[ ケン ] account of the ravages done by time can be read now with great difficulty. The inscription is as follows — “শাকে বেদসমযুতে বস্তুবাণসমম্বিতে ইয়ং মগ সোপান” After the word 'Cottolfo' what followed cannot be made
out. The Navaratna is said to have been built by Raja Vikramaditya, the father of Maharaja Pratapaditya. Vikramaditya was the founder of the family, and he lived during the reign of the Emperor Akbar. The exact date cannot be ascertained, but it seems that the Navaratna was erected some time during the third quarter of sixteenth century. As the inscription cannot be read throughout no reliable conclusion can be drawn from it as regards the date of erection. There is no idol within the Navaratna, and it seems that there never was any image within it. It appears that Navaratna was never dedicated to a god or goddess. If such was the case, some story most have been handed down by tradition, and the present descendants of Pratapaditya would have known something about it. It was built for a different object, viz, as a Shamajmandir. Raja Vikramaditya, who was a minister of the Pathan
