ments of the temple were assembled an innumerable multitude in arms, when a herald approaching denounced the vengeance of the god, and informed the besiegers that their idol, Summaut, had drawn them together on that spot, that he might blast them in a moment, and avenge, by one dreadful and general ruin, the destruction of the gods of Hindostan. In spite of these awful imprecations, Mahmud commenced an immediate and vigorous assault, and drove the defendants from the walls, which the besiegers, by scaling ladders, instantly mounted, exclaiming aloud, "Allah Akbar." The Hindoos, who had retreated into the temple, and prostrated themselves before their idol, in devout expecation of seeing the enemy discomfited by the signal and instantaneous vengeance of heaven, finding their expectations vain, made a desperate effort for the preservation of the place. Rushing in a body on the assailants, they repulsed them with great slaughter; and, as fast as fresh forces ascended the walls, pushed them headlong down with their spears. This advantage they maintained for two days, fighting like men who had devoted themselves to that death, which their belief in the Metempsychosis assured them was only a passage to felicity and glory. At the end of

this period a vast army of idolators coming to their relief, drew the attention of Mahmud from the siege to his own more immediate safety. Leaving, therefore, a body of troops to amuse the besieged, he took a more favourable station, and prepared to engage the advancing enemy. These were led to battle by Rajah Byram Deo, from whose family the territory of Deo received its name, and other considerable rajahs, under the certain persuasion that the cause for which they were to fight would insure victory to their arms. Accordingly, they fought with a heroism proportionate to their superstition; and, before victory declared for Mahmud, five thousand Hindoos lay slaughtered on the field. The garrison of Sumnaut, after this defeat, giving up all for lost, issued out of a gate that looked towards the ocean, and embarked in boats to the number of four thousand, with an intent to proceed to the island of Serandib or Ceylon; but, information of their flight having been given to the sultan, he seized all the boats that remained in the harbour, and sent after them a select body of his best troops, who, capturing some and sinking others, permitted few of the miserable fugitives to escape.

After placing a large body of guards at the gates and round the walls, Mahmud entered the

city, and approaching the temple was struck with the majestic grandeur of that ancient structure; but when he entered in and saw the inestimable riches it contained, he was filled with astonishment, mingled with delight. In the fury of Mohammedan zeal, he smote off the nose of the idol with a mace which he carried, and ordered the image to be disfigured and broke to pieces. While they were proceeding to obey his command, a croud of Brahmins, frantic at this treatment of their idol, petitioned his omras to interfere, and offered some crores in gold if he would forbear farther to violate the image of their deity. They urged, that the demolition of the idol would not remove idolatry from the walls of Sumnaut, but that such a sum of money, given among believers, would be an action truly meritorious. The sultan acknowledged the truth of their remark, but declared that he never would become that base character, which a coincidence with their petition would render him, a seller of idols. The persons appointed, therefore, proceeded in their work; and, having mutilated the superior part, broke in pieces the body of the idol, which had been made hollow, and contained an infinite variety of diamonds, rubies, and pearls, of a water so pure, and of a magnitude so uncom

mon, that the beholders were filled with surprize and admiration. This unexpected treasure, with all the other spoil, taken in the temple and city of Sumnaut, were immediately secured and sent to Gazna; while fragments of the demolished idol were distributed to the several mosques of Mecca, Medina, and Gazna, to be thrown at the threshold of their gates, and trampled upon by devout and zealous Mussul

men.

If the reader should now choose to ascend towards the city of Naugracut, in the great range of mountains so called, whither few Europeans, besides John Albert de Mandelslo, have penetrated, he may there contemplate the ruins of what that writer, who visited the place in 1638,, denominates "a superb and sumptuous pagoda, the floor whereof is covered with plates of gold, and in which is the effigies of an animal, or rather monster, to whom the numerous devotees sacrifice their tongues." Mandelslo calls it the idol MATTA; but Abul Fazil, who had probably visited the place in one of his journeys, with Akber, to Cashmere, expressly says, it was the consort, that is, the active power, of Mahadeo, the destroying god, to whom these sanguinary sacrifices, so much in

* Mandelslo's Travels, p. 21.

The

unison with his character, were made. reader may likewise view the remains of the hallowed college of Tanassar, which Mr. Finch visited so early as the year nine of the seventeenth century, the fame of whose learning, and the wealth of whose august pagodas, was spread over all India.* Indeed, according to

the Arabian writers, who will hereafter be cited at large by me, this place was the Mecca of this part of Hindostan, and its solid idols of massy silver made no small part of the booty acquired in Mahmud's sixth irruption into India. Many other noble pagodas adorned these higher regions of Hindostan, whose accumulated treasures became the property of those sacrilegious Arabian and Persian invaders, who, under the pretence of propagating religion, violated every principle of morality, and spread havoc and desolation through regions once the loveliest and the happiest upon earth.

Tanassar was, according to the Ayeen Akbery, the northern, and Mattra the southern, limit of the domains of the old rajahs of Delhi, previous to the subversion of their power by these merciless marauders. To the latter city, once rich and beautiful, but now decayed and ruined, the scene of the exploits of the amiable

* See Mr. Finch's Travels in Harris's Voyages, vol. i. p, 88.