the north and east the place is rendered almost inaccessible by the Piria Nala, a difficult ravine with steep broken banks, and numerous deep pools of water quite impassable by wheeled vehicles. For this reason the cart road to Bareli, distant only 18 miles due east, is not less than 23 miles. Indeed the only accessible side of the position is the northwest, from the direction of Lakhnor, the ancient capital of the Katehria Rajputs. It, therefore, fully merits the description of Hwen Thsang as being defended by "natural obstacles."* Ahi-chhatra is only seven miles to the north of Aonla, but the latter half of the road is rendered difficult by the ravines of the Ganghan River. It was in this very position, in the jangals to the north of Aonla, that the Katehria Rajputs withstood the Muhammadans under Firuz Tughlak.

The ruins of Ahi-chhatra were first visited by Captain Hodgson, the Surveyor, who describes the place as "the ruins of an ancient fortress several miles in circumference, which appears to have had 34 bastions, and is known in the neighbourhood by the name of the Pândus Fort.'" According to my survey there are only 32 towers, but it is quite possible that one or two may have escaped my notice, as I found many parts so overgrown with thorny jungle as to be inaccessible. The towers are generally from 28 to 30 feet in height, excepting on the west side, where they rise to 35 feet. A single tower near the south-west corner is 47 feet in height above the road outside. The average height of the interior mass is from 15 to 20 feet. Many of the present towers, however, are not ancient, as an attempt was made by Ali Muhammad Khan, about 200 years ago, to restore the fort with a view of making it his stronghold in case he should be pushed to extremities by the King of Delhi. The new walls are said to have been 11 gaz thick, which agrees with my measurements of the parapets on the south-eastern side, which vary from 2 feet 9 inches to 3 feet 3 inches in thickness at top. According to popular tradition, Ali Muhammad expended about a karor of rupees, or one million pounds sterling, in this attempt, which he was finally obliged to abandon on account of its costliness. I estimate that he may, perhaps, have spent about one lakh of rupees, or

* Julien's Hwen Thsang, II., 234.

£10,000, in repairing the ramparts and in re-building the parapets. There is an arched gateway on the south-east side, which must have been built by the Musulmâns, but as no new bricks were made by them, the cost of their work would have been limited to the labour alone. The ramparts are 18 feet thick at the base in some places, and between 14 and 15 feet in others.*

There are three great mounds inside the fort, and outside, both to the north and west, there are number of mounds of all sizes, from 20 feet to 1,000 feet in the diameter. To the north-west, distant one mile, there is a large tank called the Gandhán Ságar, which has an area of 125 bigahs, and about one-quarter of a mile beyond it there is another tank called the Adi Ságar, which has an area of 150 bigahs. The latter is said to have been made by Adi Raja at the same time as the fort. The waters are collected by an earthen embankment faced on both sides with bricks of large size. The Gandhán Ságar is also embanked both to the east and south. The mounds to the south of the tanks are covered with large bricks, both plain and moulded; but judging from their shapes, they must all have belonged to temples, or other straight walled buildings, and not to Stupas. There is nothing to show whether these are the remains of Buddhist or of Brahmanical buildings, but from their extent it is probable that they were the former.

According to Hwen Thsang there were only nine Brahmanical temples at Ahi-chhatra in A. D. 634, all of which would appear to have been dedicated to Siva. But as Buddhism declined this number must have been increased, for I discovered the ruins of not less than twenty temples of various sizes, of which one is gigantic, four are large, five are of middle size, and twelve of small dimensions. Three of these are inside the fort, and the others are grouped together outside on the west road. I made excavations in most of these mounds, all of which yielded moulded bricks of various patterns, but only two of them afforded sculptures by which their original purpose could be absolutely identified. These two temples are marked as Nos. I. and IV. in my survey of

the ruins.

See Plate No. XLIII. for a map of Ahi-chhatra.