Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.387

v3.c43.t1.387

I should have said that there are two distinct enclosures, an interior and exterior, and it is the first which is crowded with the noblest trees, everywhere clustered by the Amarvela, ‘the garland of eternity,’ sacred to Mahadeva, which shades the shrine, overhanging it in festoons. This is the giant of the parasitic tribe, its main stem being as thick near the root as my body. I counted sixty joints, each apparently denoting a year’s growth, yet not half-way up the tree on which it climbed. That [718] highly-scented shrub, the ketaki,¹ grew in great profusion near the kund, and a bevy of monkeys were gambolling about them, the sole inhabitants of the grove. The more remote enclosure contained many altars, sacred to the manes of the faithful wives who became Satis for the salvation of their lords. On some of these altars were three and four putlis, or images, denoting the number of devotees. It would require a month’s halt and a company of pioneers to turn over these ruins, and then we might not be rewarded for our pains. We have therefore set to work to clear a path, that we may emerge from these wilds.