Chapter LIII: Book VI: , it follows that it was from Megasthenês that he drew his (9)

[1185] About A.D. 700 Urumtsi Kashgar Khoten and Kuche in the Tarim valley became Tibetan for a few years. Parker's Thousand Years of the Tartars, 243. In A.D. 691 the western Turks who for some years had been declining and divided were broken by the great eastern Turk conqueror Mercho. The following passage from Masúdi (Prairies D'Or, I. 289) supports the establishment of White Húna or Mihira power in Tibet. The sons of Amúr (a general phrase for Turks) mixed with the people of India. They founded a kingdom in Tibet the capital of which they called Med.

[1186] Encyclopædia Britannica Articles Tibet and Turkestan.

[1187] Both Ibn Haukal and Al Istakhri (A.D. 950) call the Bay of Bengal the sea of Tibet. Compare Reinaud's Abulfeda, ccclviii.; Encyclopædia Britannica Article Tibet page 345.

[1188] Yule's Cathay, I. lxxxi.

[1189] Ency. Brit. China, 646.

[1190] Thisrong besides spreading the power of Tibet (he was important enough to join with Mámún the son of the great Harun-ar-Rashid (A.D. 788-809) in a league against the Hindus) brought many learned Hindus into Tibet, had Sanskrit books translated, settled Lamaism, and built many temples. It is remarkable that (so far as inscriptions are read) the series of Nakhonwat temples was begun during Thisrong's reign (A.D. 803-845).

[1191] Yule's Marco Polo, II. 39-42; J. R. A. Soc. I. 355.

[1192] Yule Jour. R. A. Soc. (N. S.) I. 356.

[1193] Compare Yule in Jour. R. A. S. (N. S.) I. 355. Kandahár in south-west Afghanistán is another example of the Kedarite or Little Yuechi fondness for giving to their colonies the name of their parent country.

[1194] Compare Yule's Marco Polo, II. 82-84.

[1195] Yule in Ency. Brit. Art. Cambodia, 724, 725, 726.

[1196] Fa Hian (A.D. 400) about fifty miles north-west of Kanauj found a dragon chapel (Beal's Buddhist Records, I. 40) of which a white-eared dragon was the patron. The dragon, he notes, gives seasonable showers and keeps off all plagues and calamities. At the end of the rains the dragon turns into a little white-eared serpent and the priests feed him. At the deserted Kapilavastu in Tirhut Fa Hian was shown a tank and in it a dragon who, he says, constantly guards and protects a tower to Buddha and worships there night and morning (Ditto, I. 50).

