Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1839/Hindoo Temples on the Mountain-Lake of Aboo
26
MOUNTAIN TEMPLES, LAKE OF ABOO.
|
HINDOO TEMPLES ON THE MOUNTAIN-LAKE OF ABOO.
Aboo Gurgh is a mountain-lake in the province of Guzerat, 5000 feet above the level of the sea, in which the Suruswuttee river has its source. It is surrounded by numerous marble temples, of high antiquity, the principal of which is dedicated to Mahadeo, and the district itself is held in the utmost veneration by the Hindoos. "The Olympus of India, the celebrated Aboo, is the source of the tribe of Chohaun Rajpoots. There are no temples in India which can for a moment compete with these, either in costliness of materials or beauty of design."
Grindlay’s India
From the hills they descend, as wild as the river
Which spring hath unloosed, like a shaft from its quiver;
With light on its waters, and foam on its banks,
So gather these free waves—so gather these ranks.
There is gold on the housings, and gold on the rein
That checks the bold courser they guide to the plain.
More precious by far to the warriors are
The matchlock they carry, the sabre they bear.
Red, red is the turban that girdles their brow—
More redly the blood of their foemen shall flow.
Free the wing of the heron, that wave white at its side,
More free are the Rajpoots to battle who ride.
They have kept their old hills unsubdued by a foe—
There is death and defeat in the country below;
But the Rajpoots have kept their ancestral hills
Untrod, like their snows—and unchained, like their rills.
The Moslem sweeps on with his banner of green,
And ruins have marked where the crescent has been;
But here the sole crescent that ruleth on high
Is where the young moon first appears in the sky.
Sail down by the Jumna, and what will ye find
But the horsetail and crescent, that sweep on the wind?
The Ottoman conqueror rules to the sea,
But not o’er these mountains— the fearless and free.
No prayer writ in gold from the wall is effaced—
No altar is levelled—no shrine is defaced:
The sons of Mahomet all else may subdue,
Bur safe, ‘mid their clouds, are the heights of Aboo.