Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c40.s9.1

v3.c40.s9.1

It is necessary to take here a clear view of the theatre of these operations. Thirty miles south-east of the city of Jaipur stands the large village of Lalsot,* near the end of a long chain of low hills and outcrops that runs north-eastwards for many miles up to the Banganga river (near the modern railway junction of Bandikui) and even beyond it. The entire northern and western sides of the Lalsot district are enclosed, as if held in the tentacles of a gigantic octopus, by countless ravines which roll down to the Morel river, a feeder of the mighty Banas. The eastern side is effectively blocked by the long diagonal chain of the Jawāna hills mentioned above. The south side is comparatively open, and through it runs the road to Kerauli (42 miles east of Lalsot) and Dholpur and Bharatpur, still further off. Lalsot village itself commands the southern mouth of a pass bearing its name, which leads, by a direct but difficult and wild path, to Daosa, 22 miles due north, where the traveller strikes the shortest and most frequented route between Jaipur and Agra. This road runs roughly parallel to the Banganga river and has been followed by the modern railway.