Sung-Yun (A.D. 519) notices (Beal's Buddhist Records, I. 69) in Swát (Udyána) a tank and a temple with fifty priests called the temple of the Nága Rája because the Nága supplies it with funds. In another passage (Ditto, 92) he notices that in a narrow land on the border of Posse (Fars) a dragon had taken his residence and was stopping the rain and piling the snow. Hiuen Tsiang (Ditto, I. 20) notes that in Kucha, north of the Tarim river east of the Bolor mountains, the Shen horses are half dragon horses and the Shen men half dragon men. In Aksu, 150 miles west of Kucha, fierce dragons molest travellers with storms of flying sand and gravel (Ditto, 25); the hot lake or Johai, 100 miles north-east of Aksu, is jointly inhabited by dragons and fish; scaly monsters rise to the surface and travellers pray to them (Ditto, 26). An Arhat (page 63) prays that he may become a Nágarája. He becomes a Nágarája, kills the real Nágarája, takes his palace, attaches the Nágas to him, and raises winds and tempests; Kanishka comes against him and the Arhat takes the form of a Bráhman and knocks down Kanishka's towers. A great merit-flame bursts from Kanishka's shoulders and the Bráhman Nágarája apologises. His evil and passionate spirit, the fruit of evil deeds in a former birth, had made the Arhat pray to be a Nágarája. If clouds gathered the monks knew that the Nágarája meant mischief. The convent gong was beaten and the Nágarája pacified (or scared) Ditto, 64-66. Nágas were powerful brutes, cloud-riding wind-driving water-walking brutes, still only brutes. The account of the Nága or dragon of Jelalábád (in Kambojia) is excellent. In Buddha's time the dragon had been Buddha's milkman. He lost his temper, laid flowers at the Dragon's cave, prayed he might become a dragon, and leaped over the cliff. He laid the country waste and did so much harm that Tathágata (or Buddha) converted him. The Nága asked Buddha to take his cave. Buddha said No. I will leave my shadow. If you get angry look at my shadow and it will quiet you (Ditto, 94). Another typical dragon is Apalála of the Swát river (Ditto, 68). In the time of Kasyapa Buddha Apalála was a weaver of spells named Gangi. Gangi's spells kept the dragons quiet and saved the crops. But the people were thankless and paid no tithes. May I be born a dragon, cursed Gangi, poisonous and ruinous. He was born the dragon of the Swát valley, Apalála, who belched forth a salt stream and burned the crops. The ruin of the fair and pious valley of Swát reached Sakya's (Buddha's) ears. He passed to Mangala and beat the mountain side with Indra's mace. Apalála came forth was lectured and converted. He agreed to do no more mischief on condition that once in twelve years he might ruin the crops. (Ditto, 122.) In a lake about seven miles west of Takshasilá, a spot dear to the exiled Kambojan, lived Elápatra the Nágarája, a Bhikshu or ascetic who in a former life had destroyed a tree. When the crops wanted rain or fair weather, the Shamans or medicine-men led the people to pray at Elápatra's tank (page 137). In Kashmir, perhaps the place of halt of the Kambojan in his conquests eastwards, in old times the country was a dragon lake. ((Kashmir has still a trace of Gandhára. Compare (Ency. Brit. Art. Kashmir page 13: The races of Kashmir are Gandháras, Khasás, and Daradas.))) Madhyantika drove out the waters but left one small part as a house for the Nága king (I. 150). What sense have these tales? In a hilly land where the people live in valleys the river is at once the most whimsical and the most dangerous force. Few seasons pass in which the river does not either damage with its floods or with its failure and at times glaciers and landslips stop the entire flow and the valley is ruined. So great and so strange an evil as the complete drying of a river must be the result of some one's will, of some one's temper. The Dragon is angry he wants a sacrifice. Again the river ponds into a lake, the lake tops the earth bank and rushes in a flood wasting as only a dragon can waste. For generations after so awful a proof of power all doubts regarding dragons are dead. (Compare Drew's Cashmere and Jummoo, 414-421.) In India the Chinese dragon turns into a cobra. In China the cobra is unknown: in India than the cobra no power is more dreaded. How can the mighty unwieldy dragon be the little silent cobra. How not? Can the dragon be worshipful if he is unable to change his shape. To the spirit not to the form is worship due. Again the worshipped dragon becomes the guardian. The great earth Bodhisattva transforms himself into a Nágarája and dwells in lake Anavatapta whose flow of cool water enriches the world (Buddhist Records, II. 11). In a fane in Swát Buddha takes the form of a dragon and the people live on him (125). A pestilence wasted Swát. Buddha becomes the serpent Suma, all who taste his flesh are healed of the plague (126). A Nága maiden, who for her sins has been born in serpent shape and lives in a pool, loves Buddha who was then a Sakya chief. Buddha's merit regains for the girl her lost human form. He goes into the pool slays the girl's snake-kin and marries her. Not even by marriage with the Sakya is her serpent spirit driven out of the maiden. At night from her head issues a nine-crested Nága. Sakya strikes off the nine crests and ever since that blow the royal family has suffered from headaches (132). This last tale shows how Buddhism works on the coarser and fiercer tribes who accept its teaching. The converts rise to be men though a snake-head may peep out to show that not all of the old leaven is dead. In other stories Buddha as the sacramental snake shows the moral advance in Buddhism from fiend to guardian worship. The rest of the tales illustrate the corresponding intellectual progress from force worship to man, that is mind, worship. The water force sometimes kindly and enriching sometimes fierce and wasting becomes a Bodhisattva always kindly though his goodwill may have to give way to the rage of evil powers. So Bráhmanism turns Náráyana the sea into Siva or Somnáth the sea ruler. In this as in other phases religion passes from the worship of the forces of Nature to which in his beginnings man has to bow to the worship of Man or conscious Mind whose growth in skill and in knowledge has made him the Lord of the forces. These higher ideals are to a great extent a veneer. The Buddhist evangelist may dry the lake; he is careful to leave a pool for the Nágarája. In times of trouble among the fierce struggles of pioneers and settlers the spirit of Buddha withdraws and leaves the empty shrine to the earlier and the more immortal spirit of Force, the Nágarája who has lived on in the pool which for the sake of peace Buddha refrained from drying.

[1197] Mr. Fergusson (Architecture, 219) places the Káshmir temples between A.D. 600 and 1200 and allots Mártand the greatest to about A.D. 750. The classical element, he says, cannot be mistaken. The shafts are fluted Grecian Doric probably taken from the Gandhára monasteries of the fourth and fifth centuries. Fergusson was satisfied (Ditto, 289) that the religion of the builders of the Káshmir temples was Nága worship. In Cambodia the Bráhman remains were like those of Java (Ditto, 667). But the connection between the Nakhonwat series and the Káshmir temples was unmistakeable (Ditto, 297, 665). Nága worship was the object of both (Ditto, 677-679). Imperfect information forced Fergusson to date the Nakhonwat not earlier than the thirteenth century (Ditto, 660, 679). The evidence of the inscriptions which (J. As. Ser. VI. Tom. XIX. page 190) brings back the date of this the latest of a long series of temples to the ninth and tenth centuries adds greatly to the probability of some direct connection between the builders of the Mártand shrine in Káshmir and of the great Nakhonwat temple at Angkor.

[1198] Ency. Brit. Art. Tibet, 344.

[1199] Ency. Brit. Art. Cambodia.

[1200] Yule's Marco Polo, II. 45, 47.

[1201] Contributed by Khán Sáheb Fazlulláh Lutfulláh Farídi of Surat.

[1202] This account which is in two parts is named Silsilát-ut-Tawáríkh, that is the Chain of History. The first part was written in A.D. 851-52 by Sulaimán and has the advantage of being the work of a traveller who himself knew the countries he describes. The second part was written by Abu Zeid-al-Hasan of Siráf on the Persian Gulf about sixty years after Sulaimán's account. Though Abu Zeid never visited India, he made it his business to read and question travellers who had been in India. Abul Hasan-el-Masúdi (A.D. 915-943) who met him at Basrah is said to have imparted to and derived much information from Abu Zeid. Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 2.

