Marbary College Library * FROM THE FUND OF CIARLES MINOT (Class of 1828), Received JO dept (887 i: = _ om ara at i JOURNAL OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. i a. ar VOL. LVIII. PART I. (History, ANTIQUITIES, &C.) (Nos. I ro I1J.—1889 : with 10 plates ; also a Supplement with 2°plates.) , EDITED BY JHE fLONORARY Ff HILOLOGICAL PECRETARY, EES ‘Tt will flourish, if naturalists, chemists, antiquaries, philologers, and men of science in different parts of Asza, will commit their observations to writing, and send them to the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, It will languish, if such communications shall be long { intermitted ; and it will die away, if they shall entirely cease,” Sirk WM. Jones. | ~—eoworrereres=s=_ ee eos t | t CALCUTTA: 1 ¢ PRINTED AT THE BAPTIST MISSION PERSS, AND PUBLISHED BY ‘THE ASIATIC SOCIETY, 57, PARK STREET, 1889. : 3 g S : g : CONTENTS OF JOURNAL, ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL, Vox. LVIII, Parv T, FoR 1889, Coins of the Muhammadan Kings of Gujardt.—By E. E. Ourver, Esq. (With 3 plates) . Ruins and Antiquities of Beanpas —By Esprese cts Esq, C. S. (With an editorial note and a plate) The Namuchi-myth ; or an attempt to explain the text of Taare viii. 14, 18.—By Cuarues R. Lanman, Professor in Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., U. 8S. A. “tt On some new or rare Haband and Hindi Coins —By De A. F. Rupoir Horryiz. (With a plate) No. II. Life of Sum-pa Khan-po, also styled Yesos-Dpal-hbyor, the author of the Rehuwmig (Chronological tar Oh Saat BAB Sarar- CHANDRA DAs, C. I. E. Inscribed Seal of Kumara ee —By Y. A. Sunre, Esq., C. 8. (With a plate) =. Remarks on the above. (With c a ieesee sable) BH Dr. A, F. Rupotr Horrnur ee No. III. Greco-Roman Influence on the Cwwilization of India.—By V. A. Smirn, Hsq., C. S. (With four plates) SUPPLEMENT. Catalogue of the Oentral Asiatic Coins, collected by Captain A. F. De Leessoe, in the Indian Museum, Caleutta.—By Dr. A. F. Rupouir Horrnur. (With two plates) LIST OF PLALES IN JOURNAL, ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL, Vou. LVIII, Parr I, For 1889. + Pls. I—IV (pp. 8—12). Coins of the Muhammadan Kings of Gujarat. / Pl. V (p. 23). Inseription ot Jalalu-d-din Fath Shah, dated 888 A. H. 4 Pl. VI (p. 85). Copper-silver seal of Kumara Gupta II. Pl. VII (p. 121). Pallas Athéné, Lahore Museum. ’ Pl. VIII (p. 122). Throned King, Lahore Museum. Pl. IX (pp. 123, 127, 129, 181). Gandhara Sculptures, Indian Museum. ‘ Pl. X (p. 144). Inscribed Pedestal, from Hashtnagar. Synchronistic Table of the Reigns of the Early Gupta and their Contem- poraries and Immediate Successors (p. 101). I [NOV 27 tag ‘ STE ane ESET OSE } 1 JOURNAL 5 OF THE a § : > ASTATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL, \ , Vol. LVIII, Part I, No. I.—1889. f EDITED BY JHE PHILOLOGICAL SECRETARY, eal NN 4 \ r OOO “The bounds of its investigation will be the geographical limits of Asia : and within these limits its inquiries will be extended to whatever is performed by mau or produced by nature.”