64 ROUTE FROM AGRA TO BIHAR book ii
The
following is the route to be followed from Agra to this mine: From Agra
to Halabas, 130 coss ; Halabas to Banarous, 33 coss ; Banarous to
Saseron, 4 coss.
From Agra to Sasaram x
you travel eastwards, but between Sasaram and the mine you turn to the
south and come first to a large town—21 coss. This town is that of the
Raja of whom I have just spoken, to whom the country belongs which is
traversed by the river in which the diamonds are found.
After this town the traveller reaches a fortress called Rohtas 2—4
coss. It is one of the strongest places in Asia, situated upon a
mountain having six great bastions and twenty-seven pieces of cannon,
with three trenches full of water in which there are good fish. There
is but a single path by which to ascend the mountain, where there is a
plain of half a league or so in area, on which corn and rice are
cultivated. There are more than twenty springs which irrigate the soil,
and all about the mountain from the base to the top there are
precipices covered for the most part with jungle. The Rajas ordinarily
held this fortress with
1
This route is also given in vol. i, pp. 92-9, but the details are very
different. Here the stages are Agra; Allahabad; Benares; Sasaram. In
the first place Sasaram and the large town are here misplaced. The
latter is probably the Gourmabad, i.e. Khurramabad or Tilothu of p. 98,
but the distance, which there amounts to 27 coss, is here stated to be
only 21 coss. The true distance is about 58 miles. After Khurramabad,
not before it, Sasaram comes as the next stage, distant 4 coss, the
true distance being 12 miles ; but after it again the distance to
Rohtas is understated at 4 coss, it being really about 24 miles. These
discrepancies may be explained by the fact that Tavernier does not
appear to have gone to Rohtas from Sasaram. If he visited it and the
diamond mine, as is probable, he almost certainly did so from Patna, in
which neighbourhood he was for some time in 1640 and again in 1665-6.
• Rodas in the original—Rohtasgarh, Lat. 24° 27' 30*, Long. 83° 55' 50". (See Imperial Gazetteer, xxi. 322 ff. ; Hunter, Statistical Account of Bengal, xii. 209-212.) There are also detailed descriptions and plans by F. Buchanan in Montgomery Martin, Eastern India, i.
432 ff.; Mundy, ii. 168 f. The capture of the fortress by Mir Jumla has
not been traced. It was captured by Sher Shah in 1539, but the present
buildings were completed by Man Singh, Viceroy of Bengal and Bihar, in
1654. In 1644 the Governor protected the family of Shahjahan while he
was in rebellion against his father. For Sher Khan's attack see
Erskine, Hist, of India, ii. 147. .
