udda is of modern
origin (_Manual of the Geology of India_, 1st ed., Part I, p. iv).
The Satpura range, thus defined, separates the valley of the Nerbudda
from the valleys of the Tapti flowing west, and the Mahanadi flowing
east. The Vindhyan sandstones certainly are a formation of immense
antiquity, perhaps pre-Silurian. They are azoic, or devoid of
fossils; and it is consequently impossible to determine exactly their
geological age, or 'horizon' (ibid. p. xxiii). The cappings of
basalt, in some cases with laterite superimposed, suggest many
difficult problems, which will be briefly discussed in the notes to
Chapters 14 and 17.

CHAPTER 9

The Great Iconoclast--Troops routed by Hornets--The Rani of Garha--
Hornets' Nests in India.

On the 23rd,[1] we came on nine miles to Sangrampur, and, on the
24th, nine more to the valley of Jabera,[2] situated on the western
extremity of the bed of a large lake, which is now covered by twenty-
four villages. The waters were kept in by a large wall that united
two hills about four miles south of Jabera. This wall was built of
great cut freestone blocks from the two hills of the Vindhiya range,
which it united. It was about half a mile long, one hundred feet
broad at the base, and about one hundred feet high. The stones,
though cut, were never, apparently, cemented; and the wall has long
given way in the centre, through which now falls a small stream that
passes from east to west of what was once the bottom of the lake, and
now is the site of so many industrious and happy little village
communities.[3] The proprietor of the village of Jabera, in whose
mango grove our tents were pitched, conducted me to the ruins of the
wall; and told me that it had been broken down by the order of the
Emperor Aurangzeb.[4] History to these people is all a fairy tale;
and this emperor is the great destroyer of everything that the
Muhammadans in their fanaticism have demolished of the Hindoo
sculpture or architecture; and yet, singular as it may appear, they
never mention his name with any feelings of indignation or hatred.
With every scene of his supposed outrage against their gods or their
temples, there is always associated the recollection of some instance
of his piety, and the Hindoos' glory--of some idol, for instance, or
column, preserved from his fury by a miracle, whose divine origin he
is supposed at once to have recognized with all due reverence.

At Bheragarh,[5] the high pri