[MARCH 1, 1872.
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
68
grounds also it may be inferred that the whole
in explanation, and it is said that here Balarium sat down (baitha) to wait for Krishna. The myth was accepted; a lake immediately outside
series is due to that monarch rather than to his
the village was styled Bal bh a dra Kund,
the civil station of M at hur à
was furnished with a handsome masonry ghāt
Sarai, now much modernized and of somewhat inferior character to the other three, though probably of the same date. This, with the
by Rūp Rām, Katāra of Barsāna, about the middle of last century, and is now regarded as positive proof of the popular etymology which
predecessor Shir Shāh.
For at the entrance of is a fourth
little hamlet outside its walls, is known by the
Braj which does not exhibit some ruinous
name of Jalal pur in honour of Jalāl-ud din Akbar, who was therefore, presumably, its founder. Similarly the Ch a u m u_h a Sa rå i is always described in the old topo graphies as at Akbarpur. This latter name is
record in the shape of temple or tank of his un
now restricted
bounded wealth and liberality.
some three
connects the place with
Balaram.
Of Rüp
Ram, the Katāra, further mention will be made in connection with his birth-place B a r s an a.
There is scarcely a sacred site in the whole of
His successor
in application to a village miles distant; but in the 16th
in the fourth descent, a most worthy man, by name Lakshman Das, lives in a corner of one
century hocal divisions were few in number and
of his ancestor's palaces, and is dependent on charity for his daily bread. The present owners of many of the villages, so munificently endow ed by Rūp Rām, are four cousins, residents of Calcutta, the representatives of a Bengali Kayath by name Krishan Chandra, but better known as the Låla Babu, who, in the year 1811, made
tion of the imperial sarài was the origin of the
a disastrous visit to this district, and
by an
wide in extent, and beyond a doubt the founda local name which has now deserted the actual
spot that suggested it.
The formation of
Cha u m u_h a into a separate village dates from
a very recent period, when the name was bestow ed in consequence of the discovery of an ancient sculpture, supposed by the ignorant rustics to represent the fourheaded (Chaumunhã) god I3rahma. The stone is in fact the base of a Jaina
affected regard for the holy places and assump tion of the character of an ascetic cajoled the
pillar or statue, with a lion projecting at each
old Zamindars out of their landed estates, in
corner and a rude figure in each of the four inter
several cases purchasing them outright for a
mediate spaces. The upper margin is rudely
sum which is less than the rental of a single
carved with the pattern commonly known as the
year. Property so lightly acquired is, it seems, lightly esteemed; and its present condition point edly illustrates the evils supposed to be insepa
Buddhist rail.
From the description given by John de Liet, in his India Vera, written in the year 1631, we
rable from absenteeism.
find these saràis were managed precisely as our As might be inferred from the above sketch, the modern Dák Bangalàs. He says—“They occur country possesses no relics of hoary antiquity. at intervals of five or six kos, built either by the Excluding for the present any reference to the king or by some of the nobles, and in them four large towns, M at hur à, Br in d a ban, Gobardh an and Mahā ban, the earliest build ings are probably the three Sarais, along the line of the Imperial road from Agra to Delhi; at Chaum uh fi, Ch hat à, and Kosi. These are generally ascribed by local tradition to Shirshāh, whose reign extended from 1540 to 1545 A.D.: though it is also said that the one at Kos i was built by Itibar Khān, and that at Chh at à
by Abd-ul-Majid, better known by his honorary title of Asaf Khān. He was first Humayun's Diwān and subsequently Governor of Delhi under Ak bar. The style of architecture is in exact con formity with that of similar buildings known to have been erected in Akbar's reign, such for example as the Fort at A gra; and, on other
travellers can find bed and lodging : when a
person has once taken possession he may not be turned out by any one.” They are fine fort like buildings, with massive battlemented walls and bastions, and high-arched gateways. Thongh
primarily built merely from selfish motives, on the line of road traversed by the imperial camps, they were at the same time enormous boons to the general public ; for the highway was then beset with gangs of robbers, with whose vocations the law either dared not, or could not interfere: and on one occasion, in the reign of Jehāngir, we
read of a caravan having to stay six weeks at Mathura, before it was thought strong enough to proceed to Delhi, no smaller number than 500 or 600 men being deemed adequate to en