[1203] Ahmed bin Yahyâ, surnamed Abu Jaâfar and called Biláduri or Bilázuri from his addiction to the electuary of the Malacca bean (bilázur) or anacardium, lived about the middle of the ninth century of the Christian era at the court of Al-Mutawakkil the Abbási, as an instructor to one of the royal princes. He died A.H. 279 (A.D. 892-93). His work is styled the Futúh-ul-Buldán The Conquest of Countries. He did not visit Sindh, but was in personal communication with men who had travelled far and wide.

[1204] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 115-116.

[1205] The reason of Umar's dislike for India is described by Al Masúdi (Murúj Arabic Text, Cairo Edition, III. 166-171), to have originated from the description of the country by a philosopher to whom Umar had referred on the first spread of Islám in his reign. The philosopher said: India is a distant and remote land peopled by rebellious infidels. Immediately after the battle of Kadesiah (A.D. 636) when sending out Utbah, his first governor to the newly-founded camp-town of Basrah Umar is reported to have said: I am sending thee to the land of Al-Hind (India) as governor. Remember it is a field of the fields of the enemy. The third Khalífah Usmán (A.D. 643-655) ordered his governor of Irák to depute a special officer to visit India and wait upon the Khalífah to report his opinion of that country. His report of India was not encouraging. He said: Its water is scarce, its fruits are poor, and its robbers bold. If the troops sent there are few they will be slain; if many they will starve. (Al-Biláduri in Elliot, I. 116.)

[1206] Sir H. Elliot's History of India, I. 116.

[1207] Sir H. Elliot (Hist. of India) transliterates this as Básia. But neither Básea nor his other supposition (Note 4 Ditto) Budha seem to have any sense. The original is probably Bátiah, a form in which other Arab historians and geographers also allude to Baet, the residence of the notorious Bawárij who are referred to a little farther on as seafarers and pirates. Ditto, I. 123.

[1208] This important expedition extended to Ujjain. Details Above page 109 and also under Bhínmál. Raids by sea from Sindh were repeated in A.D. 758, 760, 755, and perhaps A.D. 830. Reinaud's Fragments, 212. See Above Bhagvánlál's Early History page 96 note 3.

[1209] Details Above pages 94-96.

[1210] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 129.

[1211] Sir Henry Elliot (History of India, I. 129) calls it Kállari though (Ditto note 3) he says the text has Máli.

[1212] Sir H. Elliot's History of India, I. 129.

[1213] Ibni Khurdádbah a Musalmán of Magian descent as his name signifies, died H. 300 (A.D. 912). He held high office under the Abbási Khalífahs at Baghdád (Elliot's History of India, I. 13).

[1214] Abul Hasan Al Masudi, a native of Baghdád, who visited India about A.D. 915 and wrote his "Meadows of Gold" (Murúj-uz-zahab) about A.D. 950-51 and died A.D. 956 in Egypt. (Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 23-25.)

[1215] Abu Is-hák Al Istakhri, a native (as his cognomen signifies) of Persepolis who flourished about the middle of the tenth century and wrote his Book of Climes (Kitábul Akálím) about A.H. 340 (A.D. 951). Elliot's History of India, I. 26.

[1216] See Appendix A. Volume I. Sir Henry Elliot's History of India.

[1217] Elliot's History of India, 394, where Sir Henry Elliot calculates a parsang or farsang (Arabic farsakh) to be 3 1/2 miles. Al Bírúni, however, counts four kroh or miles to a farsakh. Sachau's Al Bírúni Arabic Text, chapter 18 page 97.

[1218] Sir Henry Elliot (History of India, I. 403) locates Surabáya somewhere near Surat. The mouth of the Tápti is still known in Surat as the Bára.

[1219] Ibni Haukal (Muhammad Abul Kásim) a native of Baghdád, left that city in H. 331 (A.D. 943), returned to it H. 358 (A.D. 968), and finished his work about H. 366 (A.D. 976). Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 31.

[1220] Elliot, I. 34.

[1221] Sir Henry Elliot (History of India, I. 363) correctly takes Fámhal to be a misreading for Anhal that is Anhilwára. Al Bírúni (A.D. 970-1039) uses the name Anhilwára without any Arab peculiarity of transliteration or pronunciation. Sachau's Arabic Text, 100. Al Idrísi (end of the eleventh century) styles Anhilwára "Nahrwára" (Elliot, I. 84) an equally well known name.

[1222] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 34.

[1223] M. Gildemeister's Latin translation of Ibni Haukal's Ashkál-ul-Bilád (Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 39).

[1224] Abu Rihán Al Bírúni was a native of Balkh in Central Asia. He accompanied Mahmúd of Ghazni to India in his expeditions and acquired an accurate knowledge of Sanskrit. His acquaintance with this language and Greek and his love of enquiry and research together with his fairness and impartiality, make his Indica a most valuable contribution to our information on India in the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries. He finished his work after the death of his patron in A.D. 1030-31. See Sachau's Preface to the Arabic Text of the Indica, ix.

[1225] Al Bírúni makes his farsakh of four miles. Sachau's Arabic Text, 97.

