Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.121

v3.c43.t1.121

The Rapids of the Chambal.—I shall by and by, I trust, obtain a more correct knowledge of the comparative elevation of this plateau, and the crest of the Vindhya whence issues the Chambal ; but although this stream is, of course, much below the level of its source, yet there is little doubt that the summit of this chasm (uparmal) is, as its name indicates, the ‘ highest land ’ of Malwa. I say this after making myself acquainted with the general depression of [651] Malwa to this point, in which we are aided by the course of the stream. Under Bhainsror, the current is never very gentle ; but both above and below there are rapids, if not falls, of thirty to fifty feet in descent. That above the stream is termed the Chuli, because full of whirlpools and eddies, which have given a sacred character to it, like the Nerbudda, at ‘ the whirlpools of the great god,’ Chuli Maheswar. A multitude of the round stones taken out of these vortices, when they have been rounded by attrition into a perfectly orbicular form, only require consecration and a little red paint to be converted into the representatives of Bhairon, the god of war, very properly styled the elder born of Siva, the destroyer. This is about two miles up the stream ; there is another at Kotra, about three miles down, with several successive rapids. There is a fall in the vicinity of Rampura, and another about five coss north of it, at Churetagarh, where the river first penetrates the plateau. There, I understand, it is not above seventy yards in breadth, confined between cliffs perfectly perpendicular. There is also said to be another fall or rapid intermediate between Rampura and its source in the peak of Janapao,¹ in the neighbourhood of Un. If these are all the falls, though only amounting to rapids, we may form a tolerable idea of the difference of level between the base of the Uparmal and the highland of the Vindhya, whence the Chambal issues ; and still we shall see that there are points where the perpendicular cliffs must be some hundred feet above the peak of Janapao ; if so, this chasm was never formed by water.