280 
J. F. Fantliome —A Forgotten City. [No. 3, 
plain.” Well may the writer philosophize at the conclusion. “ Profit 
then by this example ye who are men of insight!” as the author of 
the Qaruns has said: “ Of seven or eight cities, called Mancurah or 
Mancuriyyah, built by a mighty king, or monarch of pomp in their 
time, at this time not one is inhabited. Will they not journey through 
the land, and observe what has been the end of those who were before 
them ? ” “(From Mr. W. H. Lowe’s translation vol. II, p. 68, edition of 
1884.) 
I have known Persian scholars besides Mr. Lowe to read the name 
as Nagarcain, that is, the town of the Cini or Chinese; but the more 
correct reading is Nagarcain, that is, the town or abode o£ rest. 
Another name by which as we see it was called was Amnabad, which 
means also the same thing, namely, a place of relaxation or the city of 
rest; but Akbar was no pedant, he did not affect high Persian and so 
the more Hindianized name was adopted. The ruins of the city lie in 
an extensive plain seven miles due south from Agra in the vicinity 
of the village of Kakrali, within the boundaries of the village of 
Qabulpur, which is conterminous with Kakrali. They consist of a 
place locally known as the Mahal Mandu; a plot measuring 2 biswas 
(9 p.) called Masjid, but there is no masjid there now; another plot 
of 2 biswas also called Masjid, the ruins of a masjid being extant; a 
hammam or bath covering 2 biswas; and a large well. All these edifices 
are in a state of perfect dilapidation. The whole tract is nazul or 
Government property; 6 bighas (a: 3. 1. 17.) of it is cultivated and 
is let for Rs. 23 a year, but nobody knows it as the site of an ancient 
city; the village records speak of it merely as Mahal Mandu. 
The distance of Kakrali from Agra Fort is seven miles, while both 
Abul Fazl and Badayuni describe Nagarcain as situated at a distance 
of only one farsang from the metropolis. And therefore it might 
perhaps be objected that the village which I identify as the site of 
my ‘ forgotten city ’ cannot be the Kalakrali of Abul Fazl or the 
Ghrawali of Badayuni. The explanation which I have to offer is not 
a far-fetched one. Now a farsang is equal to three geographical miles. 
The suburbs of Agra at that period extended as far as Kakuba, which 
is a town situated some four or five miles from the Agra Fort, and 
so Nagarcain would be no farther than one farsang or three miles from 
the uttermost border of the capital. 
The name is another difficulty but only an apparent one. Kakrali 
is the present name of the village, and very probably it was so then 
also. But in the editions which I have seen, namely, Nawal-Kishor’s, 
the name is written as Kalakrali or Kalkarali, in the Akbar-nama, 
and as Kakrauli or Ghrawali, in Badayuni. 
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