[1226] Sir Henry Elliot's translation and transliteration of Rahanjúr (History of India, I. 61) are, be it said with all respect to the memory of that great scholar, inaccurate. He cannot make anything of the word (note 3) while in the Arabic Text of Sachau (page 100) the first letter is a plain r and not d. From the context also the ancient town of Rándir seems to be meant. It is plainly written Rahanjúr and is very likely the copyist's mistake for the very similar form Ráhandúr.

[1227] Sachau's Arabic Text of Al Bírúni, 98 and Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 61.

[1228] Elphinstone's History of India, Book V. Chapter I. 263 Note 25 (John Murray's 1849 Edition) on the authority of Captain MacMurdo and Captain Alexander Burnes inclines to the opinion that Debal was somewhere near the site of the modern Karáchi.

[1229] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 65. Sachau's Text of Al Bírúni, chapter 18 page 102.

[1230] Al Biláduri uses the word Barija for a strong built war vessel. Sir Henry Elliot derives the word from the Arabic and gives an interesting note on the subject in his Appendix I. 539. The word is still used in Hindustáni as beda (by'dA) to signify a boat or bark.

[1231] Sachau's Arabic Text, 102.

[1232] According to Richardson (Arabic Dictionary voce myrrh) though rendered gum by all translators. According to the Makhzan the word mukl (Urdu gughal) is Balsamodendron and Bádrud the corruption of Báruz (Urdu biroza) is balsam or bezoar.

[1233] Sachau's Arabic Text page 99 chapter 18.

[1234] After giving the distances in days or journeys the Text (page 102 Sachau's Text of Al Bírúni) does not particularise the distances of the places that follow in journeys or farsakhs.

[1235] Elliot's History of India, I. 67.

[1236] Abu Abdallah Muhammad Al Idrísi, a native of Ceuta in Morocco and descended from the royal family of the Idrísis of that country, settled at the court of Roger II. of Sicily, where and at whose desire he wrote his book The Nuzhat-ul-Mushták or The Seeker's Delight. Elliot's History of India, I: 74. Almost all Al Idrísi's special information regarding Sindh and Western India is from Al-Jauhari governor of Khurásán (A.D. 892-999), whose knowledge of Sindh and the Indus valley is unusually complete and accurate. Compare Reinaud's Abulfeda, lxiii.

[1237] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 77.

[1238] Bombay Gazetteer, II. 69.

[1239] Elliot's History of India, I. 76.

[1240] Elliot's History of India, I. 79.

[1241] Elliot's History of India, I. 79.

[1242] Elliot's History of India, I. 84.

[1243] The details of Kulámmali given by Al Kazwíni (A.D. 1263-1275) seem to show it is Quilon on the Malabár Coast. When a ruler died his successor was always chosen from China.

[1244] Elliot (I. 363-364) on the authority of Al Istakhri thinks that all the names Ámhal, Fámhal, Kámhal, and Mámhal are faulty readings of Anhal (Anhil)wára owing to irregularity in the position or absence of diacritical points.

[1245] This is probably Ránder, a very natural Arab corruption. Instance Al Bírúni's Ranjhur. See page 507 note 11 and page 520.

[1246] Rumála is mentioned at pages 14, 87, 92 and 93 volume I. of Elliot. It is first mentioned (page 14) by Ibni Khurdádbah (A.D. 912) as one of the countries of Sindh. It is next mentioned by Al Idrísi (end of the eleventh century according to Elliot, I. 74) as one of the places of the eighth section describing the coast of India, but is mentioned along with Nahrwára, Kandhár, and Kalbata (?). At page 92 (Ditto) the same writer (Idrísi) says that Kalbata and Rumála are on the borders of the desert which separates Multán from Sijistán. Again at page 93 (Ditto) Idrísi gives the distance between Kalbata and Rumála as a distance of three days.

[1247] Elliot's History of India, I. 84.

[1248] Sir H. Elliot's History of India, I. 85.

[1249] Elliot, I. 90-93.

[1250] Elliot's History of India, I. 89.

[1251] Zakariah Ibni Muhammad Al Kazwíni, a native of Kazwín (Kasbin) in Persia, wrote his Ásár-ul-Bilád or "Signs or Monuments of Countries" about A.H. 661 (A.D. 1263) compiling it chiefly from the writings of Al Istakhri (A.D. 951) and Ibni Haukal (A.D. 976). He also frequently quotes Misâr bin Muhalhil, a traveller who (A.D. 942) visited India and China. Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 94.

[1252] Barbier De Meynard's Text of Al Masúdi's Les Prairies D'Or, I. 382.

[1253] Sir Henry Elliot misreads Tamraz for Al Bírúni's Arabic form of Narmaza. He says: It comes from the city of Tamraz and the eastern hills; it has a south-easterly course till it falls into the sea near Báhruch about 60 yojanas to the east of Somnáth. The literal translation of the text of Al Bírúni (see Sachau's Al Bírúni's India, 130) is that given above: It is hard to believe that the accurate Al Bírúni while in one place (see Sachau's Text, 99) giving the name of the Narbada faultlessly, should in another place fall into the error of tracing it from Tirmiz a city of Central Asia. A comparison of Elliot's version with the text sets the difficulty at rest. Compare Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 49 and note 3 ditto and Sachau's Arabic Text of Al Bírúni, 180 chapter 25.

[1254] Compare Sachau's Al Bírúni with Sir Henry Elliot, I. 49, who is silent as to the distance.

