Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c28.s3.t1.112

v2.c28.s3.t1.112

Natural Productions.—Marwar can boast of some valuable productions of her sterile plains, which make her an object of no little importance in the most distant and more favoured regions of India. The salt lakes of Pachbhadra, Didwana, and Sambhar, are mines of wealth, and their produce is exported over the greater part of Hindustan; while the marble quarries of Makrana (which gives its name to the mineral), on her eastern frontier, all the splendid edifices of the imperial cities owe their grandeur. The materials used in the palaces of Delhi, Agra, their mosques, and tombs, have been conveyed from Marwar.¹ The quarries, until of late years, yielded a considerable revenue; but the age for palace-building in these regions is no more, and posterity will ask with surprise the sources of such luxury. There are also limestone quarries near Jodhpur and Nagor; and the concrete called *kankar* is abundant in many of the districts, and chiefly used for mortar. Tin and lead are found at Sojat; alum about Pali, and iron is obtained from Bhinmal and the districts adjoining Gujarat.