O U G E I N, 
86 
foot into one of thefe fiflures, endangers his own limbs, 
and the life of his rider. The quantity of rain that falls 
in ordinary feafons is fo confiderable, and the ground fo 
retentive of moifture, that wells are rarely ufed for agricul¬ 
tural irrigation. A great part of the labour, incident to 
cultivation in other parts of India, is thus faved. But this 
very circumftance makes the fufrering more fevere on a 
failure of the periodical rains ; for the hufbandman, accuf- 
tomed to depend on the fpontaneous bounty of heaven, is 
unprovided with wells, and is with difficulty brought to 
undertake the unufual labours of irrigation, efpeciaily as 
they muft commence with digging the fources. There 
are, as in other parts of Hindooftan, two harvefts in 
Malwa; the firft in March and April, the fecond in Sep¬ 
tember and October. Wheat, peafe, and various forts of 
vetches, ripen in the firft. Barley is not cultivated, nor 
rice, otherwife than in fmall detached low fpots. Grapes 
are abundant. Ougein is firft fuppiied from Burhanpoor, 
a very large and fiourilhing town, more than ioo miles to 
the fouthward. By the time the Burhanpoor grapes are 
exhauiled, in April, thofe of Ougein ripen, but are inferior 
to the former. The vines produce a fecond crop in the 
rainy feafon, but of an acidulous and much inferior grape. 
The other fruits are the mango, guava, plantain, melon, 
water-melon, two fpecies of annona (fquamofa and reti¬ 
culata), feveral varieties of oranges and limes, the falfah 
(Grewya Afiatica), from which is made a molt refrelhing 
fherbet. 
The principal articles of export trade are cotton, which 
is fent in large quantities to Guzerat for the Bombay and 
China market, coarfe printed cloths, and opium. From 
Bombay, through Surat, are received various kinds of 
European and China goods, many of which are fometimes 
to be purchased cheaper at Ougein than in the Englilh 
fettlements; alfo pearls, which are partly ufed here, and 
partly forwarded to Hindooftan. Aflafcetida, which is 
produced in Sind and provinces beyond it, comes hither, 
on its way to the eaftward, to Mirzapoor, &c. and dia¬ 
monds, from Bundelcund to Surat. 
The fituation of this city is of importance, becaufe it 
is confideredas the firft meridian by Hindoo geographers 
and aftronomers. By the medium of eleven obfervations 
of Jupiter’s firft and fecond latellites, Dr. Hunter deter¬ 
mined its Ion. to be 75. 51. E. from Greenwich ; its lat. by 
a medium of eight obfervations, he made 23. 11. 13. N. 
It may be roundly reckoned about 300 miles north-eaft 
from Surat, and fomething more fouth from Agra. In¬ 
dore, the capital of the Mahratta family of Holkar, is 
about twenty miles in a foutherly direction, and Bopal 
(properly Bhupala) about 100 to the eaftward. 
The ancient city of Ougein was iituated about a mile 
to the northward ; and now lies, and has for many cen¬ 
turies lain, buried in the earth to the depth of from fif¬ 
teen to eighteen feet. On digging, its walls are faid to be 
found entire, pillars eredt and unbroken, pieces of wood 
of extraordinary hardnefs, &c. The bricks thus dug up 
are now applied to the purpofes of building, but are much 
larger than any made in the prefent or late ages. Uten- 
fils of various kinds have been found, and ancient coins. 
