Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 16.5.4

16.5.4

and these having obtained that no injury should be done to them either in their persons or fortunes, the gates were opened, and the besieged went in a body to the quarters of those two officers. The Viceroy who had the curiosity to visit the fortress, marched in with his guards; nor will the reader be displeased with a short description of either that place or the city. The ground wherein that fortress and the City of Catec are seated, is an island surrounded by the waters of the Maha-nedda, and those of the Cata-djoori. The parts that are washed by the two rivers, are surrounded by a strong wall built with squared stone, serving as a dyke or mound against their inundations. For those rivers which are fordable for one-half of the year, swell so much in the rains that the Maha-nedda becomes a mighty stream of about two cosses (or five miles in breadth), and the Cata-djoori of half as much. But the fortress of Bara-bhati is seated on the Maha-nedda, and about three cosses in circuit. It is built of stone, brick and mortar, with a great deal of art; and a broad ditch faced with stone, surrounds the whole. But the City of Catec itself stretches on the lesser river at about two cosses from the citadel. The Governor's palace and the houses of the nobility and principal citizens (which in general affect the water side, and are mostly seated on the said mound) rising by five and ten yards above the mound, cut a handsome appearance;