________________
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY, 1876.
NOTES ON SOME PARTS OF THE AHMADNAGAR COLLECTORATE.
BY W. F. SINCLAIR, Bo. C.S. Kopargam lies sixty miles north of Ah- upon a coarse stone plinth, with no inscription madnagar on the Malegâm road, on the north or ornament whatever,-unless a small marble bank of the Ganga or God â var i river, and, linga may be so called. Yet the surroundingsthough itself a small place, of no particular im- the black massive walls of the vádá, and the boilportance except as the head-quarters of a tâluka, ing current of the sacred river--make it no it possesses some historic and legendary interest, unfit place for the ashes of a man who, with all and bas in its neighbourhood some valuable his follies and crimes, was certainly the first remains.
soldier (though not the greatest general) of his Koparga m itself was the favourite residence time and nation, and is still remembered as of the famous Raghunath Rao Bhat, com- having "watered the Dekhani horses in the monly called Rag ho bê Dad &, the brother of Attak." the Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao, and father of the Near the site of the old palace in the island last of the dynasty, Baji Rao II. The Mamlatdår's stands the temple of Kacheśvara,-a set of kacheri is now established in a palace built buildings of little beauty and no antiquity, but by or for him, which is, however, remarkable extremely sacred, and possessing a Mahátmya for nothing but a very pretty carved wooden or chronicle of their own, which might yield ceiling in one of three rooms reserved for the some information to a scholar able to read it. accommodation of district officers on tour. The The following legend is said to be contained in building itself, like most Marathả palaces, is it, but it was told to me by word of mouth :constructed of the worst possible stone and "In former days the Gangthari (plain of brickwork, concealed by showy carpentry and the Ganga) was inhabited, like the rest of the cut-stone facings, and will probably have to be Dekhan, by Daityas, whose great gurú, Sukra abandoned next year, when I hope the decora- Acharya, resided in this island. The gods tion referred to above will be preserved from were not able to deal with them, and consulted the wreck, as one of the few samples of really Bțihaspati, who undertook their conversion, and good decorative art which remain to us from despatched his son, named Kach, on the pious a period and dynasty of generally unmitigated errand. Kach went to śukra Acharya* barbarism.
and enrolled himself as his cheld or disciple. Opposite this, in a grove of trees in an island Now $ ukra Acharya had 'one fair daughter, of the Ganga, was formerly another palace, who was much taken with the good looks and which has been pulled down and sold, as has good manners of the new comer. But the also a third at Hinga ni, three miles off, and Daitya disciples were jealous of him, and sus. need not be lamented. But at this last-named pected that he meant no good; so one day they place still stands the tomb, or rather cenotaph, slew him in the jungle, and came home and of Rag hob å himself, which is worthy of some reported him missing. The lady, however, with remark. In an elbow of the Ganga, and sur. her wits sharpened by love, was not long in rounded on three sides by its bed, here danger- conjecturing the truth; and she went to her ons and rocky, stands a fortified enclosure of father and induced him to repeat for the benefit cut stone, 65 paces long by 58 wide. I had of Kach a mantra which should restore him, no way of measuring the height of the walls, if dead, to life again ; and shortly after the but they must be at least sixty feet high. There dead man walked in and proceeded to prepare is only one gate; but the side towards the his suppor. Three times the Daityas made river is quite open, and it appears to me, from away with Kach, in one way or another; but the way in which the corner towers are finished, still the lady coaxed the words of power out of that it was never intended to build it,-at any her fond parent, and still the objectionable inrate to the height of the other sides. In the trader came to time.' Then they devised centre is the cenotaph or thadki, a very small cunningly together, and having knocked Kach and rude erection of timber and brickwork on the head yet once more, they burnt him to
• In the story of Wâman (Ind. Ant. vol. IV. p. 243) Sakar or Sukra Acharya appears as the chief priest of king Bali.
