CHAPTER XXIII.

Appointment to Dhuboy-Revenue of the Purgunna-General Division of Hindostan-City of Dhuboy-Inhabitants-Sacred Groves Chandode-Zinore-Ranghur - Bhaderpoor-Monkeys-Curious Anecdote of their Agency-Powaghur-Source of the Nerbudda-Story of Narmada from the Hindoo Mythology -Uncharitableness of the Brahmins-Low Estate of the Chandala Caste-Cruelty of the Jaina Brahmins-Singular Anecdotes of Religious Hindoos-Comparison between the Porticos at Dhuboy and Pompeia--Expense of the Dhuboy FortificationsGate of Diamonds-Lines on a celebrated Picture by Guercino -Serpents at Dhuboy-Guardians to Nero-Story of the Origin and Magnificence of Dhuboy-Its Destruction by the Mahomedans, and subsequent History-Custom of giving a new name to Oriental Cities-Dhuboy surrounded by the Mahratta Army.

WHEN Dhuboy was made winter quarters for the Bombay army, during the Mahratta campaign in 1775, I little thought it. would so soon belong to the East India Company, and that I should be entrusted with its government; a situation to which I was appointed in 1780, on its being surrendered to General Goddard, in command of the detachment from the Bengal army. Dhuboy, Zinore, Bhaderpoor, with the little district of Chandode, were thus placed under my jurisdiction as collector of the revenue for the India Company.

Dhuboy is the capital of a purgunna or district, of

the same name, in the province of Guzerat, which contains eighty-four villages, and yields a revenue of four lacs of rupees, about fifty thousand pounds sterling, per annum. The produce of the Dhuboy district consists of batty, bajaree, juaree, and smaller grain ; with some cotton, mowrah, seeds for oil in great variety, and shrubs for dying. Batty may be termed the staple grain of this purgunna; the others bear only a small proportion, and wheat is seldom sown.

At

The city of Dhuboy, upwards of two miles in extent, forms nearly a square; fortified in the Indian manner, with a high wall and fifty two irregular towers. each angle is a round tower, surmounted by a cavalier bastion. In the centre of each face is a double gate of hewn stone, richly ornamented, with a spacious area between them. Dhuboy at that time contained only forty thousand inhabitants, mostly Hindoos, including a very large proportion of Brahmins. There are three hundred Mahomedan families; but no Parsees yet settled in this city: the magnificent remains of public buildings, and the site of numerous houses in a ruinous state, indicate it to have been, at a former period, a place of great importance, and much more populous. The manufactures chiefly consist of coarse dootes, sent from home to be dyed at Surat for the Mocha and Judda markets; no very fine cottons are wove here; the common sort, dyed in the city, are generally for home consumption. Ghee and the coarse cottons called dootes, are the staple commodities of Dhuboy. The customs collected in the capital, and at the naukas or smaller custom houses in the pergunna, seldom exceed sixteen thousand rupees a-year.

Within the walls is a tank lined with hewn stone,

and a flight of steps all around, three quarters of a mile in circumference; part of it was then much out of repair its first cost exceeded five lacs of rupees, or sixty thousand pounds. This magnificent reservoir is supplied with water, not only by the periodical rains, but also from receptacles without the walls, by means of a stone aqueduct communicating with the tank; which it enters under a small temple in the hallowed groves of the Brahmins, forming a cascade with a picturesque effect.

The opening this aqueduct at the commencement of the rainy season, affords a festival to the inhabitants for several days: like the Egyptians at the annual rising of the Nile, they make religious processions to the temples, and perform their flowery sacrifices in the surrounding groves. The elders look on with complacency, younger females dance on the banks, while the boys rush into the foaming cataract, and swim about the lake. This annual supply of water is far more beneficial than the gifts of Bacchus in other countries; the peasants and their cattle here assuage their thirst in seasons of draught, when the surrounding reservoirs fail, and the small rivers are generally exhausted.

These dances were less formal, and more active than any I had seen in India, unlike those of the dancinggirls, and little resembling the English country-dance; the tune and figure seem both unstudied; and the songs which accompanied them, like the rhapsodies of the Italian improvisatore, or those of their own Bhauts and minstrels, were all extemporaneous effusions. They reminded me of those which Lady Wortley Montague describes among the modern Greeks ;

same

"whose manner of dancing is certainly the that Diana is said to have danced on the banks of Eurotas. The great lady still leads the dance; and is followed by a troop of young girls, who imitate her steps, and if she sings, make up the chorus. The tunes are extremely gay and lively, yet with something in them wonderfully soft. The steps are varied, according to the pleasure of her who leads, but always in exact time; and infinitely more agreeable than any of our dances."

During these festive rites the Brahmins offer sacrifices, in the temples and adjoining groves, to the different deities; especially to Isa the god of nature, and Indra, who presides over the seasons.

Chandode has no fortification, being esteemed a place of great sanctity by the Hindoos, and much respected by all other tribes. The detachment of horse kept for the security of the Dhuboy districts, are particularly useful about Zinore and Chandode, situated near the Gracias, a most insolent and cruel set of banditti.

The Zinore purgunna contains fifty inhabited villages; the town of that name is open, large, and straggling, tolerably populous, situated on the steep banks of the Nerbudda; the deep gullies which nearly encompass it are the only defence. The trade and manufactures are similar to those at Dhuboy; so is the produce of the country, except that it bears less rice, and a larger proportion of cotton. The customs of Zinore and Naukas are usually about three thousand rupees per annum.

The small compact gurry at Ranghur, strongly si

tuated on the banks of the Nerbudda, eight miles from Zinore, is now included in that purgunna.

Bhaderpoor, although dignified as a separate purgunna, does not with its whole district annually produce so much as one of the best Dhuboy or Baroche villages. The principal town, situated on the banks of the Oze, is little more than seven miles from Dhuboy; some of its villages only three. Of these sixteen are inhabited, many desolated, from the incursions of the Bheels and Gracias. The produce is similar to that of the Dhuboy purgunna; the revenue, in tranquil times, is sixteen thousand rupees; the customs amount to three or four thousand rupees per annum.

In Bhaderpoor is a small gurry for the protection of the town. It contains the custom house and a few other low buildings of poor materials, which were burnt down by the Mahrattas, with a considerable part of the gurry, when they found it would become English property. I repaired the whole at a small expense. I likewise put the fortifications and public buildings at Dhuboy in the best possible repair.

The durbar, or governor's mansion, where I resided, with its courts and gardens, occupied seven acres: it was almost surrounded by the lake, except near the principal gate, communicating with the town; a pavement of large flat stones admirably united, formed a dry walk at all seasons, above the steps of the tank, shaded in most parts by lofty trees, and adorned with fragrant shrubs; through which only a few houses and towers on the walls were visible; so that from the windows of the durbar, overlooking the lake, everything had more the appearance of a rural village than a