J. D. Beglar
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 100
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 edition. Excerpt: ...stone), besides several minor ones; the place is of no interest. Brick and stone are both used in the gates and walls. There is an idgah also in the fort in a conspicuous position, but it is devoid of interest. Within the fort is a citadel, or older fort as it is called; this is small, and is properly only a citadel. Its walls consist of loose, large, hammer-dressed stone, set dry on each other with thin courses of small stone chips between. The wall thus shows on the face wide courses of massive blocks, separated from each other by narrow courses of stone chips, the whole set without mortar; probably mud was used as a cementing material, as it is still found under the beds, though not on the face between the joints, whence, of course, if it ever existed, it has long ago been washed out. This inner fort is called the Gond or Gauli fort, and is ascribed to the Gonds: the construction of the walls of this citadel gives us an idea of what the external fort was like before the Muhammadans repaired and strengthened it. It is clear that the outer fort at one time had its walls built in a similar manner. There is nothing to show that the fort dates to the preMuhammadan period; the mere fact of stone piled on each other without mortar is no evidence of age. In the absence of inscriptions, the style of a building is justly considered a criterion of the age of the structure; but in these parts, where rude stone monuments, kistvaens and the like are being set up to the present day in a style of primitive rudeness, it is idle to conjecture the age of a structure simply from the rudeness of its construction: a better criterion would have been sculptures, but none exist here that can be ascribed to a period anterior to the Maharathas. The numerous...