34 
Chandrasekhara Banurji —The Kaimur Range. 
[No. 1, 
huge block, apparently engaged to the rock. It is more than two 
yards long and a foot and a half broad. Placed under a roof and surrounded 
by walls, it is rendered secure from the beatings of the weather, and 
therefore from decay. A long inscription has been cut on this block, which 
is completely legible. It is dated Samvat 1226, or 1173 A.D., and was 
carved under the auspices of a monarch immediately before the approach 
of the Crescent. The inscription consists of two parts. The first has 
two slokas in praise of the goddess of the shrine, and runs, if we are 
rightly informed, in the TJpendravajra metre. The second part has three 
couplets and a half in tb Q Srag-dhard metre, and recites the praise 
of the “ stout and hard-hearted monarch Maharaja Pratapa Dhavala Ail, 
who was lord over rajas, owned a country and a fort, whose dominions extend¬ 
ed 684 square miles on each side as ascertained by actual measurement by 
the hand. The Maharaja was a Kshatriya of the Parsa gotra. He had the 
surname of Ail, and was of the same noble race as Rohitasva, whom tradition 
assigns to have been the founder of Fort Ruhiclas or Rohtas, and the first 
Aryan settler on the Son. He reigned in the same country as far 
back as 35 centuries. Was Pratap Dhaval Ail, of whose existence, race, 
and name we have a tangible proof in the shrines and inscriptions, a 
descendant of Rohitasva, to whose age the researches of History have yet 
hardly descended ? It is difficult to doubt this. “ For among the noble 
houses of the nations of the earth there is none that can boast of a longer 
pedigree, or of a more splendid history, than the Rajputs of India. 
We next visited the Mundesvari hill, on the summit of which there are 
the remains of a very ancient shrine. The hill is situated about six miles 
to the south-west of Bhubun. At the foot .of the hill, an annual fair is 
held on the night of the 9th of Baisakh, when streams of pilgrims with 
flaming torches wind up the slope. From a distance the Mundesvari hill looks 
like a blue-pointed pyramid with the slight outline of a spreading tree on the 
summit. The tree grows on the ruined tower of a temple, the sides of which 
only are now standing. The approach to the temple lies through the eastern 
face of the mount. The ascent is easy; stage by stage as you ascend, the hill 
is observed to consist of three or four successive spires. Between the foot 
of each spire and the one immediately under it, there are even plains, which 
were once the sites of masonry buildings. The ruins of these are spread 
along the eastern slope with some huge images of gods. The chief of these 
is a big image of Ganesa, richly ornamented. There is another image lying 
flat on the rock. The head is broken and is missing, but it has a coat with 
* According to Mr. Sherring, (p. 143) Rohtas on the Son was founded by the 
Kachwaha or Kushwahu tribe of Rajputs, who trace their origin to Rama through 
his son Kush. Maharaja Rala, Maharaja Man Sihha, and the present Maharaja of 
Jaypur, are the present illustrious descendants of this race. 