[1255] See Ahmedábád Gazetteer, IV. 338; also Elliot's History of India, I. 356-357.

[1256] See Appendix Elliot's History of India, I. 363.

[1257] Al Istakhri in Elliot (History of India), I. 27.

[1258] Al Istakhri in Elliot (History of India), I. 30.

[1259] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 32-34.

[1260] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 34-38.

[1261] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 39.

[1262] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 40.

[1263] Al Bírúni in Elliot (History of India), I. 61.

[1264] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 77.

[1265] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 79.

[1266] Bánia seems to be a copyist's error for Bazána or Náráyana. The distances agree and the fact that to this day the neighbourhood of Jaipur is noted for its flocks of sheep bears additional testimony to the correctness of the supposition.

[1267] Al Idrísi in Elliot's History of India, I. 84.

[1268] Al Idrísi in Elliot's History of India, I. 9. The Balháras or Ráshtrakútas lost their power in A.D. 974. The only explanation of Idrísi's (A.D. 1100) Balháras at Anhilwára is that Idrísi is quoting from Al Bírúni A.D. 950.

[1269] Farishtah Persian Text Lithographed Bombay Edition, I. 57.

[1270] Farishtah Persian Text Lithographed Bombay Edition, IV. 48. The Rauzat-us-Safa states that it was at Somnáth the Ghaznavide wanted to fix his capital (IV. 42 Persian Text, Lakhnau Edition). Anahilaváda seems more likely.

[1271] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, II. 155.

[1272] The Jámi-ûl-Hikáyát in Elliot (History of India), II. 162.

[1273] Elliot's History of India, II. 200.

[1274] Elliot's History of India, II. 229-30.

[1275] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, III. 74.

[1276] Sachau's Text, 102.

[1277] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 87.

[1278] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 88.

[1279] Elliot's History of India, III. 260.

[1280] Bayley's Gujarát, 81.

[1281] Elliot's History of India, IV. 39; History of Gujarát, 81.

[1282] Bayley's Gujarát, 90.

[1283] Al Biláduri (A.D. 892) in Elliot's History of India, I. 116.

[1284] Al Biláduri (A.D. 892) in Elliot's History of India, I. 126. Details of this far-stretching affliction of Sindh, Kachh, the Chávadás, Chitor, Bhínmál, and Ujjain are given above, History 109.

[1285] Ibni Khurdádbah in Elliot (History of India), I. 14.

[1286] Al Bírúni in Elliot (History of India, I. 49-66), and Sachau's Arabic Text, 100.

[1287] Barbier DeMeynard's Arabic Text of Les Prairies D'Or, I. 239.

[1288] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 87.

[1289] Elliot's History of India, III. 256-260.

[1290] Al Istakhri in Elliot (History of India), I. 27.

[1291] Al Istakhri in Elliot (History of India), I. 30.

[1292] Prairies D'Or (Barbier DeMeynard's Arabic Text), I. 253-54.

[1293] Prairies D'Or (Arabic Text), III. 47.

[1294] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 34.

[1295] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 38.

[1296] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 39.

[1297] Rashíd-ud-dín from Al Bírúni in Elliot's History of India, I. 66 and Sachau's Arabic Text, chapter 18 pages 99-102.

[1298] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 67.

[1299] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 77.

[1300] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 84.

[1301] Tazjiyat-ul-Amsar in Elliot, III. 32.

[1302] Saâdi's patron mentioned by him in his Garden of Roses.

[1303] The word dínár is from the Latin denarius (a silver coin worth 10 oz. of brass) through the Greek dênarion. It is a Kuráanic word, the ancient Arabic equivalent being mithkál. The dínár sequin or ducat varied in value in different times. In Abu Haúfah's (the greatest of the four Sunni Jurisconsults') time (A.D. 749) its value ranged from 10 to 12 dirhams. Then from 20 to 25 dirhams or drachmas. As a weight it represented a drachma and a half. Though generally fluctuating, its value may be assessed at 9s. or 10 francs to half a sovereign. For an elaborate article on the Dínár see Yule's Cathay, II. 439; Burton's Alf Leilah, I. 32. The word Dirham is used in Arabic in the sense of "silver" (vulg. siller) the Greek drachmê and the drachuma of Plautus. This silver piece was 9 3/4d. and as a weight 66 1/2 grains. Sir Henry Elliot does not speak more at length of the dínár and the dirham than to say (History of India, I. 461) that they were introduced in Sindh in the reign of Abdul Malik (A.D. 685) and Elliot, VII. 31) that the dínár was a Rúm and the dirham a Persian coin. The value of the dínár in modern Indian currency may be said to be Rs. 5 and that of the dirham nearly annas 4.

[1304] Wassáf gives the date of this event as A.D. 1298, but the Tárikh-i-Alái of Amír Khusrao places it at A.D. 1300. See Elliot's History of India, III. 43 and 74.

[1305] Elliot's History of India, III. 256-57.

[1306] Al Masúdi in Elliot (History of India), I. 24.

[1307] Prairies D'Or, II. 85.

[1308] He was called a Hairam or Hairamah in the language of the country. Al Masúdi's Murúj Arabic Text Cairo Edition, II. 56.

[1309] Al Masúdi's Murúj Arabic Text Cairo Edition, II. 56-57.

