16 PICTURES AND PEN-PICTURES

fort whose well-planned keeps and courtyards and
countless rows of rooms suggest that it was built for
residence as much as for defence. The fort is now a
school for little children who clatter up the steep, narrow
stone stairways to reach their class-rooms over whose
doorways stand out in brutal incongruity the legends :

(< He who laughs last laughs best", u A stitch in time
saves nine??, (t Britannia rules the waves", and mother
white chalk inscriptions in Eoman script. This fort of
Kurukshetra also has its tales of Akbar and Jehangir^
of generals who tried to defy imperial majesty, of sieges
aud victories. From the top-most terrace adorned with
tiny Mughal kiosks, the wide panorama of the country-
side shows here, the huddle of the little village, there the
tall spires of a Siva temple and, yonder, the rounded dome
of Gita Bhuvan rising from its nest of greenery.

To his hand, says the recluse of Kurukshefcra, were
mustered the forces of the Pandavas; and to bhat^ those
of the Kurus. To this hand is the gentle slope of a
knoll and, to that, a grassy stretch; nearby is the little
shrine under a banyan tree that commemorates the
spot where Krishna's chariot stood, and where Lord
Vishnu left the imprint of his feet. The epic battle-
ground whereon the code of morality and honour, of
trufchfulness and right living, of honesty and righteous-
ness (of dharma) was at stake, is now a grazing ground
for sheep. Where spears flashed in combat, steel shears
glint in the sun; whence rose the clangour of battle
cries now swells the imtatingly plaintive bleat of the
newly" shorn. HerdsnJen in great, tangled turbans and
weathered blankets follow their rustic trade where once
the Pandavas fought the Kurus.