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50
HISTORY OF INDIA.
[Book 1.
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AD. 1024. trophies placed on Sultan Mahinood's tfjrnb. The Rllence of Ferislita throws consid(;rable douht on the authenticity of the tradition; for the gates should have been there in his time, and if there, he certainly would have mentioned them.
Be this as it may, the tradition was so fiiTnly believed, that when the British army finally quitted Cabool, in 1842, the gates were brought away in triumph, and Lord Ellenboroujfh, then Governor-general of In- dia, made them the sub- ject of a very pompous, unchristian, and impolitic proclamation.'
Mahmood, on his re- turn, stopped for some time at Anhulwara, with which, as well as the surrounding countrv", he was so much pleased that he is said to have had some thoughts of adopt- ing it as a new capital. Many other magnificent projects passed through his mind, but they all vanished in smoke, and he contented himself with setting up a new rajah in Gujerat. The person selected was an anchoret of the ancient royal stock, and seems to have recommended himself to ^lahmood as the person most likely to yield him implicit submission. Another member of the royal stock thought himself better entitled to the rajahship, and, to prevent a disputed succession, his person was secured. AMien Mahmood was leaving Gujerftt, the anchoret rajah requested that his competitor might be delivered up to him ; and, on the assiu-ance that his life woiild be spared, the request was granted. The hj-pocrite kept his promise to the ear. He was too holy a man to be guilty of shedding the blood of any living creature. He only dug a hole, in which he meant to have immured his prisoner, and regaled
Gates of Somnavth. — From Hart's Afghan Scenery.
Sultan MahmooiVs projects.
' Fergusson, in his Hand-Book of Architecture, says that these gates are 7iot of sandal wood, but of the wood of the deodar pine tree; therefore the tradition of their having been the gates of the temple at Somnaiith is wrong. The decorations
bear no resemblance to Hindoo work; and as the ornaments are similar to those of the mosque of Ebn Touloun at Cairo, they show the same date of con- struction, and that the like ornamentation was used at the e.xtreme ends of the Moslem empire.
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