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352
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1888.
the Bhüpål State Railway under the neighbouring mountains. Regarding this Gônd fort and its curious defences and its adjoining ruins, I may have stories to tell at another time. It is most probable that, during the existence of the Bhojpur lake, the local climate was much affected, particularly to the east as far as Bhêlsa. The hot winds blowing over this city must have been tempered by the mass of water to windward. The evaporation also must have been so great that the waste weir can only have had water flowing late in the rains, and only for a short while then, and therefore for some distance the water in the Betwå must have been during the dry season only a fraction of what it is at the present time; and floods, frequent now, must have been then of rare occurrence. This probably explains the fact that a great deal of the city of Bhêlsâ is built below the present flood level and is subject to disastrous inundations. It was possibly built when the lake existed; indeed, on conversing with the representative of one of the oldest families of Jain merchants, he assured me he had records to prove that, when his family Bettled in Bhêlsa, the Bêtwa was, as he expressed it, a dry river, and, in consequence of the difficulty of procuring water in the hot season, the members of his and other families had excavated the numerous tanks and wells, the remains of which are to be found around the city. The des. truction of the lake rendered their use unnecessary; and the wells were never repaired, and the tanks relapsed into fields. It is possible that the date of the total abandonment of Bêsnagar was hastened by the drying up of its principal defence and reservoir.
Before concluding, it is worth noting that the name of Dip, a village on a small hill about half-way between Bhopal and the Narmada, and on the northern borders of the valley,-now & station on the Bhopal State Railway,---first attracted my attention to the traditions of the great size of the lake, which had been considered by Europeans to be much exaggerated. If the name meant anything it must mean island,' being a corruption of the Sansksit dvipa; and if the hill on which the village stands was an island, then the traditions only testified to what was true. The surveys I have alluded to prove that the entire hill on which Dip stands really was an island, perhaps two miles in length, and that the northern shore closely touched the hills which alone separated the larger lake from its storage lake - the present lake around the modern city of Bhopal. I am of opinion also that the name of this city is derived in the manner related by Gônd tradition: vix. Bhoj-pal, the pal or band of Raja Bhoj.'
And the reason why this band became to recent generations more famed than the great pál near the city of Bhojpur, is, I take it, that the Bhopal pdl, constructed exactly like the others, but immensely broad for its length and height, became a holy shrine of Buddhist temples, constructed on its broad top, which temples were all no doubt ruined when the founder of the Bhopal family wanted materials for the construction of the fort anä walls of the citadel. The city of Bhojpur probably rose so rapidly, from its salubrious position to importance, that it gave its name to the great lake which really was the cause of its existence..
I think there are few European visitors to these ruined sites who have not longed for a glimpse of the once beautiful lake, or a sail on its broad waters on a hot day in May over to the Buddhist ruins on Bhim bêt, or a run up the romantic waste-weir valley, at the close of the rains, to hear the thunder of the overflow as it plunges down in broken cascades to the Bôtwa, 100 feet below, or an early morn or sunset sail among the isles and up the lovely bays on the western shore, some of them so enclosed as to appear separate lakes, surrounded by mountains nearly 1000 feet high and clothed to the water's edge by tropical verdure. Now, right through the old bed of the lake the iron rail is laid; the whistle of the engine is heard over the plain, and even penetrates the distant glens; and never again can the waters lie on the bosom of the valley which they fertilized whilst beautifying. The iron horse protects it, whilst it opens the scene I have endeavoured to portray to the western pilgrim; roads and rest-houses follow its track; and the beautiful Sfichi tope, now renovated and restored by Government, the superb Gyárispur, Udayêśvara,-a veritable sculptured story--the romantic Pathâri, and the picturesque Eran, all lie close to the new railway which will perhaps be, before the close of next year, the through route to convey all travellers to the north of India from Bombay.
W. KINCAID.
PROGRESS OF EUROPEAN SCHOLARSHIP.
No. XI. Transactions of the Eastern Section of the Russian Archæological Society, Vol II., Parte 1 and 2.
(a) Meeting Feb. 9th 1887.
M. Chakhotin called the attention of Baron von Rosen to the fact that coins of the first Uthman Amirs and other later Sultans are on sale at Constantinople.
