Note 163 — PART I.—DESCRIPTION.

Notices, a.d. 1820–1895.In a.d. 1820 Sir John Malcolm163 describes the hill-top as a place of religious resort occupied by some mendicants. The holy places on the hill are the shrine of Hoshang Ghori, whose guardian spirit still scares barrenness and other disease fiends164 and the Rewa or Narbada Pool, whose holy water, according to common belief, prevents the dreaded return of the spirit of the Hindu whose ashes are strewn on its surface, or, in the refined phrase of the Bráhman, enables the dead to lose self in the ocean of being.165 In a.d. 1820 the Jámá Mosque, Hoshang’s tomb, and the palaces of Báz Bahádur were still fine remains, though surrounded with jungle and fast crumbling to pieces.166 In a.d. 1827 Colonel Briggs says167: Perhaps no part of India so abounds with tigers as the neighbourhood of the once famous city of Mándu. The capital now deserted by man is overgrown by forest and from being the seat of luxury, elegance, and wealth, it has become the abode of wild beasts and is resorted to by the few Europeans in that quarter for the pleasure of destroying them. Instances have been known of tigers being so bold as to carry off troopers riding in the ranks of their regiments. Twelve years later (a.d. 1839) Mr. Fergusson168 found the hill a vast uninhabited jungle, the rank vegetation tearing the buildings of the city to pieces and obscuring them so that they could hardly be seen.169 Between a.d. 1842 and 1852 tigers are described as prowling among the regal rooms, the half-savage marauding Bhíl as eating his meal and feeding his cattle in the cloisters of its sanctuaries and the insidious pípal as levelling to the earth the magnificent remains.170 So favourite a tiger retreat was the Jaház Palace that it was dangerous to venture into it unarmed. Close to the very huts of the poor central village, near the Jámá Mosque, cattle were frequently seized by tigers. In the south tigers came nightly to drink at the Ságar lake. Huge bonfires had to be burnt to prevent them attacking the houses.171 In a.d. 1883 Captain Eastwick wrote: At Mándu the traveller will require some armed men, as tigers are very numerous and dangerous. He will do well not to have any dogs with him, as the panthers will take them even from under his bed.172 If this was true of Mándu in a.d. 1883—and is not as seems likely the repetition of an old-world tale—the last ten years have wrought notable changes. Through the interest His Highness Sir Anand Ráo Pavár, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., the present Mahárája of Dhár takes in the old capital of his state, travelling in Mándu is now as safe and easier than in many, perhaps than in most, outlying districts. A phæton can drive across the northern ravine-moat through the three gateways and along the hill-top, at least as far south as the Sea Lake. Large stretches of the level are cleared and tilled, and herds of cattle graze free from the dread of wild beasts. The leading buildings have been saved from their ruinous tree-growth, the underwood has been cleared, the marauding Bhíl has settled to tillage, the tiger, even the panther, is nearly Appendix II. The Hill Fort of Mándu. History Notices, a.d. 1820–1895. as rare as the wild elephant, and finally its old wholesomeness has returned to the air of the hill-top.