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23．INTERIOR OF CANDAHAR, THE DOURAUNEE CAPITAL．
THIS view was taken in December, 1841, from the house-top of what was formerly the residence of Cohun Dil Khaun, now supreme as Governor of this province, which heretofore he shared with his brothers, Ruhun Dil and Meer Dil Khauns. They all fled to Persia on our approaching their territory, and returned on our evacuation of it. They are members of the all-powerful Baurukzye family, and brothers of the Ameer of Caubul, whom they regard with so much distrust and jealously that nothing but the necessity of repelling a common foe could ever induce them to unite with him.
The ancient city of Candahar is believed by the Afghauns to have been built by Alexander the Great; but since that period two more recent cities have been demolished by earthquakes or abandoned for new sites. North-west of the present (the fourth) city, which was planned, its site fixed upon, and built, ninety-five years since, by Ahmed Shauh, under a hill called Chihel Zeenah (forty ornaments), lie the vast ruins of one of these ancient cities. Here are still to be seen houses in tolerable repair, aqueducts, &c. Among these remnants of former ages is preserved, as a great curiosity, an immense marble bowl, or font. It is shown in a ruined “Musjeed,” and has legend attached to it, which I have forgotten. Towards the left of this sketch is seen the tomb of Ahmed Shauh; to the right, a mosque, the Balla Hissaur, and the citadel. The houses and buildings in the foreground are all more or less dilapidated, from the frequency of earthquakes. This, however, serves to show their interior structure. The roofs, it may be seen, are built chiefly in domes, since, unlike the flat roofs, they require no timber, which is extremely scarce in this part of the country.
Candahar, with the exception of Heraut, is the only capital of the Douraunees, and is situated in the centre of a highly-cultivated, well-irrigated, and fertile plain, surrounded by richly-turfed meadows, extensive orchards and gardens, and partly encircled by mountains. Every hill and building around rejoices in some singular title, and each has its legend. Here, too, are magic grottos, spots where virgins were turned to stones, and where miracles were performed by despairing lovers; and solitary caves where eminent saints practiced their austerities for centuries. In shape, the city is an oblong square, four miles round the ramparts. It has six gates, four of which bear the names of Heraut, Caubul, Topekhana, and Berdouraunee; and four principal streets, forming bazārs, all meeting in the centre of the town, and surmounted by a domed building, called Charsoo (four ways); from it on each side extends a covered bazār, and above it is the Nakarra Khana, or royal band room. The city is plentifully supplied with water, one or more streams running through it, which are crossed by small bridges. Avenues of trees once shaded the streets, but of these few remain, though other portions of the town are abundantly interspersed with foliage.
Candahar is divided into numberless walled divisions, where each peculiar family, or clan, takes up its separate abode. Among the tribes congregating in these quarters, may be seen Persians, Oosbegs, Kaukers, Beloochees, Hazaurehs, Jews, Ghiljyes, Armenians, Arabs, Douraunees, and Hindoos. Of these the Douraunees are the largest and most powerful tribe; they are the most aristocratic in appearance and polished in manner, the most liberbal-minded and independent in bearing, among the whole of the Afghauns. The Populzyes, however, a branch of the above clan, are superior even to the rest of the Douraunees, as from their family springs the division called Suddozye, the sacred and royal house of Afghaunistaun. Hence they have many privileged over their fellows, which, added to their own conscious importance, account for their more lofty bearing. The Baurukzye family also, of whom the present ruler of Caubul is an all-powerful member, is an offshoot from the Douraunees.
Viewing Candahar from without, or at a distance, there is no peculiarity in its structure to strike the eye, as nothing appears above the long high walls but the top of Ahmed Shauh’s tomb, the summits of a few minarets, and the upper parapets of the citadel. But the interior, as seen from the battlements, cannot fail to delight. Its irregular mud houses, partly in ruins, varied with trees and minarets; the square red brick dwellings, with doors and windows of Turkish arches; the lofty habitations of the Hindoo; the tents pitched here and there on the flat house-tops; the long terraces crowded with people busied in their various callings in the open air; the dung and mud-plastered hut of the Kaukur, with his heavy wild-looking buffaloes tethered round it; the high enclosures of the different tribes; the warlike castles of the chieftains; the gaily-decorated palace of some great Douraunee Lord, with its fountains, squares, and courtyards; and the domed houses of the other inhabitants, the bazārs, mosques, turrets, and cupolas, rising up in the midst of stupendous and inaccessible mountains, form the whole into a panorama pleasing to look upon.
[Keywords]
naqqara-khana/ Qandahar/ Durrani/ Kohan Dil Khan/ Rahm Dil Khan/ Mir Dil Khan/ Barakzay/ Ahmad Shah/ chehel zina/ masjid/ Bala Hisar/ Herat/ Tupkhana/ Bardurrani/ charsu/ Kakar/ Baluch/ Hazara/ Ghilzay/ Popalzay/ Sadozay/ Hindu
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