Page:Bulandshahr- Or, Sketches of an Indian District- Social, Historical and Architectural.djvu/104

 insertion of stone traceried windows and a pair of handsomely carved doors. Even the Race Stard, outside the station, has been built on similar principles, and is thoroughly Indian in character. The material is block kankar with dressings of white sand-stone. The cost has been gradually defrayed by the annual sale of tickets at the time of the races.

The handsomest private house in the town was built for Saiyid Mihrbán Ali, the Honorary Magistrate of Gulaothi. It occupies a singularly favorable position at the east end of a broad street, which in front of the house first opens out into a small square, and then branches off into two bazars, running due north and south. Immediately at the back is the steep slope of the hill, on which the old Fort once stood, and the rise is so rapid, that the carriage-entrance, which is up a side lane, and the court-yard on to which it opens, are on a level with the roof of the shops, which from the Square appear as a basement story to the building, and thus give a great increase of dignity to the façade. It was under construction throughout the year 1880, and the house warming took place on the 26th of the following February, on the last day of the annual Show, when all the European residents and visitors sat down to dinner with their host in the large room on the first floor. A third story with a beautiful screen of pierced stone tracery was afterwards added, making the cost of the frontage amount to Rs. 4,200. The premises at the back are extensive and commodious, but of ordinary brick masonry, and are not yet fully completed.

The central area of the Square was formerly a dusty untidy waste, but now appears as a raised brick terrace with stone dressings, and carved stone lamp-posts at the four corners. It was constructed in 1879 at a cost of about Rs. 1,000. The people were at first opposed to the improvement, thinking it might interfere with the celebration of the Bharat Miláp, the meeting of Ráma, Lakshman and Síta on their return from exile with their brother Bharat, which forms the last scene in the popular miracle play of the Rám Líla acted throughout India during the festival of the Dasahara, and which at Bulandshahr is invariably performed in this particular Square. When I witnessed it in the first year of my incumbency, all the surroundings were of the poorest and most squalid appearance; now, on all four sides, brick and carved stone have been substituted for mud and thatch, and a more effective stage for an illumination or theatrical