DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15173#0168
150
GHUZNI.
CHAP. VI.
numerous and wonderful. We fed the fish with
bread, which disappeared in a moment, torn from
our hands by some thousands of them : they are
molested by no one, since it is believed that a curse
rests on the head of an intruder.
Before entering the valley of the river, we left
the famous Ghuzni to the south: it is only sixty
miles from Cabool. This ancient capital is now a
dependency on that city, and a place of small note :
it contains the tomb of the great Mahmood, its
founder. There is a more honourable monument
to his memory in a magnificent dam, which he con-
structed at great expense, and the only one of seven
now remaining. It is worthy of remark, that the
ruler of the Punjab, in a negotiation which he
lately carried on with the ex-King of Cabool, Shooja
ool Moolk, stipulated, as .one of the conditions of
his restoration to the throne of his ancestors, that
he should deliver up the sandal-wood gates at the
shrine of the Emperor Mahmood,—being the same
which were brought from Somnat, in India, when
that destroyer smote the idol, and the precious
stones are said to have fallen from his body. Up-
wards of eight hundred years have elapsed since the
spoliation, yet the Hindoo still remembers it, though
these doors have so long adorned the tomb of the
Sultan Mahmood. Baber expresses his wonder that
so great a monarch should have ever made Ghuzni
his capital; but the natives will tell you that the
cold renders it inaccessible for some months in the
year, which gave him greater confidence while de-
solating Hindoostan and the land of the infidels.
GHUZNI.
CHAP. VI.
numerous and wonderful. We fed the fish with
bread, which disappeared in a moment, torn from
our hands by some thousands of them : they are
molested by no one, since it is believed that a curse
rests on the head of an intruder.
Before entering the valley of the river, we left
the famous Ghuzni to the south: it is only sixty
miles from Cabool. This ancient capital is now a
dependency on that city, and a place of small note :
it contains the tomb of the great Mahmood, its
founder. There is a more honourable monument
to his memory in a magnificent dam, which he con-
structed at great expense, and the only one of seven
now remaining. It is worthy of remark, that the
ruler of the Punjab, in a negotiation which he
lately carried on with the ex-King of Cabool, Shooja
ool Moolk, stipulated, as .one of the conditions of
his restoration to the throne of his ancestors, that
he should deliver up the sandal-wood gates at the
shrine of the Emperor Mahmood,—being the same
which were brought from Somnat, in India, when
that destroyer smote the idol, and the precious
stones are said to have fallen from his body. Up-
wards of eight hundred years have elapsed since the
spoliation, yet the Hindoo still remembers it, though
these doors have so long adorned the tomb of the
Sultan Mahmood. Baber expresses his wonder that
so great a monarch should have ever made Ghuzni
his capital; but the natives will tell you that the
cold renders it inaccessible for some months in the
year, which gave him greater confidence while de-
solating Hindoostan and the land of the infidels.