Volume 1

The East-India gazetteer; containing particular descriptions of the empires, kingdoms, principalities, provinces, cities, towns, districts, fortresses, harbours, rivers, lakes, &c. of Hindostan, and the adjacent countries, India beyond the Ganges, and the eastern archipelago; together with sketches of the manners, customs, institutions, agriculture, commerce, manufactures, revenues, population, castes, religion, history, &c. of their various inhabitants / By Walter Hamilton.

  • Hamilton, Walter, M.R.A.S.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The East-India gazetteer; containing particular descriptions of the empires, kingdoms, principalities, provinces, cities, towns, districts, fortresses, harbours, rivers, lakes, &c. of Hindostan, and the adjacent countries, India beyond the Ganges, and the eastern archipelago; together with sketches of the manners, customs, institutions, agriculture, commerce, manufactures, revenues, population, castes, religion, history, &c. of their various inhabitants / By Walter Hamilton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    148/712 (page 126)
    BAMIAN. rund Dajil, Cutch Gundava, and the bazar tolls of Kelat. The Khans of Baloochistan acknowledge the pa¬ ramount authority of the Cabul so¬ vereigns, to whom they are feudato¬ ries; but the degree of their sub¬ mission is in proportion to the ta¬ lents of the reigning prince, and the political circumstances of the Cabul government. Formerly it was sup¬ posed that, upon a grand emergency, that the Baloochistan dominions could produce 25,000 infantry and cavalry; but so large a number has never yet been collected together, nor would it be an easy matter, in so barren a country, without navigable rivers, to subsist them if they were. —{Pottingerf Christie-y Macdonaldy S^c,) Balwunt.—A village in the pro¬ vince of Orissa, district of Cuttack, thirteen miles south from the city of Cuttack. At this place there is a choultry for the accommodation of the Juggernaut pilgrims, having a temple of Narsingh (the man lion) in the centre. Balumba.—A town in the Gujerat peninsula, situated on the Gulf of Cutch; lat. 22° 40' N., Ion. 70° 36' E. Bambarah.—The ruins of a city in the province of Mooltan, lying on the west side of the city of Tatta, and conjectured to be those of an ancient city nam.ed Brahminabad by Persian authors, who report it to have been the capital of a flourishing Hindoo kingdom in the tenth century. They also name it Mahaura and Manhawar. The site of Bambarah was on a hill covered with trees and bushes, and exhibits in the neighbourhood many tombs of Sindian warriors, who fell in a battle between Gholaum Shah and Meer Ali.—{Maxjieldy ^c.) Bameeny f' Vamani).—An island in the province of Bengal formed by the sediment deposited by the waters of the great Ganges and Brahmaputra, where they unite with the ocean in the Bay of Bengal, under the name of the Megna. In length it may be esti¬ mated at twelve miles, by five the average breadth ; but its surface is very little raised above the level of the tide, which here runs with fright¬ ful strength and rapidity. At Bameeny there is a government establishment for the manufacture of salt, subordi¬ nate to the Bulwa and Chittagong agency. Bamian.—A city subject to the Afghan sovereigns of Cabul, which, although so far to the west, was sub¬ ject with the district to the Delhi throne during the reign of the great Emperor Acber, as appears by the following extract from Abul Fazel, A D. 1582. “ In the district of Zo- hak Bamian is the castle of Zohak, a monument of great antiquity, which is in good condition, while the fortress of Bamian is in ruins. Tooman Zohak Bamian 861,750 dams.” This famous city, the Thebes of the east, is situated in lat. 34° 30' N., Ion. 66° 57' E., on the road between Cabul and Bahlac, eight days’ journey from the latter place. Like Thebes of Egypt it is entirely cut out of an insulated mountain. To the south of it, at the distance of two miles, are the ruins of an ancient city named Ghulguleh, which according to tradition was des¬ troyed at a very’^ early period by the Mahomedans. The city of Bamian consists of a vast number of apart¬ ments and recesses cut out of the rock, some of which, on account of their ex¬ traordinary appearance, are supposed to have been temples. By Abul Fazel there w^ere reckoned to be 12,000 of these recesses in the district of Bamian. The attention of travellers, however, is principally attracted by two collos- sal statues, fifty cubits high, which are erect, and adhere to the mountains in niches. At some distance from these two is a smaller one, fifteen cubits high. One of the large statues is supposed to represent a male, and the other a female, and the small one their son. They are all much disfi¬ gured, and the legs of the male bro¬ ken; for the Mahommedans never march that way without firing two or three shots at them, but owing to their want of skill they seldom do