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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

country. Before his time Barsána, if inhabited at all, was a mere hamlet of the adjoining village Unchá-gāw, which now under its Gūjar land lords is a mean and miserable place, though it

[Oct. 4, 1872.

a Jamadār, and eventually the leading favourite at court.

Towards the close of his life he beg

ged permission to return to his native place and there leave some permanent memorial of the

boasts the remains of a fort and an ancient and

royal favour. The Nawāb not only granted the

wellendowed temple, dedicated to Baldeva.

request, but further presented him with earte blanche on the State Treasury for the prosecu tion of his designs. Besides the stately man sion now much dilapidated, he constructed a large baoli still in excellent preservation, and two wells sunk at great expense in sandy tracts where previously all irrigation had been imprac

Rúp

Rām was the founder of one of the now supersed

ed temples of Lârlí-Ji, with the stone staircase up the side of the hill. He also constructed the largest market-place in the town with as many, it is said, as 64 walled gardens; a princely man sion for his own residence ; several small temples and chapels and other courts and pavilions. One

of the latter, a handsome arcaded building of carved

stone, has for some years past been

occupied by the Government as a police station without any award of compensation, though the present representative of the family is living on the spot and is an absolute pauper. Three chhattris, commemorating Rūp Rām himself and two of his immediate relatives, stand by the side

of a large stone tank with broad flights of steps and flanking towers, which he restored and brought into its present shape. This is esteem ed sacred and commonly called Bhánokhar, that is, the tank of Brikha-bhān, Rádhá's reputed father.

In connection with it is a smaller re

servoir, named after her mother Kirat.

On the

margin of the Bhánokhar is a pleasure-house in three stories, known as the Jal-mahall. It is supported on a series of vaulted colonnades which open direct on to the water, for the convenience of the ladies of the family, who were thus enabled to bathe in perfect seclusion, as the two tanks and the palace are all enclosed in one court-yard by a lofty bastioned and embattled wall with tower like gateways. Besides these works, Rúp Rám also constructed another large masonry tank for the convenience of a hamlet in the neighbour

ticable. The sacred tank on the outskirts of the town

called Priya-kund, or Piri-pokhar, was faced with stone by the Lavaniyas; who are further commemorated by a large Katra, or market place, the ruins of the vast and elaborate man sion where they resided, and by elegant stone chhattris at the foot of the hill.

They held

office under the Rāja of Bharatpur, and their present representative, Rám Nārāyan, is now Tahsildár of Káma in that territory. Barsána had scarcely been built, when by the fortune of war it was destroyed beyond all hope of restoration. In 1774 A.D., the Játs, who had advanced upon Delhi in support of the cause of Zábita Khān, and in consequence of ill-snccess

were returning to their own country, were met at Hodal in Gurgáñw by Najaf Khán hastening up from Agra. Dislodged from their position, they fell back upon Kotban and Kosi, where they remained for nearly a fortnight, and then finally withdrew towards Dig, but at Barsána were over

form of a Greek cross to his brother Hem-ráj. Contemporary with Rūp Rám, two other wealthy

taken by the Wazir and a pitched battle ensued. The Ját Infantry, 5000 strong, were commanded by Sumroo, or to give him his true European designation, Walter Reinhard, a celebrated ad venturer who had first taken service under Sūraj Mal, and was still with his son Naval Siñh, the then Rája of Bharatpur. The ranks of the Im perialists were broken by his gallant attack, and the Játs feeling assured of victory were following in reckless disorder; when the enemy rallying from their sudden panic turned upon their pur suers, who were too scattered to offer any solid resistance and effectually routed them. They

families resided at Barsána and were his rivals

contrived however to make good their retreat to

in magnificence. The head of the one family was Mohan Rám, a Lavaniya Brähman; and of the other Lálji, a Jantia Thákur. It is said that the latter was by birth merely a common

Dig ; while the town of Barsána was given over to plunder and the stately mansions, so recently erected there, were reduced to their present state of ruin in the search for hidden treasure. Naval Siâh died some twenty days after the battle, but whether in consequence of wounds there received

hood, which he settled and called after his own

name Rip-nagar; and on the opposite side of the town, in the village of Ghāzipur, faced with octagonal stone ghāts, the sacred lake called Prem Sarovar. Opposite the latter is a walled gar den with an elegant domed monument in the

labourer, who went off to Lakhnau to make his

fortune. There he became first a Harkāra, then