Bsder.
-vol. i. p. 96, but Infinitely fuperior in extent. Tbevenot, wli®
viiited them, fays, that they reached above two leagues, a
ma’tchlefs affemblage o f Pagodas, temples, and chapels, fup-
ported by columns, and covered with ftatues of coloffal fize, but
o f bad fculpture, being of great antiquity, and the work of the
early Hindoos.
On defcending the Godavery, InHat. 18° 50', Long. 78" 12'eaft,
the great river Manzorab empties itfelf in the former; it originates
-very far to the weft, not a hundred and forty miles from
Bombay, at a fmall diftance from Abmednagur-, a large city, noted
for: the death o f Aurengzebe, in 1707. The river has a fouth-
wefterly courfe, and the names o f many places on its banks
unnoticed in hiftory, till we arrive at Beder, iri Lat. 17" 50'.
Tbevenot, who vifited it about the year 1666, calls it the capital of
Ttllingena. It is a great city, encompafled with brick-walls, embattled,
and with towers equidiftant. The artillery had mouths
three feet wide. Nizam, in the late Myfore war, brought fome
-of them into the field; they were o f an enormous length, and
each required a hundred oxen to draw it, they were ufelefsly
oftentatious : till the year 1657, Beder was governed by its own
princes. Aurengzebe added it to his own empire after a ihort
liege. It was then governed by an old officer of great fidelity,
who rejefted every eflay o f the emperor to corrupt him; when,
a practicable breach was made, the fignal given for an afiault;
by the fall of a rocket near the magazine it blew up, when it
was covered with the garrifon, who had aflembled on it to repel
the enemy: the greater part periffied, with the governor and
Ms three fons, and numbers of the affailants. The city proved
a rich,
& rich booty, being at this time the dépôt o f great part of
the treafure of the young fovereign Adi/, who was loon after
taken,, and the name of Beder changed to Zifferabad, or the city
o f viftory-
In Lat. 17° -o , the Godavery receives into Its channel the The Ba in
great river Bain Gonga, which flows from different lhort couried
ftreams from- the foot of the Godwanab chain, and runs above
four hundred miles nearly fouth, and moftly through unknown
land, till it is loft in the former ninety miles from the fea.
On the Kanhar, which falls into the iouthern fide o f the
Godavery, in Lat. 2a0, about feventy milfes from the conflux,
ftands Nagpour, the capital o f Berar, or the dominions of Moo- n a g po u r .
iajee Boonflab, chief of the eaftera M a h ra tta shis country is
that of Berar and Orix a. The firft appears in the- map almoft B ehar, or
a blank, perhaps a foreft nearly impervious, and of courfe un- ^A™ N Mah'
known. Nagpour is fmall,and almoft defencelefs, the chieftain’s
treafure being depofited- in a ftrong hold called Gawile, about a
hundred and twenty miles-from it. This praftice is common
to many other Indian princes. The land around the capital"
rifes into fmall hills, and is well: cultivated"...
I s h a l l not omit that about fixty miles to the N". W. o f this D eogire,
capital is another, Deogire, the antient "capital o f Godwanab, and' G odwanah!
the refidence o f the Rajab Ramdeo-. It was- attacked by Alla,
fbn o f Ferofe II. in 1293; Ramdea fought with, but was defeated
by him before one o f the gates o f the city and foon after his
retreat into the citadel:was obliged to fubmit to-the viftor, and
obtained peace, but on moft exorbitant terms. RamdeoH fon,
with a ftrong army,, attempted, to releafe. his father from the
condition,