National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

narrow rocky crest in the south-west (see Plan 4). Along its total length of
more than 300 yards the wall was very massively built with large uncut slabs
of sandstone quarried on the spot. But, owing to the steepness of the slope, the
foundations have given way over most of its length, bringing down the wall into
confused masses of debris. But of the several semicircular bastions still traceable
two towards the western extremity of the ridge have stood their ground in great
strength (Fig. 11). The sloping walls are built with large slabs of dressed
stone set in regular courses, and bear a look of considerable antiquity, later
repairs being easily distinguished by their inferior masonry. The upper of these
two bastions, built on a very steep rocky slope, still rises to a height of 27 feet
on its slanting face. The one below lies close to where the present road passes
the line of wall and evidently was meant to guard the gate. The slopes below
the top of the ridge and within the defences are covered with the debris of rough
stone walls, the remains of dwellings built wherever there was room left. Be-
tween them passes the road across a small saddle of the ridge.
The southern face of the ridge is for the most part lined by cliffs so precipitous
as scarcely to need defences. Where the road descends from the saddle
just referred to, the gap left between the unscalable cliffs below the western-
most end of the top and an equally steep spur projecting from below the
ruined mosque to be presently mentioned, remains of a wall closing the approach
are just traceable for about 100 yards. Thence the road runs down in zigzags to
a small plateau, covered with the debris and foundation walls of decayed dwell-
ings. This is known as Kainthī, and lies about 250 feet below the highest part of
the ridge. Some 120 yards to the east of it the road passes on a lower level a
very massively built semicircular bastion evidently meant to guard an outer
gate. It rises to a height of 29 feet on its sloping face, and is built with dressed
sandstone blocks measuring on the average 25 inches in length and 10 inches in
height, carefully set in courses. Above it the remains of a much decayed line of
wall ascending to the foot of precipitous cliffs below the ruined mosque can just
be made out. Thence the road runs down very steeply to the point where the
two spring-fed streams descending in the gorges on either side of the ridge
unite at the valley bottom, some 500 feet below the top (Plan 3). The rivulet
formed by them drives some mills, and passing the houses of 'old Bāghānwāla'
runs for half a mile in a picturesque narrow valley lined by luxuriant fruit gardens.
Then it is caught at its mouth in small canals to carry its life-giving waters
to the orchards and fields of the large village of Bāghānwāla.
The remains on the narrow but fairly level top of the ridge (Fig. 7) comprise
the ruins of a Hindu temple, a mosque close to the south-west of it, and a very
massive but much injured pile of uncertain character built on what forms a kind of