---

Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 12, p. 439.

G WALIOR CITY 439 within, was a well-known personage in the sixteenth century. He was famous for his liberality, and also notorious among Muhammadans for his broad-minded views regarding infidels. He visited Akbar at Agra in 1558; but owing to the influence at court of a rival saint, he was ill received and in disgust retired into seclusion at Gwalior, where he died in 1562. Near to the tomb of Muhammad Ghaus is that of Tan Sen, the most famous singer India has ever known. It is an open structure, supported by twelve outer pillars and four inner. Over the tomb for- merly grew a tamarind, the leaves of which, when chewed, were popu- larly supposed to endow the partaker with a most melodious voice, and which were in consequence much sought after by dancing-girls. Just beyond the fort to the north stands a tall cusped Pathan gateway. Nothing but the gate remains, a conspicuous object from a long dis- tance. Two miles south of the fort lies the city of LASHKAR, the modern capital of Sindhia's dominions. The site was originally selected by Daulat Rao Sindhia in 18 i o for his camp (lashkar), but the head- quarters never moved and the standing camp gradually developed into a city. Lashkar is now a large city with a population of 89,154 persons, and has a considerable trade. On its outskirts stand the chief's palaces and other important buildings. During the Mutiny, Sindhia, deserted by his troops, was forced by Tantia Topi and the Rani of Jhansi to leave Lashkar and retire to Agra. He was reinstated in his capital soon after by Sir Hugh Rose (Lord Strathnairn), who attacked and defeated the mutineers. Gwalior fort is one of the most famous in India, I the pearl in the necklace of the castles of Hind,' as the author of the Tdj-ul-Madsir put it. It stands on an isolated sandstone hill, which towers 300 feet above the old town, measuring 14 miles long, and 2,8oo feet across at its widest part. The walls above the scarp are about 30 feet high. As seen from the north-east its aspect is most imposing `The long line of battlements which crown the steep scarp on the east is broken only by the lofty towers and fretted domes of the noble palace of Raja Man Singh. . . . At the northern end, where the rock has been quarried for ages, the jagged masses of the overhanging cliff seem ready to fall upon the city beneath them. . . Midway over 111 towers the giant form of a massive temple, grey with the moss of 1 ges.' The fort has figured in Indian history since the sixth century, and nay have been of importance long before then, as the date of its foun- 3ation is uncertain, while from the time of its capture by Kutb-ud-din 'n 1196 until 1858 it has been continuously the centre of war and tumult. Tradition assigns the foundation to one Sūraj Sen, who was lured of leprosy by an ascetic named Gwalipa. The latter inhabited .