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TIIE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

the city was in existence 270 years ago; for the inscription is dated in the Shak a year 1521, and records the victory of one C h h a trap a ti and the dedication of the arch to Madhu stid

an a. This victory evidently marks a series of struggles between Hindu conservatism and Mu

[Feb. 2, 1872.

he came to the M and a ra. Happening to wash his feet in the water of a spring at the foot of

the hili he was surprised to find his leprous ul cers disappear. He next washed his hands with the water, when lo! the disease disappeared from them also. He then widened and deepened the

hammadan fanaticism under which the city must

spring which was then called Manohar Kunda,

have been gradually depopulated. This must have been the work of time, and could not have

and named it Pá ph a r n i, or what cleanses men

been

simultaneous

with

the

demolition of

from sin. In commemoration of the event he instituted the mela or fair which was to take

M. a d h us ti d an a ’s temple on the hill to place on the last day of Paush, because it was which K # 1 iſ p a h iſ r's invasion must have been on that day that he used the water of the spring directed. It may be presumed that Ch ha with such miraculous results. It is also believed that Brahma spent millions tra pati would hardly have thought of dedicating the triumphal arch to Madhusti and millions of years on the top of this hill in dana for the purpose of swinging, had not contemplation and prayers to the Supreme. the city been in existence in his time. This When it was at last over, he offered, according supposition finds corroboration in the well known to custom, a betel-nut and other things to the fact, that, after the destruction of the temple on the burning pile, but the betel-nut came rolling down hill, the image of Madh us tid an a was brought the side of the hill and fell into the spring at its down to the plains and located in a new temple base. Thus the waters of the Man oh a r - ku º – built near the arch. The present Zamindars of da or Pá phar n i became especially sacred, and Subbalpur, who claim to be descended from Chha had the merit of curing R iſ já Cholā of his lep trapati, assert that the image was removed to rosy. Dead bodies from the neighbourhood are Bausi only when the city was wholly abandoned burnt on its banks, and the bones thrown into it, by the inhabitants. The precise date of this de as if its waters were as holy as those of the Ganges. population cannot be ascertained ; but it is It is indeed cleared at the time of the fair, but clear that though the Muhammadans under Kálá it is impossible for the water to be freed from pahár may have plundered the city when demo the stench arising from the putrefaction of the lishing the temple on the hill, it continued to half-burnt bodies that are seen floating on its sur flourish, though not in its former splendour, for face throughout the rest of the year. In spite of a considerable time afterwards. It is worthy of of this, the immense host of pilgrims on the day notice that, according to immemorial custom, of the fair bathe in it, in the hope of obtaining the image of Madh us ti dana, continues to be salvation in a life to come. Women from the brought annually from Bausi to the foot of the most respectable families in the neighbourhood hill on the Pau sh-S ank r a n ti day for the come to perform their ablutions at night that purpose of being swung on the triumphal arch they may not be the objects of vulgar gaze. As usual on such occasions, the pilgrims also built by Chh a trap at i. The removal of the image to Bausi has no offer oblations to the manes of their deceased doubt lessened the sanctity of the hill in the estimation of the Hindus; but on the above

ancestors.

mentioned day there is annually an immense gathering of pilgrims, ranging from thirty to forty thousand, who come from different parts of the country to bathe in a tank at the foot of the hill. The consequence is a large mela or fair which lasts for fifteen days. The origin of the fair is accounted for by the following legend:— A Rājā of Kan chipur called Cholā was affected with leprosy, a disease which, according to the Hindus, visits only those who are especially

to the memory of Ráma.

This is generally done at one of

the Ghâts which is deemed especially sacred For this deified hero

is believed to have visited the hill during his twelve years exile from Oudh, and performed the funeral obsequies of D as a rath a his

father, at the Ghiſt which after him is called D as a rath i.

After his miraculous cure, Rājā Chola is said not only to have fixed his capital in the city near

lief he paid visits to all the sacred shrines in

the famous spring, but to have spent his immense wealth in beautifying and adorning the hill with marble figures, stone temples, spacious tanks, and deep reservoirs. To him is also attributed

India but could nowhere find relief. At last

the pious fraud of tracing the coil of the great

accursed of heaven.

In accordance with this be