To the drying up of the Hakra, or Gliaggar, many centuries ago, in conjunction with moral evils, is ascribed the existing desolation. According to tr… - James Tod

Mahratta cunning, engrafted on Muhammadan intolerance, had greatly obscured these institutions. The nation itself was passing rapidly away: the remnant which was left had become a matter of calculation, and their records and their laws partook of this general decay. The nation may recover; the physical frame may be renewed; but the morale of the society must be recast. In this chaos a casual observer sees nothing to attract notice; the theory of government appears, without any of the dignity which now marks our regular system. Whatever does exist is attributed to fortuitous causes—to nothing systematic: no fixed principle is discerned, and none is admitted; it is deemed a mechanism without a plan. This opinion is hasty. Attention to distinctions, though often merely nominal , will aid us in discovering the outlines of a picture which must at some period have been more finished; when real power, unrestrained by foreign influence, upheld a system, the plan of which was original. It is in these remote regions, so little known to the Western world, and where original manners lie hidden under those of the conquerors, that we may search for the germs of the constitutions of European States. A contempt for all that is Asiatic too often marks our countrymen in the East: though at one period on record the taunt might have been reversed.

But the magnitude of the peril confirmed the fortitude of Partap, who vowed, in the words of the bard, “to make his mother’s milk resplendent”; and he amply redeemed his pledge. Single-handed, for a quarter of a century did he withstand the combined efforts of the empire; at one time carrying destruction into the plains, at another flying from rock to rock, feeding his family from the fruits of his native hills, and rearing the nursling hero Amra, amidst savage beasts and scarce less savage men, a fit heir to his prowess and revenge. The bare idea that “the son of Bappa Rawal should bow the head to mortal man,” was insupportable; and he spurned every overture which had submission for its basis, or the degradation of uniting his family by marriage with the Tatar, though lord of countless multitudes. The brilliant acts he achieved during that period live in every valley; they are enshrined in the heart of every true Rajput, and many are recorded in the annals of the conquerors. To recount them all, or relate the hardships he sustained, would be to pen what they would pronounce a romance who had not traversed the country where tradition is yet eloquent with his exploits, or conversed with the descendants of his chiefs, who cherish a recollection of the deeds of their forefathers, and melt, as they recite them, into manly tears. Partap was nobly supported; and though wealth and fortune tempted the fidelity of his chiefs, not one was found base enough to abandon him.

From the shrine of the god of light, I descended to that of Sideswar, the god of the monastic orders, obscurely buried in an excavation of the rock, dismal and damp, the low roof supported by a few crumbling columns. One might fancy this the cave of Delphos, though the perceptions of our blind oracle proved far more acute than those of most of his brethren. However rudely executed, all was strictly characteristic of “hell’s dark abode.” Besides statues of Hinglaz Mata, and Patal-eswar, ‘lord of the infernal regions,’ there were nine small figures in high relief, carved on the frieze of a miniature shrine, said by the blind minister to be “the images of those who rule the destiny of man.” There was a small square court in front of the cave, whose walls have been repaired or constructed out of the ruins of other temples, having fragments of the gods in every attitude. It is shaded by some fine Burr trees, which are sacred to Siva. Although there is nothing attractive here, yet whoever is conversant with mythology will be struck, not only by the classical nature of the cave-temple, but by the perfect contrast it exhibits between the powers of light and darkness, in juxtaposition, and the rapid transition of the votary from the one to the other. The spot where Krishna resigned his breath From this cave I proceeded to a spot, deemed by the Hindu the holiest of the holy, where the shepherd-god resigned his breath.… A Peepul sapling, averred to be “a scion of the original tree,” marks the spot where the Hindu Apollo expired, and a flight of steps conducts to the bed of the ‘golden’ Hiranya, for the pilgrim to lustrate himself. This place of purification bears the name of Swergadwara, or ‘door of bliss,’ and contends with that of Deva-puttun for superior efficacy in absolving from sin. It is adorned by two beautiful reservoirs, called the Bhalca and Padma-coondas, the ‘dart and lotus fountains.’ The former is a dodecahedron, whose diameter is about three hundred feet. The lotus-coond is smaller, having its surface covered with this elegant flower, sacred to Kanya [Lord Krishna], and whence his most euphonous appellation, Comala, is derived; while on its eastern bank there is a small shrine to Mahadeo. These fountains are peculiarly sacred in the eyes of the followers of the shepherd-god, and were so in Akber’s time; for Abulfazil devotes some space to the holy pilgrimages of Peepulsirr and Bhalcateerut (bhal, ‘a dart’). Mooslmen intolerance is strikingly obvious in the erection of a place of prayer touching the consecrated Peepul, and although the government of these regions has now long been under Hindu princes of strong religious zeal, the offensive Musjid remains undisturbed, furnishing a powerful contrast between the amiable endurance of the one, and the bigotry of the other faith…