Bagh
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Bagh
Village in the Amjhera district of Gwalior State, Central India, celebrated for the Buddhist excavations in its neighbourhood. It stands at the confluence of the Wagh or Bagh and Girna streams, from the former of which it takes its name, in 22 22' N. and 74 48' E. Population (1901), 1,793. ^ s ' s usual in places containing Buddhist remains, the village lies on an old main route, that from Gujarat to Malwa, close to the Udaipur ghat (pass), 12 miles north of Kukshi.
Tradition assigns great importance to the place in early days, and the ruins of a large town are still traceable. This town is said to have been founded in the tenth century by one Raja Mordhaj, who built the local fort, remains of which are still to be seen. Later on it fell to Raja Bagh Singh, whose descendants live in Girwani close by, and are still locally called Raja. In the eighteenth century it passed to the Peshwa and finally to Sindhia. The famous caves, which lie about 4 miles west of the village, are of considerable arehaeological interest.
As usual, they are locally known as the Panch Pandu, the five Pandava brothers being supposed to have inhabited them. The caves are exca- vated in the face of a sandstone hill 850 feet above the sea. Owing to the disintegration of a belt of clay stone superimposed on the sandstone, the roofs of most of the caves have been destroyed. All of the caves, which number eight or nine, are vihdras or monasteries, there being apparently no chaitya hall or Buddhist church attached to them. In age they rank before the latest at Ajanta, and may be assigned to the sixth or seventh century a.d. In a room attached to the largest cave there existed formerly a series of frescoes equalling those at Ajanta. Unfortunately, they were never copied and have now vanished. Fergusson, remarking on the appearance of the figures depicted, con- siders that they represented people of Central Asia and not of India.
Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society, vol. ii; Journal of Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. v ; and Indian and Eastern Arehitecture, pp. 159, 446.]
