KANKIZOWLEE LAKE, also called Raj Sa mund, was formed by Rai Singh, rana of Mewar, at a cost of £1,150,000. It was commenced in A.D. 1661, during a period of famine, and was finished in 1668. This great national work is 25 miles N. of Udaipur, the capital, and is situated on the declivity of the plain, about two miles from the base of the Aravalli. The Gumti, a small perennial stream flowing from these mountains, was arrested in its course, and confined by an immense embankment, made to form the lake called after the ruler, Raj Samund, or royal sea. The bund or dam forms an irregular segment of a circle, embracing an extent of nearly three miles, and encircling the waters on every side except the space between the north-west and north-east points. This barrier, which confines a sheet of water of great depth, about 12 miles in circum ference, is entirely of white marble, with a flight of steps of the same material, throughout this extent, from the summit to the water's edge ; the whole buttressed by an enormous rampart of earth, which, had the projector lived, would have been planted with trees to form a promenade. On the
south side are the town and fortress built by the rana, and bearing his name, Rajnuggur ; and upon the embankment stands the temple of Kankraoli, the shrine of one of the seven forms (sa-roop) of Krishna. The whole is ornamented with sculpture of tolerable execution for the age ; and a genea logical sketch of the founder's family is inscribed in conspicuous characters. The £1,150,000 was contributed by the rana, his chiefs, and opulent subjects, to be expended on this work; the material was brought from the adjacent quarries. But, magnificent, costly, and useful as it is, it derives its chief beauty from the benevolent motive to which it owes its birth, during one of those awful visitations of famine which from time to time recur in different parts of India.—Tod's Rajasthan, i. p. 389.