from the seat of government; his being engaged in a vast and costly war, never successful, and at last purely defensive; the continued rebellions of different nations under his rule, and the treachery of his own family, he maintained his supremacy to the last; enforced the taxes necessary for his vast projects and expenses, and even, as before mentioned, carried into operation a series of acts calculated to offend the dearest rights of the great mass of his subjects. He did all this by his great natural abilities, never-sleeping vigilance, and minute personal supervision of every department of his government. In person "he planned campaigns, and issued instructions during their progress; drawings of forts were sent to him to fix on the points of attack. His letters embrace measures for keeping open the roads in the Afghan country, for quelling disturbances at Mooltan and Agra, and even for recovering Candahar; and at the same time there is scarcely a detachment marching, or a convoy moving in the Děkkun without some orders from his own hand. The appointment of the lowest revenue officer of a district, or the selection of a clerk in an office, is not beneath his attention, and the conduct of all these functionaries is watched by means of spies and of prying enquiries from all comers; and they are constantly kept on the alert by admonitions founded on such information."*

Aurungzeeb died in 1707, at the city of Ahmudnuggur, after a disastrous retreat from the Maharattas. On account of his splendour, power, and abilities, and the zeal which he showed for the Mahommedan religion, he is looked upon by the Indian Moosulmans as the greatest of all their monarchs. After his death, the Empire, which had no homogeneity, and no real elements of strength or unity, and which had been only held together during his reign by his extraordinary and commanding talents, underwent a speedy decay and gradual dismemberment. The governors of provinces revolted and founded new dynasties; the Maharattas, whom it had been the task of his life to hold in check, spread, and conquered, until nearly all his dominions fell into their hands, and the

*Elphinstone's History of India.

occupant of his throne was their prisoner and puppet; lastly, a power, feebler in its beginnings than either of these, which, during his reign, had secured a precarious footing on both sides of India, accomplished that which Aurungzeeb, with all his wealth and power, had never been able to effect. They subdued the Maharattas, who had grown to be a great and powerful nation; reduced the revolted governors to order and dependence on the central power; reinstated the Emperor in his position and rank; and having spread their conquests beyond what were the farthest limits of India, established a government the most liberal, and at the same time the most united and powerful that India has ever known, and the first which ever secured the unquestioned respect and obedience of all its different nations and rulers.

We took dinner in the "bungalow-tomb," and were afterwards preparing to go to bed, when our messenger returned from Aurungabad, announcing that we could not occupy the tomb, as it had been previously engaged by an officer who would arrive late that night. This was rather annoying intelligence, as it was past ten o'clock. However, we called up our kuhárs, and marched down the hill to the Khailas cave, where we slept in our palkees.

The next morning, as soon as we awoke, we went to visit the caves which we had not seen on the previous day. The first which we saw was the most northern of the series, about a mile from the Khailas, and known as Indra Sabha, since it contains a colossal statue of the god Indra, and his wife Indranee. This cave, which is one of the finest, consists of a series of chambers, each about fifty feet square, hollowed out of the sides of a quarried court. On each side of the court is a tall stone pillar, one of which has the remarkable property of ringing when struck, and is, in consequence, worshipped by the natives. The rooms have the same general appearance as those of the other caves, and are decorated with the same taste. The court is entered through a wall and gateway of solid stone, on one side of which is a monolithic column, and on the other a colossal elephant of stone.

Leaving the cave of Indra, we passed through numerous

others of minor note, and finally visited the Doorma Lena, which contains the largest single room of any one of the caves. This is one hundred and thirty feet in width, and of nearly the same depth. Besides the large apartment, there were numerous smaller rooms arranged in suites. One of these had a colonnade opening upon the precipitous side of a deep and wild ravine, at the upper end of which was a pretty water-fall. Besides the usual sculptured ornaments, the Doorma Lena contained many images of Seewa and his wife Párbutee, the latter of whom was represented in the congenial occupation of impaling a baby.

Whatever may be the size of the chambers in these apartments, the roofs are always very low, and the columns which support them broad and heavy. The latter are usually divided into about equal heights of capital, shaft, and base, the decora tions of each being remarkably similar to the acanthus-leaf designs of Grecian architecture, and quite different from anything that I had seen elsewhere in India. In fact, these might be supposed to be the first rude attempts of art seeking for the perfect grace of the Corinthian capital, did we not know that the choragic monument of Lysicrates at Athens was completed twelve hundred years before these caves were excavated.

