76 
[No. 2, 
Kavi Raj Sliyamal Das— Antiquities at Xagar?'. 
This pyramid is call’ed ‘ U'bli diwal ’ or the ‘ vertical lamp’, and 
is said to have been erected by Akbar as a beacon lamp (for burning 
cotton seeds socked in oil placed in a huge cup kept on the summit), 
to denote the head-quarters of his camp when pitched there to reduce 
the fort of Chitor in S. 1624 (A. D. 1568). Notwithstanding the authors 
of the Akbar Namah, Tabaqat i Akbari, Iqbal Nam ah Jahangirf and 
Farishta say nothing about it, yet it may be that Akbar did employ 
the column for placing on it the signal light of his camp, reasonably 
considering* it better adapted to this purpose than any new thing which 
he could make. 
From certain remains found to the north of Nagari in the bed of 
the Berach, it may be inferred that a bridge had been thrown across 
the river, and the people say that its debris were used in that over the 
Gambhiri which flows past Chitor. But my own investigations show 
that the latter could not have been entirely constructed in this way, as 
it contains also portions of some old shrines, e. g., the stone tablet 
bearing the Inscriptions of the temples founded by Rawals Tej Singh 
and Samar Singh.* 
Further, the inhabitants of Nagari have a belief that the materials 
of its ancient structures were used in the erection of the fort and the 
buildings of Chitor. This carries a certain amount of truth with it, 
inasmuch as traces of the debris of a Nagari village attract the tourist’s 
notice in the temples and ruins of Chitor. f 
origin, but the similarity of its architecture with that of the Hathiom ka bara would 
point to a contemporaneous date of the two structures. He also informs me that tho 
word U'bh’diwal is a Mewari term. XTbh in that dialect means ‘standing’ or 
‘ vertical ’, e. g., ubhd bond means ‘ to stand up’. Diwal is equivalent to Hindi ducat 
‘a lamp’ and seems to be derived from the two words dip and alay. Koto by Mr. 
II. Beveridge. —[Tho staircase, spoken of by Tod, must have boon an outer one, pro¬ 
bably a wooden structure, which appears to liavo perished. An inner staircase, even 
if there could have been one in tho narrow chamber of 4 feet square, would lmvo 
been useless for the purpose of reaching tho summit, between which and tho roof of 
the chamber there are 12 foot of solid masonry. As Akbar used to keep a beacon 
on its summit, it is clear that onco thoro must havo existed an outer staircase by 
which tho summit could bo reached. Akbar himself may havo got it mado for his 
beacon. Ed.]. 
* Paper on tho Prithi Raj Rasa, p. 17, No. T, p. 1, 11. A. S. Journal for 1886. 
t Tod, II, ]). 750, says that two temples in Chitor, erected by liana Khutnbo, and 
his wife Mira lljii, are entirely constructed from tho wrecks of more ancient, shrines, 
said to have been brought from t he ruins of a city of remote antiquity, called Nagara, 
throe kos northward of Chitor- lie adds in a noto “ I trust this may be put to tho 
proof; for I think it will prove to bo Takslmc-Nagarn, of which I have long been in 
search ; and which gave rise to tho suggestion of Herbert that Chitor was of Taxiln 
1’orus." 