[1310] One born in India of an Arab father and an Indian mother probably from the Gujaráti word Ádh-besra meaning mixed blood. This seems the origin of the Bais Rájput. The performer in the case in the text was a Hindu. Al Masúdi (Murúj Arabic Text II. 57 Cairo Edition) says that the singular of Bayásirah is Besar.

[1311] Al Istakhri in Elliot (History of India), I. 27.

[1312] Al Istakhri in Elliot (History of India), I. 30.

[1313] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 33-34.

[1314] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 38.

[1315] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 38.

[1316] Al Bírúni Sachau's Arabic Text, 102; Elliot's History of India, I. 39, 66.

[1317] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 77.

[1318] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 77, 85.

[1319] Al Kazwíni in Elliot (History of India), I. 97.

[1320] Though Al Kazwíni wrote in the thirteenth century, he derives his information of India from Misâar bin Muhalhil, who visited India about A.D. 942. Elliot (History of India), I. 94.

[1321] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 87.

[1322] Tárikh-i-Fírúz Sháhi by Ziá Barni (Elliot's History of India), III. 264-65.

[1323] Rashíd-ud-dín (A.D. 1310) from Al Birúni in Elliot's History of India, I. 65.

[1324] Rashíd-ud-dín (A.D. 1310) from Al Birúni in Elliot's History of India, I. 49.

[1325] Rashíd-ud-dín (A.D. 1310) from Al Birúni in Elliot's History of India, I. 66.

[1326] Written A.D. 1600 (Elliot, I. 213).

[1327] Táríkh-i-Maâsumi in Elliot, I. 16.

[1328] Tuhfat-ul-Kirám in Elliot, I. 344.

[1329] Táríkh-i-Maâsumi in Elliot, I. 217.

[1330] Tárikh-i-Maâsumi in Elliot, I. 218.

[1331] Tárikh-i-Táhiri (Elliot's History of India), I. 267-68.

[1332] Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal for February 1838, 102.

[1333] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 268.

[1334] Tárikh-i-Fírúz Sháhi in Elliot, II. 260.

[1335] In his Arabic Text of the Murúj (Prairies D'Or, Cairo Edition) Al Masúdi writes the name of the Kanauj king as Farwarah. (If the F stands for P and the w for m, as is quite possible in Arab writing, then this can be Parmárah the Arab plural for Parmár.) At volume I. page 240 the word Farwarah is twice used. Once: "And the king of Kanauj, of the kings of Sindh (India) is Farwarah." Again at the same page (240): "And Farwarah he who is king of Kanauj is opposed to Balhara." Then at page 241: Farwarah is again used in the beginning of the account quoted by Elliot in I. 23.

[1336] Elliot's History of India, I. 23. In the Cairo Edition of the Arabic Text of Al Masúdi's Murúj (Prairies D'Or) vol. I. page 241 is the original of this account.

[1337] Elliot's History of India, I. 33.

[1338] Elliot's History of India. I. 45.

[1339] Elliot's History of India, I. 49.

[1340] Elliot, I. 90.

[1341] Elliot's History of India, I. 147.

[1342] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 15.

[1343] Táj-ul-Mâásir in Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, II. 222. 'After staying some time at Dehli he (Kutb-ud-dín) marched in A.D. 1194 (H. 590) towards Kol and Banâras passing the Jumna which from its exceeding purity resembled a mirror.' It would seem to place Kol near Banâras.

[1344] Al Masúdi's Prairies D'Or (Arabic Text), I. 168.

[1345] Al Masúdi in Elliot (History of India), I. 19, 20, 21 and Prairies D'Or, I. 178.

[1346] Al Masúdi Arabic Text Prairies D'Or, (I. 381); Al Masúdi in Elliot (History of India), I. 24.

[1347] That is an Arab dirhem and a half. Al Istakhri in Elliot (History of India), I. 27. These Tártariyya dirhems are mentioned by almost all Arab writers. Al Idrísi says they were current in Mansúrah in Sindh and in the Malay archipelago. See Elliot, I. 3 note 4. According to Sulaimán (A.D. 851) the Tártariya dirham weighed "a dirham and a half of the coinage of the king." Elliot, I. 3. Al Masúdi (Prairies D'Or, I. 382) calls these "Tátiriyyah" dirhams, giving them the same weight as that given by Sulaimán to the Tártariyah dirhams. Ibni Haukal calls it the Titari dirhem and makes its weight equal to "a dirham and a third" (Elliot, I. 85).

[1348] Kumlah is rauma salt land. There is a Rúm near Kárur about sixty miles south-east of Multán. Al Idrísi (A.D. 1135) has a Rumálah three days from Kalbata the salt range. Elliot, I. 92.

[1349] Probably Okhámandal. See Appendix vol. I. page 390 Elliot's History of India.

[1350] Sachau's Arabic Text of Al Bírúni's Indica, 99.

[1351] Persian Text Bombay Edition of 1832, I. 53.

[1352] Sachau's Arabic Text of Al Bírúni, 100.

[1353] Elliot's History of India, I. 84.

[1354] Al Biláduri in Elliot (History of India), I. 129. The word sáj in the Arabic text means besides a teak-spar (which seems to be an improbable present to be sent to a Khalifáh), a large black or green turban or sash.

[1355] Ibni Khurdádbha in Elliot (History of India), I. 14 and 15.

