Page:Oriental Scenery — One Hundred and Fifty Views of the Architecture, Antiquities, and Landscape Scenery of Hindoostan.djvu/189

26 No. XXII.

BETWEEN TAKA-CA-MUNDA AND SERINAGUR.

these high situations the traveller encounters no villages; he must carry with him the means of subsistence, or perish. Taka-ca-munda is a solitary resting place; a plain stone building erected near the barren summit of one of the highest mountains, for the accommodation of benighted wanderers, or to afford an occasional shelter from the storms that frequently vex these cloud-enveloped hills.

The road is continued over the mountainous tract represented in this plate; it then descends to the Bunder Nullah, not far from which the traveller is gratified with a sight of the Alucnindra, or Ganges, and of the city of Serinagur.

 No. XXIII.

THE ROPE BRIDGE, AT SERINAGUR.

city of Serinagur appears in the distance, extending along the right bank of the Alucnindra, and is partly concealed by the high rock in the front of the view. On the author's approach to this place, he was greeted by many young people, who presented him with flowers, and preceded his party on their way to the town, singing and shewing other signs of an hospitable welcome. On entering the city, he found the disposition of the Rajah himself no less friendly, but unfortunately he was then preparing to quit his capital, and leave it to the mercy of another Rajah, who, in his superior power, had discovered an unanswerable argument for invading the territories of his neighbour. The river is here too rapid to be passed even by boats, and therefore the bridge of ropes, represented in this plate, offered the only means for the Rajah and his people to effect their retreat, which circumstance presented an affecting scene, and a most melancholy example of the wretched state of society under these petty chieftains, whose views of government are little better than those of savages; and with whom all questions of justice and right are, as with duellists, referred to arms; considering, like them, no decisions so correct, and so honourable, as those which have been recorded in letters of blood.

This bridge, which is 240 feet in length, is an ingenious contrivance, and so simple that it may be soon erected and soon removed. On each side of the river two strong and lofty poles are fixed in the ground, and kept together with transverse pieces at their upper ends, over which large ropes, made fast to the rocks or ground, are stretched and extended from side to side. From the bottom of those upright poles are carried other ropes, which are drawn towards the upper ones by a lacing of cords, while flat pieces of bamboo are so fastened to the lower cords as to form a tolerably commodious footway.

On the top of the rock near the bridge, are the remains of a building formerly inhabited by a Faquier, who is a kind of Indian hermit.

 No. XXIV.

VIEW TAKEN NEAR THE CITY OF SERINAGUR.

this place, which is a little above the city, terminated the author's route through the mountainous district of Serinagur. War, which is the scourge of art and science, rendered the further gratification of his curiosity, however inoffensive its object, in these parts dangerous. The fighting men were preparing for resistance, and the rest of the people, seeking their safety by flight, were removing in a body to the opposite side of the river, by means of their temporary bridge.

The mountains are here embellished with scattered villages, and their sides with regular horizontal stripes of cultivation, producing an effect not so agreeable to the artistical as to the philanthropic observer, who is much less interested by the beauties of form than by such unpicturesque indications of useful industry. The Alucnindra, which flows through this fertile vale, might, indeed, be termed the Ganges, being its principal branch, although it does not actually receive that appellation till, after passing the mountains, it makes its solemn entrance into the plains of Hindoostan, at the Hurduwar; a place of vast consideration among the Hindoos, regarded by all the faithful as a bathing place of prodigious efficacy in preparing the way to future bliss, and thence denominated Hurduwar, or the Gates of Heaven.

It seems to be the property of this marvellous river to sanctify whatever it approaches, its islands are therefore devoted to the habitation of priests and pious hermits; its rocky banks display the embellishments of religious art; the cities upon its shores, by their innumerable ghauts, or flights of steps, for the convenience of ablution, seem erected chiefly for pious purposes; and the name of Serinagur, or Holy Place, would probably never have been given to that city, had it not been situated on the banks of the Ganges. But time makes no distinction between what is sacred and what profane; this ancient city has felt its effects, and shares in the common fate of Hindoo grandeur, which can now only be seen in its mutilated remains. Raja, its present chief, is a man of high caste, and much beloved by his people; of whom, nevertheless, he is but a feeble protector: like many of the minor sovereigns of our own hemisphere, whose sceptres of straw, the gracious boon, perhaps, of some colossal power, command no respect, and impart no security.

Serinagur is in latitude 31 deg. N. longitude 78 deg. W. and is distant from Cape Comorin, the first View of this Series, about 2500 miles. 