s power was exterminated and Harsha Brahma rose 
triumphant. Dying soon after, he was sanctified,* and his shrine stands 
on a raised terrace with no other shelter but the branches of an old 
pipal tree, and continues to draw crowds of daily pilgrims from distant 
places. His name is greatly dreaded, and no oath in the country, even with¬ 
in the sacred limits of Banaras, would be more solemn than one taken by 
the name of Harsh Baba.f 
A couple- of days’ leisure enabled us to pay a visit to some of the noted 
shrines on these hills, which we shall now attempt to describe in the words 
of our journal which we hurriedly jotted down at the time. 
Past the town of Sahasram we came to a country which towards the 
west was covered with a dense forest of palm trees, whose tall trunks and 
elegant crests stood in bold relief on the twilight heaven—silent like 
so many sentinels by the huge ramparts which projected from the neigh¬ 
bouring hills. The south and the east were blockaded by a barren belt ; a 
solitary palm-crest on the top of the ridge standing up prominently as a 
flag-staff; while the view was bounded on our left by a huge pyramid, on 
whose toj3 the white tomb of Chandan Sayyid caught the eye as a relic of 
art amidst everything that was nature’s own. Our tent had been sent up 
the Kota ghat, and we thought we would have early rest. But scarcely had we 
gone a mile when a man came down from our pioneer, to tell us not to 
attempt the pass. We were advised to go to Tilauthu, where, we were told, 
a competent guide could be had. We were thus compelled to change our 
program at a moment’s notice. Tilauthu lay eleven miles off, and changing 
our cart for an elephant, on we went at a sluggish pace until we reached the 
pass of Tara Chandi. Tara Chandi lies at a short distance only from Sa- 
* This story of Harsha Brahma, taken from a poem in Hindi, called Brahma- 
Muktavali, hy Isvari Datt Pandit, serves as one of many instances to refute the over¬ 
bold assertion of Buckle that “ the tendency of Asiatic civilization was to widen the 
distance between men and their deities”, and that “ hero worship or deification of mor¬ 
tals could form no part of the ancient Indian Religion”. Yol. I, pp. 142-146. 
f Chyapur, during the Mughul period, was attached to Rohtas as one of the domains 
of the keeper of that Fort. Subsequently it was held as the zamindari of the Rajas 
of Bhagahanpur, one of whom in a fit of desperation killed the nazir or court 
officer of the Shahabad collectorate, who was sent to serve a process on him. The 
zamindari was, about the year 1790, confiscated for the offence. 
