A History of the Mahrattas v2.c51.62

v2.c51.62

² [Chāmpāner, now ruined, lies at the north-east base of Pāvāgarh. It was built by Mahmud Begara after he had defeated the Rājpūt possessors of Pāvāgarh in 1484, and quickly developed a flourishing trade, being specially famous for the manufacture of sword-blades. In 1535 the Emperor Humāyūn pillaged it, and on the death of Sultān Bahādur Shāh the court, which had been established in Chāmpāner by Mahmūd Begara, was re-transferred to Ahmadābād. By the commencement of the seventeenth century it was falling into ruins, and when Colonel Woodington took it, only 500 inhabitants were found. At present its only occupants are a few Kolīs and the pujāris of a temple on Pāvāgarh; but the ruins, many of which are of beautiful workmanship, render it a spot of more than ordinary interest. (I.G. Bom., i. 300–1; Trans. Bom. Lit. Soc., i. 151; Ind. Ant., lxii. 5, and xliii. 7.)]