Page:Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India Vol 20.pdf/9

Rh tion of the place is ascribed to Tahan Pal, one of the early Yadava Rajas, and the name is so written at the present day.

Whilst in this neighbourhood I visited the battle-field of Khanwa, where Babar defeated the great Hindu prince Sangram, Rana of Mewar, and his ally Hasan Khan, Ruler of Mewat. Here I sought for, and found, the Baoli well which Babar built on the spot where he poured out all the wine in his camp, in fulfilment of a vow which he had long made, and regularly neglected, until the imminent danger of his po­sition in front of an overwhelming force reminded him of his broken vows.

In the Gwalior territory the chief place visited was the great Jain Temple of Dubkund. The site is very inaccessible, as it lies in the very heart of the deep jungles, 76 miles to the south-west of Gwalior direct, and 44 miles to west north­ west from Sipri. From Gwalior the actual distance by road is 98 miles. The temple is a square enclosure of 81 feet each side. On each side there are ten rooms. The four comer rooms open outwards, but all the rest open inwards into a corridor supported on square pillars. The entrance is on the east side, through one of the small rooms. Each of these thirty-five chapels (thirty-four opening inwards, and four comer rooms opening outwards) originally contained a statue, of which only broken pieces now remain; but there are many of the pedestals still in-situ with richly carved canopies above. The entrance to each chapel is also most elaborately carved after the fashion of the entrance to the sanctum of a Brahmanical temple. There are four figures on each jamb, and three large seated figures on each lintel, one in the middle, and one at each end, with small standing figures between them.

On one of the pillars there is a short inscription which gives the date of 1152 Samvat, and on the pedestal of one of the broken figures there is a nearly obliterated inscription with the date of Samvat 1151. The temple, however, was built a few years earlier, as one of the pillars of the corridor or inside bears a long inscription of 59 lines, giving the date of the erection in Samvat 1145, or A.D. 1088. It opens witR the Jaina invocation—