Very iittle, however, has been yet done towards develop¬ 
ing the prefent ftate of this fubmerged city ; the intereft- 
ing Herculaneum of India. Dr. Hunter noticed a large 
quantity of wheat that was found while he was there; it 
was in a charred ftate; a potter’s kiln he alfo faw, filled’ 
with broken earthen veflels. Tradition imputes the de- 
flrudlion of the city to a lhowerof earth, an idea likely to 
have originated in fuperficial obfervation; for, although 
Dr. Hunter obferved no volcanic hills nor fcoria in the 
neighbourhood, and thinks the ftate and polition of the 
walls and pillars militate againft the fuppofition of an 
earthquake having effedled the fubmerfion of the city, it 
is yet difficult to impute it to any other than a volcanic 
caufe, operating perhaps with lefs violence and con- 
vulfion than have attended fimilar phenomena in other 
countries, and combined with, or rather caufing, an inun¬ 
dation of the river. A change in the courfe of the river 
is faid to have taken place at the time; and an ancient 
bed is now traceable. A deftrudtive inundation was wit- 
nefledand recorded by Dr. Hunter; and it would appear 
that the neighbourhood of Ougein is particularly fubjedl 
to inundation; and, w’hen the loofe friable nature of the 
foil is conlidered, it feerns molt reafonable to refort to an 
alluvial hypothefis, to account for the fubmerfion of the 
ancientcity. But, whatever may have been the real caufe 
of the cataftrophe, it cannot be fuppofed that the wild 
fancies of Hindoo hiftorians would fuller the fadt to be 
fimply told. It muft be drelfed up in a mythological alle¬ 
gory. In fable or fadt the interventions of the gods can¬ 
not be difpenfed with. The following ftory is accord¬ 
ingly related. 
A certain Gandharva, or celeftial chorifter, was con¬ 
demned, for an affront to the god Indra, to be born on 
earth in the ffiape of an afs; but, on entreaty, the fen- 
tence was mitigated, and he was allowed at night to af- 
fume the form and fundtions of a man. This incarnation 
took place at Ougein in the reign of rajah Sadafvafena, 
whofe daughter was demanded in marriage by the afs; 
and his confent was obtained, on learning the divine ori¬ 
gin of his intended fon-in-law, confirmed, as he witneffed, 
by certain prodigies. All day he lived in the liable like 
an afs; at night, lecretly flipping out of his fkin, and al- 
fuming the appearance of a handfome and accompliftied 
young prince, he repaired to the palace, and enjoyed the 
converfation of his beauteous and happy bride. In due 
time the princefs became pregnant; and, her chaftity 
being fufpedled, flie revealed to her inquifitive parents 
the myftery of her fpoufe’s deledlable nodiurnal metamor- 
pholis; which the rajah, (or, by other accounts, the mother,) 
being conveniently concealed, himfelf beheld; and, un¬ 
willing that his fon fhould return to his uncouth difguife, 
fet fire to, and confumed, the vacant afs’s fkin. Re¬ 
joiced at his releafe, for this event appears to have broken 
the fpell, the incarnate Gandharva warned his beloved 
wife to quit the city, which he forefaw was about to be 
overwhelmed with a fhower of earth, from the refentment 
of Indra, thus difappointed of his vengeance in the ter¬ 
mination of the banifliment of his infolent fervant. She 
fled accordingly to a village at a fafe diftance, and brought 
forth a fon named Vikramaditya; and a fhower of cold 
earth, poured down by Indra,, buried the city and its in¬ 
habitants. 
It may be here noticed that this fable, wild as it is, af¬ 
fords If ill fome confirmation of the fuppofition of an in¬ 
undation during the rainy feafon having deftroyed the 
city. For Indra is the god of fhowers; and fuch an event 
would of courfe be attributed to the vengeance of the 
Jupiter Piuvius of the Hindoo Pantheon, in the fame 
manner as we frequently find the cafe in the natural phe¬ 
nomena mythologized in the Iliad. 
The feeming fable has alfo another feature of hiftoric 
truth ; for Vikramaditya, fo diftinguifhed in his origin 
and birth, is no lefs fo as a monarch and an aftronomer. 
His name marks an era much ufed ail over India, of which 
the 1869th year correfponds with 1813 of our’s. Several 
monarchs of Malwa of this name are however recorded ; 
and differences of opinion exift on fome chronological 
points connedled with this era. (See Af. Ref. vol. ix.) 
The Vikrama in queltion is, however, particularly dif¬ 
tinguifhed by the furname of his putative parent, who is 
called Gardha-rupa, or the Afs-faced; and his era is hence 
to be afeertained with more accuracy than is ufually ob¬ 
tainable on remote points of Hindoo chronology. He 
was the third Vikramaditya; and appears, by feveral hif- 
torical coincidences, to have afeended the throne of 
Malwa in the year of Chrift 441. It hence appears that 
the city funk about 1400 years ago. The ftory of the afs, 
varioufly modified, is widely fpread in the popular tales 
of India, Perfia, Turkey, Arabia, and other oriental 
countries; and has found its way even into the literature 
and legends of Europe. 
The 