These caves are supposed to have been originally dug by the Boodhists, and subsequently altered by the Brahmuns to suit their worship. In some of them the alterations have been much more important than in others, but in almost all there are greater or less traces of a Boodhist origin. The figures of the gods, and the carvings which represent the obscene rites of Seewa's worship, are evidently late additions. The interiors were once decorated with paintings in very bright and durable colours, as the similar caves at Ajunteh are to the present day, but those in the caves of Ellora were all defaced and removed by that great iconoclast, Aurungzeeb.

After breakfast, we all went into the Khailas again, and occupied ourselves until two o'clock in sketching some of the ornaments and capitals of the columns. While thus engaged, we were accosted by two yogees, who had come from

*Yogee, a Hindoo fukheer, or religious mendicant.

Hurdwar, the origin of the Ganges Canal. One of these fukheers had made his hair of a dirty tow colour by keeping ashes and lime on it. He asked whether one of our party, whose locks were somewhat of the same hue, had made them so by the same means. In another of the caves we saw one of these same gentry, who was sitting gathered up in a heap, and had occupied the same position for a year without speaking, having taken a vow to do so for the remainder of his life, as his servant told us.

While going through the temples in the morning, we saw a great many peasants, who had come from Weroola, where a fair was going on. They were going through the sights under the guidance of a Brahmun, who narrated the various legends connected with the gods represented, and demanded a contribution of money after each story. The peasants were mostly Maharatta girls, and very fine-looking. They were generally tall, stout, and well-made. They were clad in a saree, or veil, and a dhotee, tightly girt up around the loins, as is the custom near Bombay. These clothes were made of blue cotton, and their arrangement was well adapted to show the graceful forms of the wearers. The complexions of these girls were light, and their foreheads were marked with a cherry red spot of paint. All the natives in this part of the country had very light complexions, some scarcely darker than a Spaniard, and none so dark as the Bengalees, who are sometimes as black as any African. Even in Northern India I seldom saw the skin so light as the usual colour in the Bombay Presidency. What is a strange thing, the Portuguese,* as they are called, or the half-caste descendants of Portuguese, as they are really, who form a large class in Bombay, are often much darker than na-tives of unmixed blood, and are even occasionally as black as a Bengalee.

*The population of India, of Portuguese descent, is reckoned at one miilion, while the number of the English in India, until the recent revolt, did not exceed fifty thousand, including the soldiers.

Road to Dowlutabad-"The City of Riches"-A Stronghold-The "Master of the Plain" -Meet the Moon-Lady" again-Aurungabad-A Magician-Tomb of Aurungzeeb's Daughter-Another Revolt-Separation of our Forces-Toka-The GodaveriBrahmuns-A hungry God-Rope-and-boat Bridge-Imampoor-AhmudnuggurMeet our Friends-The Fort-The Kingdom of Ahmudnuggur-The Largest Brass Cannon in the World-Duelling among Natives of India-Chand Beebee again-Death of Aurungzeeb-Bombay Kubárs-Seroor-Kondapoora-The River Kistna-Poonah-Dismiss our Kuhárs-Good-bye to Dhoolee-travelling-Irregular Cavalry.

ABOUT two o'clock we left the caves, in order to arrive at Dowlutabad, six miles off, in time to see its castle by daylight. We again ascended the Ghât, and passed through Roza. The road was very bad, in fact merely a path leading through a wild, hilly, and deserted country, so we did not reach our destination until five o'clock, and consequently were obliged to see the celebrated fortress rather hurriedly. Dowlutabad, the "City of Riches," is a walled town built on a level plain which is surrounded by hills. The town is a considerable one, and entirely in the Moosulman style of architec ture, having been rebuilt by Aurungzeeb. It contains several gardens of trees, and a tall, but now rather ruinous, minár erected by the Moosulmans to commemorate the taking of the place. In the centre of the city rises a very steep and rocky hill, about 700 feet high, upon the summit of which is the castle, considered by natives the strongest fortress in the world. It was built by the Emperor Mohummud Toghluk, who had a fancy for making this place his capital, and twice compelled all the inhabitants of Delhi to remove hither. Both migrations were attended with great suffering, but in the last a large proportion of the people died of starvation, as a famine prevailed at the time.

The ascent to the fortress is alternately by a steep road and