[1356] De Meynard's Arabic Text of Les Prairies D'Or, III. 47-48.

[1357] Al Istakhri in Elliot (History of India), I. 27 and 30.

[1358] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 34 and 38.

[1359] Al Bírúni in Elliot, I. 66.

[1360] Al Idrísi in Elliot, I. 77-85.

[1361] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 403 Appendix.

[1362] Lee's Ibni Batuta, 166.

[1363] Al Masúdi in Elliot (History of India), I. 21.

[1364] Rashid-ud-dín from Al Bírúni in Elliot, I. 68.

[1365] Al Idrísi in Elliot, I. 89.

[1366] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 65; Sachau's Arabic Text of Al Bírúni, 102.

[1367] Elliot's History of India, I. 67.

[1368] Sachau's Text of Al Bírúni, 252.

[1369] Sachau's Arabic Text, 253.

[1370] Sachau's Arabic Text, 253 chapter 58.

[1371] It appears that at the time of his expedition to Somnáth Mahmúd had not adopted the title of Sultán.

[1372] Sachau's Arabic Text, 253 chapter 58.

[1373] Sachau's Text, 253 chapter 58.

[1374] The Táríkh-i-Kámil. Ibni Asír (A.D. 1160-1232) is a voluminous and reliable historian. Ibni Khallikán, the author of the famous biographical dictionary, knew and respected Asír always alluding to him as "our Sheikh." See Elliot, II. 245.

[1375] From the term 'sculptured' it would seem the idol was of stone. It is curious how Ibni Asír states a little further that a part of the idol was "burned by Mehmúd." See Elliot, II. 471. The Tárikh-i-Alfi says (Elliot, II. 471) that the idol was cut of solid stone. It however represents it as hollow and containing jewels, in repeating the somewhat hackneyed words of Mahmúd when breaking the idol regardless of the handsome offer of the Bráhmans, and finding it full of jewels.

[1376] The Rauzat-us-Safa (Lithgd. Edition, IV. 48) speaks of Mahmúd's project of making Somnáth his capital and not Anhilwára as stated by Farishtah (I. 57, Original Persian Text). The Rauzát-us-Safa says that when Mahmúd had conquered Somnáth he wished to fix his residence there for some years as the country was very large and had a great many advantages including mines of pure gold and rubies brought from Sarandíb or Ceylon which he represents as a dependency of Gujarát. At last he yielded to his minister's advice and agreed to return to Khurásán.

[1377] Prairies D'Or (DeMeynard's Arabic Text, I. 381); also Al Masúdi in Elliot (History of India. I. 24).

[1378] Al Istakhri in Elliot (History of India), I. 27.

[1379] Al Istakhri in Elliot (History of India), I. 30.

[1380] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 34, 39.

[1381] Thus in Sachau's Arabic Text page 102, but Elliot (I. 66) spells the word Sufára in his translation. It might have assumed that form in coming from the Arabic through Rashíd-ud-dín's Persian version from which Sir Henry Elliot derives his account.

[1382] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 77 and 85.

[1383] Al Bilázuri in Elliot, I. 116.

[1384] Barbier DeMeynard's Text of Masúdi's Prairies D'Or, I. 330 and 381.

[1385] Sachau's Arabic Text of Al Bírúni, chapters 18, 99, 102 and Elliot's History of India, I. 60-61, 66-67.

[1386] Al Idrísi in Elliot, 1-89.

[1387] Al Idrísi says the real tabáshír is extracted from the root of the reed called sharki. Sarki is Gujaráti for reed. It is generally applied to the reeds growing on river banks used by the poor for thatching their cottages. Tabáshír is a drug obtained from the pith of the bamboo and prescribed by Indian physicians as a cooling drink good for fever.

[1388] The name Barádah in Arabic orthography bears a close resemblance to Barâbah, Bárlabah, Barlabah, all three being the forms or nearly the forms in which the word Walabah or Walabi would be written by an Arab, supposing the diacritical points to be, as they often are, omitted. Besides as Barádah the word has been read and miswritten Nárand or Bárand and Bárad or Barid. In the shikastah or broken hand Nárand or Bárand would closely resemble Bárlabah or Báradah. Al Bilázuri in Elliot's History of India I. 127, writes the word Nárand or Bárand. Sir Henry Elliot (History, I. 444) reads the word Barada and would identify the place with the Barda hills inland from Porbandar in south-west Káthiávád. The objection to this is that the word used by the Arab writers was the name of a town as well as of a coast tract, while the name of Barda is applied solely to a range of hills. On the other hand Balaba the coast and town meets all requirements.

[1389] Reigned A.D. 754-775.

[1390] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, II. 246 and Frag. Arabes 3, 120, 212; Weil's Geschichte der Chalifen, II. 115.

[1391] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 444.

[1392] Sir Henry Elliot (History of India, I. 445) identifies Kandhár with Kandadár in north-west Káthiávád.

[1393] Sachau's Original Text, 205.

[1394] Sachau's Original Text, 17-94.

[1395] Details above in Dr. Bhagvánlál's History, 96 note 3.

[1396] Elliot's History of India, I. 7.

[1397] Elliot's History of India, I. 22, 24, 25.

[1398] Elliot's History of India, I. 34.

[1399] Elliot's History of India, I. 86.

[1400] Al Masúdi Les Prairies D'Or, II. chapter 18 page 85.

