…Let the reader discard his shoes, and prepare to enter with me the sacred fanes of Dailwara. This is a contraction of Dewulwarra, ‘the place or regi… - James Tod

NOVEMBER 29th – At length, I obtained a view of this, perhaps the most renowned of all the shrines of India, ‘the city’ par eminence, more reverentially styled Deva-Puttun, ‘the city of the god,’ or still more accurately, Deva-Pat’han, ‘the chief dwelling of the deity.’…As we approached, we crossed the Triveni, or three united streams, viz. the Vrijini, the Sarasvati (a name of the Hindu Minerva), and the Hiranya, or ‘golden.’…What a host of associations arose to one who had indulged the hope of making a pilgrimage to this the most celebrated shrine connected with Hindu and Mooslem history! Pressing on to the goal, I passed, with mingled prejudice and contempt, the place of sepulture of the Mooslem saint, Abbi-Sah, nor halted for breath, until within the “temple of the sun,” deserted, desecrated, a receptacle for kine, the pinnacle, to its spring from the cella, demolished, and the fragments strewing the ground. There is nothing of immensity, though there is great solidity, in the structure, which is of the order of sacred architecture called Sikra-bund, or ‘pinnacled,’ and with all the details of decoration laid down in the Silpi-sastra. The figures are bold in design, the attitudes of some striking, but the material, a coarse gritty sand-stone, does not give great scope or facility to the chisel; yet, as a whole, the edifice is imposing. The jambs and lintel of the entrance-door are of a well-polished yellow-coloured mineral, apparently jasper, though it may be that species of marble akin to the jaune antique. The munduff, or central dome, is not above sixteen feet in diameter, supported by strong, slightly ornamented columns, having a portico all round, terminated by square pilasters abutting from the external wall. Beyond the munduff, there is a domed vestibule, with pillars and pilasters, leading to the sanctum, where a globular patch of red paint, placed by the cowherds, is now the only symbol of the sun-god. The sovereigns of Nehrwalla had repaired the injuries done by Mahmoud, but the spire, again thrown down by the sanguinary Alla, has never been re-erected. North of the temple is the Surya-coonda, excavated from the solid rock. The descent to it is by a steep flight of narrow steps. The water is said to cure the diseases of both body and mind, the term of ablution and probation being one solar revolution, during which, not only faith, but good works must be manifested, in order to make the remedy efficacious…

SIDPOOR – JUNE 20th – In the infancy of our geography of India, the illustrious D’ Anville said of this city, “ville qui tire son nom des Shites, ou toiles peintes, qui s’y fabriquent;” but it boasts of a more dignified etymology, being called after its patron, the Balhara prince, Sid-Rae. By some he is supposed to be the founder, but there is every reason to believe that he was only the renovator, of this place, the position of which on the Sarasvati, flowing from the shrine of Ambabhavani, is well-chosen. Here are the remains of what in past ages must have been one of the grandest efforts of Hindu architecture, a temple dedicated to Siva, and termed Roodra-Mala, or ‘the chaplet of Roodra,’ the god of battle; but so disjointed are the fragments, that it is difficult to imagine what it may have been as a whole. They are chiefly portions of porticoes, one of which tradition names the prostyle of the munduff, or vaulted mansion occupied by the bull, companion of Roodra, whose sanctum was converted into a mosque. It is said to have been a rectangular building, five stories in height, and if we may judge from one portion yet remaining, this could not have been less than one hundred feet…I found two inscriptions, from one of which I learned that it was commenced by Raja Moolraj [the founder of the Solankhi dynasty of Anhilwara], in S. 998 [A.D. 942], and from the other that it was finished by Sid-Raj…A couplet records its destruction by All-u-din – “In S. 1353 [A.D. 1297], came the barbarian Alla: the Roodra-Mala he levelled, “carrying destruction amongst the lords of men.”

Much disappointment has been felt in Europe at the sterility of the historic muse of Hindustan. When Sir William Jones first began to explore the vast mines of Sanskrit literature, great hopes were entertained that the history of the world would acquire considerable accessions from this source. The sanguine expectations that were then formed have not been realized; and, as it usually happens, excitement has been succeeded by apathy and indifference. It is now generally regarded as an axiom, that India possesses no national history; to which we may oppose the remark of a French Orientalist, who ingeniously asks, whence Abu-l Fazl obtained the materials for his outlines of ancient Hindu history? Mr. Wilson has, indeed, done much to obviate this prejudice, by his translation of the Raja Tarangini, or History of Kashmir, which clearly demonstrates that regular historical composition was an art not unknown in Hindustan, and affords satisfactory ground for concluding that these productions were once less rare than at present, and that further exertion may bring more relics to light. Although the labours of Colebrooke, Wilkins, Wilson, and others of our own countrymen, emulated by many learned men in France [viii] and Germany, have revealed to Europe some of the hidden lore of India; still it is not pretended that we have done much more than pass the threshold of Indian science; and we are consequently not competent to speak decisively of its extent or its character. Immense libraries, in various parts of India, are still intact, which have survived the devastations of the Islamite. The collections of Jaisalmer and Patan, for example, escaped the scrutiny of even the lynx-eyed Alau-d-din who conquered both these kingdoms, and who would have shown as little mercy to those literary treasures, as Omar displayed towards the Alexandrine library. Many other minor collections, consisting of thousands of volumes each, exist in Central and Western India, some of which are the private property of princes, and others belong to the Jain communities.