Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/275

 KHE 267 the survivors made their escape unmolested by the Súrajbans, who thence- forth held undisturbed possession, of Khairigarh. Buildings.—There are no ancient buildings of much note. The forts of Barwar, Khairigarlı, Mitauli, Muhamdi, Kamp, Balmiár Barkhár, are interesting from their historical associations, but not from their structural features, extent, or military strength. They are more or less in ruins. There are three or four small temples in each pargana, mostly dedicated to Mahadeo, but none of them rank architecturally above petty shrines. They are all a few feet square, and thirty to fifty feet high, built of brick, and covered with plaster effigies. There are no houses, save of the hum- blest kind. The wealthy owners of tracts covering 500 square miles, like the lords of Bhúr, live in wretched mud-walled enclosures, surrounded by their cattle. There are no brickbuilt houses in Mubamdi, there being a popular prejudice against them; a similar prejudice against the use of bricks, either for houses or well-building-exists anong the Albans, who own a large principality here. There are only 129 masonry houses in the whole district. There are several masonry tanks,-one at Dhaurahra uear Kaimabra, built by the grandfather of the Kaimahra rája, but this is in a ruinous condition, and owing to defective construction, never contains any water, There are many (2,634) brick wells; but excluding these, a tank in Kheri is the only permanent work of private or public utility which has been handed down through all the thousands of years preceding the annexa- tion of the province in 1856. Not a bridge, not a road, except a few cart tracts; not a single work for the collection or distribution of water; no markets for the accommo- dation of trade; no schools ; no dispensaries or hospitals; man had simply done nothing for his fellow man through all those centuries except build wells. Labour was abundant, for the inhabitants constructed innumerable brick wells. Some are of enormous size, built by the Sayyad family of Muhamdi, who appear to have been the first civilizers of the district; but the greater part are from twenty to thirty feet deep, about four feet in diameter, and cost about Rs. 400 to construct. Hardly any of them are used for irrigation ; the foundations are being too yielding to admit of the strain caused by drawing up large buckets of water. There are some remarkable ruins at Fateh Kara on the tenth mile north-west of Lakhímpur. They consist of numerous mounds, covered with jungle and blocks of carved stone on the bank of the UL. The principal mound seems to have covered a temple of the sun, a huge repre- sentation of which in four quarters, similar to what Colonel Tod des- cribes as the ornament to the throne room at Udepur, is lying half buried. The capitals of pillars, also of a Chalukia or Rajput type but much defaced by exposure, are also to be seen. A large frieze, about six feet long and twenty inches high, with three sitting and eight standing figures, is in an adjoining village. A head of Buddha with an apsara upon it has somehow escaped attention, and shows considerable expression and free- dom of execution : the whole composition was a very graceful one origi-