[1401] Giving an account of the diviners and jugglers of India Abu Zaid says: These observations are especially applicable to Kanauj, a large country forming the empire of Jurz. Abu Zaid in Elliot's History of India, I. 10. References given in the History of Bhínmál show that the Gurjjara power spread not only to Kanauj but to Bengal.

[1402] Ibni Khurdádbah in Elliot's History of India, I. 13.

[1403] Al Masúdi in Elliot (History of India), I. 25.

[1404] Ibni Haukal in Elliot (History of India), I. 34.

[1405] Al Bírúni in Elliot (History of India), I. 67.

[1406] Al Bírúni in Elliot (History of India), I. 59.

[1407] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 76.

[1408] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 86.

[1409] The merchant Sulaimán (851 A.D.) in Elliot's History of India, I. 5.

[1410] Ibni Khurdádbah in Elliot (History of India), I. 13.

[1411] Al Masúdi in Elliot (History of India), I. 23.

[1412] Al Masúdi in Elliot (History of India), I. 25.

[1413] Ibni Khurdádbah in Elliot's History of India, I. 14.

[1414] Al Masúdi in History of India by Sir Henry Elliot, I. 25.

[1415] Lane's Notes on his Translation of the Alf Leilah, III. 80.

[1416] Al Masúdi's Murúj (Arabic Text Cairo Edition, I. 221).

[1417] The merchant Sulaimán (Elliot's History of India), I. 4 and 5.

[1418] See page 519 note 8.

[1419] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 11.

[1420] Ibni Khurdádbah in Elliot's History of India, I. 14.

[1421] Ibni Khurdádbah in Elliot's History of India, I. 15.

[1422] Al Masúdi (Elliot's History of India), I. 23.

[1423] Barbier De Meynard's Arabic Text of Les Prairies D'Or, III. 47-48.

[1424] Barbier De Meynard's Arabic Text of Les Prairies D'Or, I. 239.

[1425] Barbier De Meynard's Arabic Text of Les Prairies D'Or, I. 253.

[1426] Barbier De Meynard's Arabic Text of Les Prairies D'Or, I. 384.

[1427] Ibni Haukal (Ashkál-ul-Bilád) and Elliot's History of India, I. 39.

[1428] Elliot's History of India, III. 33.

[1429] Mámhal is by some numbered among the cities of India. Al Idrísi in Elliot, I. 84.

[1430] Al Idrísi in Elliot, I. 79.

[1431] Al Idrísi in Elliot, I. 85.

[1432] Al Idrísi in Elliot's History of India, I. 85.

[1433] Al Idrísi in Elliot's History of India, I. 85.

[1434] Rashíd-ud-dín in Elliot's History of India, I. 67-68.

[1435] Ibni Haukal (A.D. 968) in Elliot, I. 39.

[1436] Al Idrísi (A.D. 968) in Elliot, I. 84 and 87.

[1437] Al Idrísi speaking of Cambay in Elliot's History of India, I. 84.

[1438] Al Idrísi in Elliot, I. 85.

[1439] Al Idrísi in Elliot, I. 88.

[1440] Al Masúdi in Elliot's History of India, I. 9.

[1441] Ibni Haukal in Elliot, I. 35.

[1442] Ibni Haukal in Elliot, I. 39.

[1443] Al Idrísi in Elliot's History of India, I. 88.

[1444] Rashíd-ud-dín (A.D. 1310) in Elliot's History of India, I. 67. The passage seems to be a quotation from Al Bírúni (A.D. 1031).

[1445] Ibni Haukal in Elliot's History of India, I. 34-38, also Al Kazwíni, I. 97.

[1446] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 29.

[1447] The merchant Sulaimán in Elliot's History of India, I. 7.

[1448] The merchant Sulaimán in Elliot's History of India, I. 6.

[1449] The merchant Sulaimán in Elliot's History of India, I. 7.

[1450] Abu Zaid in Elliot's History of India, I. 10.

[1451] Abu Zaid in Elliot's History of India, I. 9-10.

[1452] Abu Zaid in Elliot's History of India, I. 11.

[1453] Ibni Khurdádbah in Elliot, I. 17.

[1454] See Elliot, I. 76, where Al Idrísi calls the first class 'Sákariá' the word being a transliteration of the Arabic Thákariyah or Thákurs.

[1455] The Arabic plural of the word Barahman.

[1456] Ibni Khurdádbah in Elliot's History of India, I. 13-17.

[1457] Text Les Prairies D'Or, I. 149-154 and Elliot's History of India, I. 19.

[1458] Arabic Text Les Prairies D'Or, I. 149-154, and Elliot's History of India, I. 20.

[1459] Al Masúdi's Prairies D'Or, I. 169, and Elliot's History of India, I. 20.

[1460] Rashíd-ud-dín from Al Bírúni in Elliot's History of India, I. 67-68.

[1461] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 76.

[1462] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 85.

[1463] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 87.

[1464] Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 88.

[1465] Al Idrísi in Elliot (History of India), I. 88.

[1466] Contributed by Mr. A. M. T. Jackson, M.A., I.C.S.

[1467] We learn from Pliny (VI. 22) that Palaisimoundou was the name of a town and a river in Ceylon, whence the name was extended to the whole island.

End of Project Gutenberg's History of Gujarát, by James McNabb Campbell