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212
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JULY, 1881.
therefore, it records the downfall of Taila III., the last but one of the Western Chalukyas of Kalyanapura, and not of his ancestor Taila I.
J. F. Fleet, Bo. C.S. Belgaum, 18th June 1881.
TUS, THE OLD CAPITAL OF THE NORTH OF
PERSIA. The Keshef Rud River passing a little to the north of Meshd, joins the Herat River & little south of Sarakhs, from which point the united streams, known as the Tjend River, flow and lose themselves in the vast swamp of the same name lying northward in the Turkoman desert. From the amount of water which I have seen running from different sources to the Tjend morass it must be a vast one indeed. Crossing a tall brick bridge 'of several arches the old walls of Tas are reached not fifty yards from the river marge. The city cannot have been less than four miles in circuit, as one can judge from the ruins of the ramparts, which at the eastern end are in a remarkably perfect condition. The entire oblong space within them is covered with small mounds, and strewn with brick and fragments of blue limestone, the remains of former houses. Towards the northwestern part stand the remains of the citadel built upon several vast artificial mounds. From the appearance of some towers and walls the stonework still retaining the loam, which had formerly been plastered over it in Persian fashion, I should say that this citadel had been kept in repair as a fort up to a comparatively recent period.
Exactly in the centre of the town stands the only remarkable object of the place, and which the traveller is informed is the tomb of the poet Firdauzi, who, together with the nephew of Imam Riza, the former sovereign of the place was buried there. It is a large domed structure of brickwork, with doorways in the four sides, and pilasters at the slightly flattened corners. Springing from the northern side of the build ing is what appears to have been a small chapel, or else the dwelling of the guardian of the tomb. The entire structure is ruinous both within and without, baving, to judge from the cracks in the walls and dome, suffered from an earthquake shock. It had originally been plastered over, both on the inside and outside, to the depth of a couple of inches, with a fine grey sand concrete, much of which is still adhering even to the exterior. This had been in turn covered with adhesive white plaster. Both concrete and plaster are quite as hard as the bricks which they overlie. The architectural mouldings and other ornamentations, when on a large scale, were rude ly fashioned by the placing and chipping of the
brick, the details being given in concrete and plaster, which were apparently moulded, as in the case of the arabesques and decorative inscriptions in many old Arab structures, and notably so in that of the Alhambra, at Granada. Within the building presents one unbroken space from wall to wall, and from the floor to the centre of the cupola. The height of the latter above the ground cannot be much under seventy feet. It is on the inside hemispherical, the exterior being modified by a step reaching to one-third its height. Formerly an interior gallery seems to have run round the base of the interior of the dome, if one can judge by the remains of wood beams and the spaces sunk in the walls. In the centre of the floor lie the two fragments of a stone coffin which has been rudely smashed in a longitudinal direction. The top and sides are covered with finely-executed inscriptions, verses of the Kurdn. My guide, the old Turkoman, told me that this coffin had been broken open only two years previously by some Russian travellers who visited the place, and who also carried away with them two inscribed marble tablets which had been inserted, one in the northern, the other in the southern wall. I saw myself the two vacant spaces in which these tablets had been, the wood pegs at the rear still remaining; but the demolition of the coffin, to judge from the appearance of the edges of the fractured parts, was of remoto date. It was probably effected by the fall of some portion of the building during the earthquake shock which ruined it. Pious hands may probably have placed the fragments together again, and it may be that the Russian travellers had again opened the coffin. It is now completely empty, and there are marks, evidently of a recent date, as of an iron wedge forced in after some preliminary chipping with a chisel. This old domed structure is visible for at least 20 miles on every side. In its immediate vicinity the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages have made excavations with a view of obtaining building materials, and extensive foundations are visible on all sides. Lying among them I found numerous fragments of old, highly-coloured pottery, some of them displaying the reflet métallique so prized by the "china maniacs." Tus has been, I believe, completely deserted for the past four hundred years, the inhabitants having even at long anterior period commenced emigrating to Meshd, whose rising fortunes had begun to eclipse those of the ancient capital of Korasan. The ground around it seems to be liable to extensive inundations from the overflowing of the Keshef Rud; and in some places a raised causeway, whether ancient or modern I could not ascertain, passes by the old town, leading east and west. In its time Tas was probably an unhealthy place to live in, owing to the swampiness of the surrounding ground. - Correspondent, Daily News.
