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By rail it is but an hour's journey from Sultangung to Jumalpore. The tunnel here, bored through the obdurate rock for nearly half a mile, is such a prodigious work of human labour and skill, as, in the language of Brahminic hyperbole, would have been represented to have been perforated by the Gandiva of Arjoona for a passage into the country of the Angas. By river it took us half a day to get up to Monghyr, passing the beautiful Kurruckpoor hills, on a peak of which was the hermitage of Rishsyasringha Muni, and where a mela is annually held in honour of his memory. Near one of the low rocks projecting into the river, are the well-known hot-springs of Seetakoond, famous in Hindoo legends for being the spot where Seeta underwent the ordeal of fire to prove her untainted chastity from the violence of Ravana.

Monghyr is a pretty town in a charming green valley, with the broad river washing it on two sides and the hills in the back-ground. The ancient Hindoos had an eye for all beautiful and advantageous localities, and such a romantic and commanding position as Monghyr has, could scarcely have been left unoccupied by them. In the absence of positive information, this is an indirect argument in favour of the antiquity of the place, originally called Mudgulpoor. It was on a very good day that we happened to arrive at Monghyr, where the anchorage ghaut presented a lively and busy scene of preparations for the reception of Lord Canning, then on his vice-regal tour to the Upper Provinces, with all the means and appliances at the disposal of a provincial

town. The steepy bank had been smoothed into an easy slope, and spread with a crimson cloth for a landing place The Civil authorities and Railway officers of the station lay waiting upon the shore, while a little knot or crowd had formed itself to witness a sight which it seldom falls to their lot to enjoy. Our steamer had scarcely anchored to coal for half an hour, before the Governor-General's barge appeared in sight, and slowly steaming up came off town, and dropped its anchors in the mid-stream. The Agra immediately hoisted up its flag in honour, and some of the authorities started in their boats to offer their welcome to the Viceroy. He landed in a few minutes amidst no booming of guns, or presentment of arms, but simply the nods and salaams of the assembled multitude. His principal object in honouring this town with a visit was, we were told, to inspect the Jumalpore tunnel.

In Monghyr there are no ancient buildings, or ruins of them, to render it a place of antiquarian interest. The only object to detain the traveller is its fort, which stands on a rocky promontory, and covers a large extent of ground, measuring 4000 feet in length by 3500 in breadth. On three sides the ramparts are defended by a wide and deep moat, filled only during the rains, and on the fourth is the Ganges, which flows here with strong eddies and currents, and forms one of the difficult passages for navigation. There are rocks in the bed of the stream against which the waters beat in regular surges, and it is pleasant to see them break immediately beneath your feet from the bastion above.

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Fort and other Buildings of Monghyr. 109

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The fort is now dismantled, and merely surrounded with high stone walls, having four gateways, the principal of which is called the Lall Durwaza. Upon two or three slabs of the side pillars of the eastern gateway, we observed some small, worn-out bas-relief Buddhistic figures, from which it was evident that they had once belonged to a Buddhist temple standing at this town in a former age, and which afforded a proof of its antiquity. Inside the enclosure is an ample plain of fine turf, dotted with a few trees, and two or three noble tanks, the largest covering a couple of acres a state of things just the same as seen by Heber forty years ago. Two high grassy knolls are enclosed within the rampart, occupying two opposite angles of the fort, which is an irregular square with twelve bastions.' On one of these eminences is a handsome house, originally built for the military commander of the district, but now occupied by the Civil Judge of the station. There is in the fort a beautiful mosque, built of black marble. The palace of Sultan Soojah is traced in the altered building that is now occupied as the shop of Thomas and Co., and where we saw a Mussulman gent come and buy an English spelling-book. This is the best located of all buildings in Monghyr. Near it was shown to us the ruins of a vast well, and a subterranean way communicating with the Ganges, through which the Begums used to go to the river for ablutions. The masonry works of the passage are in a ruinous state, and grown over with jungles. The little stone-ghaut is yet in a fair condition.

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Monghyr is a favourite town to old, invalided military pensioners and their families, who enjoy here a climate and picturesque scenery that reconcile them to a life of exile, and who at last repose in the 'small but neat burial-ground, fenced in with a low wall, and crammed full of obelisk tombs.' The town is large enough and well kept up, having pretty roads and streets with a moderate population. The river-side face of the native town has an imposing appearance with its high stone-ghauts, temples, and shady groves of ancient trees. Though all the houses are small,' says Heber, there are many of them with an upper story, and the roofs, instead of the flat terrace or thatch, which are the only alternations in Bengal, are generally sloping, with red tiles, having little earthenware ornaments on their gables. The shops are numerous, and I was surprised at the neatness of the kettles, tea-trays, guns, pistols, toasting-forks, cutlery, and other things of the sort which may be procured in this tiny Birmingham. I found afterwards that this place had been from very early antiquity celebrated for its smiths, who derived their art from the Hindoo Vulcan, who had been solemnly worshipped, and is supposed to have had a workshop here.' In simple language, the mythologic story of the Bishop has a reference to that iron-mining in the neighbourhood, which naturally made Monghyr a manufacturing town of hard-ware; but, as such, it has declined much from its former prosperity, and is now reputed for its table dish-mats, straw hand-punkahs, and baskets of various patterns,

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ladies' handsome light wooden, jet-black polished necklaces and bracelets, children's painted wooden toys, and strong palm-wood polished sticks and bamboo canes. Not more than twenty-five years ago, the agriculturists here were so simple as to sell their produce in heaps and not by weight, when many mahajuns made their fortunes. Ghee could be had at ten rupees the maund, that now hardly sells below thirty. Many hill-women and their children are observed in this town. The great tutelary goddess of Monghyr is Chundee Mata, an emblem of Kali, lying in a desolate part of the town that has been abandoned. Referring to the aquatic habits of the low people here, Heber relates the instance of a pretty young country-woman ducking under water for so long a time that he began to despair of her re-appearance.' We observed two men come across from the other shore swimming in a standing posture, with little bundles of reeds under their armpits, and pails of milk upon their heads. Herds of cattle also cross over with their keepers to browse on the marshy islets in the river.

Passing Monghyr, we mention a place that has come to our knowledge under the name of Paliputra. It is a little insignificant village where dealers go to buy grain from first hands. Situated nearly a hundred miles below Patna, the mere coincidence of its name can hardly justify us to assume its identity with Palibothra.

From Jumalpore to Luckeeserai and the other stations, the rail takes us through a hilly country dis

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