ravines and chasms which must have existed among these hills, converting many of the former into perfectly level plains of half a mile across, and leaving only the peaks of the hills uncovered, had swallowed up the city of Balabhipura. The water would appear to have become still like a lake; and that it had subsided very gradually, we may judge from the accumulation of soil deposited. The same appearance of hills as if rising out of water, that is, of hills rising there out of the earth, while the surface of the latter remains as flat as that of water, is seen in the hills of Balacheri, on the west coast of Kattiawar; but there they are composed of trap, and though in ancient times they appear to have been isolated from the mainland, to which they are now connected by a narrow neck of wind or tide-collected sand, yet the sea, during spring-tides, or strong north-west winds, partially covers the flat land between the hills and the mainland. At Balacheri the agent is still working, while that at Chumara, having performed its rôle, has ceased. These flats at both places are most probably owing to similar causes, though under different actions, and in the former case (Balacheri) the sea is slowly but certainly receding from the land. Notes in reference to the different works in which the city or dynasty of Balabhipura is mentioned. 1. Asiatic Journal, vol. xxviii. p. 191. Colonel Todd discovered that this dynasty had a distinct era. "The Balabhi Samvat, or era1 of the flight from Balabhipura, used in Saurashtra (Kattiawar), which dates 375 years subsequent to Vicramáditya." The date of this flight seems to be marked in the following passage from Todd's Travels in Western India, p. 268: 2. "Balabhi, the ancient capital of the princes of Mewar, when driven from the land by the Indo-Getic invaders, during the first centuries of the era of Vicrama. I was grieved to find that the city, which in former days was 18 kos (22 miles) in circumference, and in which the bells of 360 Jain temples rang the votaries to prayer,' had left not a vestige of its greatness save the foundation bricks, which are frequently dug up, upwards of two feet in length, and weighing half a maund, or thirty-five pounds, each. The Gohil chief rejoiced my heart to hear him give its ancient designation in full As shown by the Balabhi inscription. This era is also mentioned in the Satrunji Mahatmya as taking its rise one century before that work was written. ravines and chasms which must have existed among these hills, converting many of the former into perfectly level plains of half a mile across, and leaving only the peaks of the hills uncovered, had swallowed up the city of Balabhipura. The water would appear to have become still like a lake; and that it had subsided very gradually, we may judge from the accumulation of soil deposited. The same appearance of hills as if rising out of water, that is, of hills rising there out of the earth, while the surface of the latter remains as flat as that of water, is seen in the hills of Balacheri, on the west coast of Kattiawar; but there they are composed of trap, and though in ancient times they appear to have been isolated from the mainland, to which they are now connected by a narrow neck of wind or tide-collected sand, yet the sea, during spring-tides, or strong north-west winds, partially covers the flat land between the hills and the mainland. At Balacheri the agent is still working, while that at Chumara, having performed its rôle, has ceased. These flats at both places are most probably owing to similar causes, though under different actions, and in the former case (Balacheri) the sea is slowly but certainly receding from the land. Notes in reference to the different works in which the city or dynasty of Balabhipura is mentioned. 1. Asiatic Journal, vol. xxviii. p. 191. Colonel Todd discovered that this dynasty had a distinct era. "The Balabhi Samvat, or era1 of the flight from Balabhipura, used in Saurashtra (Kattiawar), which dates 375 years subsequent to Vicramáditya." The date of this flight seems to be marked in the following passage from Todd's Travels in Western India, p. 268:— 2. "Balabhi, the ancient capital of the princes of Mewar, when driven from the land by the Indo-Getic invaders, during the first centuries of the era of Vicrama. I was grieved to find that the city, which in former days was 18 kos (22 miles) in circumference, and in which the bells of 360 Jain temples rang the votaries to prayer,' had left not a vestige of its greatness save the foundation bricks, which are frequently dug up, upwards of two feet in length, and weighing half a maund, or thirty-five pounds, each. The Gohil chief rejoiced my heart to hear him give its ancient designation in full As shown by the Balabhi inscription. This era is also mentioned in the Satrunji Máhátmya as taking its rise one century before that work was written. Balabhipura. He assured me there was absolutely nothing left to interest a visitor, and I abandoned my design of proceeding there. Balabhi continued to be occupied by a descendant of the ancient race of Suryavansa princes until the time of Sid Raj, who expelled him for his oppression of the sacerdotal tribe, on whom, upon the completion of that gigantic temple, the Roodra Mala, at Sidpoor, he conferred the city, together with 1000 townships in sasun (religious alienation). It continued in possession of the grantees until internal dissensions half exterminated the community, when one of the belligerents bribed the Gohil chief with the offer of their adversaries' portion of the lands to come to their aid; since which period, three centuries ago, they have been subject to the Gohils." 3. The Yutis of Balli and Sandaree, in Marwar, the descendants of those who were expelled, on its sack in S. 300 (A.D. 244). See notice on the inscription at Mynal, in Mewar, which, in allusion to the greatness of its princes, appeals to 'the gates of Balabhi,' proving that they must have migrated from Balabhi, whose glories were at an end when the northern invaders 'polluted the fountain of the sun with the blood of the kine.' 4. "Not far from Balabhi there is a spot still sacred to the pilgrim, called Bheemnat'h, where there is a fountain, whose waters in past days were of miraculous efficacy, and on whose margin is a temple to Siva." [Todd, Travels in Western India, 271]. 5. "But the most celebrated was the capital, Balabhipura, which for years baffled all search, till it was revealed in its now humble condition as Balbhi, 10 miles north-west of Bhownuggur." [Annals of Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 216.] 6. "The existence of this city was confirmed by a celebrated Jain work, the Satrunjya Mahatmya. [Ib. 217.] 7. "The want of satisfactory proof of the Rana's [of Mewar] emigration from thence was obviated by the most unexpected discovery of an inscription of the twelfth century, in a ruined temple on the table-land, forming the eastern boundary of the Rana's present territory, which appeals to the walls of Balabhi' for the truth of the action it records; and a work, written to commemorate the reign of Rana Raj Sing, opens with these words: In the west is Suratdés [Surat-Saurashtra-Kattiawar], a country well known; the barbarians invaded it, and conquered Bhal-ca-nath [the lord of Bhal]. All fell in the sack of Balabhipura, except the daughter of Pramara.' And the Sanderai Roll thus commences:-' when the city of Balabhi was sacked, the inhabitants fled, and founded Balli, San |