—Sir WinL1aM Jonus. *,* Communications should be sent under cover to the Secretaries, Astat. Soe., to whom all orders for the work are to be addressed in India; or in Lon- don, care of Messrs. Triibner and Oo., 57 and 59, Ludgate Hill. ——— — eee yo CALCUTTA: a j WW PRINTED BY g. B. ROUSE, AT THE PaPTisT MISSION PRESS, * AND PUBLISHED BY THE ‘ SIATIC SOCIETY, 5J, PARK STREET. » D7; | | | 1889. 1 : : ao Wr Z ang Price (exclusive of postage) to Subscribers, Re. 1 —To Non-Subscribers Rs 1-8, = Price in Engiand, 2 Shillings and six pence. CONTENTS. kee Coins of the Muhammadan Kings of Gujarat.—By H, K, Oxtver, Esq. (With 3 plates) . nes oe ce Ruins and Antiquities of Bonnie —By Asurosu Gurra, Hsq., ©. S. (With an editorial note and a plate) = The Namuchi-myth; or an attempt to explain the aa of Pgs vill. 14, 13.—By Cuaruus R. Lanman, Professor in Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., U. 8. A. on On some new or rare Muhammadan and Hindi Ooins.—By Dr. A. F. Rupotr Homrniz. (With a plate) sh te Title-page, List of Plates, Index for 1888, ee Page 28 30 | | | JOURNAL OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. —

oe * Doubtful coins. 10 HE. E. Oliver—Ooins of the Muhammadan Kings of Gujarat. [No. 1, *XVIT. 4l‘65 148 grains, (?) Ahmadnagar (9)17 H. [9] 1 |] abe | seas [bout || othe. Bahadur Shah. XVIII. 4:75 175 grains. 939 H. 9 lo. Fy, Wid |e ., 334! I wy? |] 818,820 |] wlohe | ss Compare No. 427, British Museum Catalogue. Mahmiid Shah III, XIX. Al :80 180 grains. Mr. Furdoonjee. we A LM] & Sotyt [ os? J]. Ba [ ylbld} |] tee wet Hl atest || hab XX. 1°70 142 erains. Ditto. vveree Lat ly | Lye... colebet || ald abd || oy ager” XXI. Al ‘80 159 grains. 945 H. Ditto. KEM 1 | dt, biotobs ..., [3b] ope? |] glo gly lead} aire dab] oy XXII. '70 1387 grains. 960 H. Ditto. oie Oe Ey eta) ae oe dyes? |] gl gl 1] VIbLdS ,, ot cot 5 ied || g18 ib) L XXII. “°55 69 grains. eee ce | hell Mil Girt wt apes? |] alsld |] olbLJSt Aree ey, habs XXIV. AH'55 71 grains. 957 H. wo ol] qav | luo , 0” oro dps” || gl Ahmad Shah II. XXV. AM ‘85 164 grains. 961 H. porcinedl ovolst yt 1] AU Cymer yt In double dge |] sl ald qT wlalendt Glas |] Exot» bio} 1] lozenge dee” Cyd Oo! 1] 944 * Doubtful coins, 1889.] HE. E. Oliver—Coins of the Muhammadan Kings of Gujarat. 11 968 H. Mr. Furdoonjee. XXVI. Al‘55 73 grains. bs oo Il eee WOR vices @* oe BI Coe a3 ewe =” 3s I wlale,,, eeeel wits eee “on” (Oy XXVII. A:70 140 grains. E27, *63. Ditto. coe ll ethogell ret |) aisle @ sees Ot CO» I] 6 OU bs r., GUS wlbbe ,, || Muhammad Shah (?) Pretender. XXVIII. A°‘70 144 grains. *63. Ditto. et ot err 7 I 2 Lol pels {| sls Or ll eee abs ( wt Are al... ds ie ll “ wilblJ} Compare copper coins 437—9 in B. M. Catalogue. Muzaffar Shah III. XXIX. M60 73. grains. 978 I] bo sl | ald qva |] gl Jt ante XXX. M70 73 grains. ; 97*. Oby. Inscription as No. XXIX. I] 31% be |] lbw, ARIUS tee Me ll oon weal, duet ‘50 36 grains. Ditto. XXXI. A-85 175 grains. In square d#=*|| SUN} ay al a || MATPIN segves lover! oe Kee- sl vee HH ove hE oe Il XXXIL Ai *75 179 grains. CH 5 |] Bost prot Mr. Furdoonjee. SEE. Ditto. In square 240 |] xl dye” .,3f wlblee 444 |] ss margin yt ll se... lessee eee BO Of (able xls abo || ayy Muhammad Shah II., Bahmani, [doonjee. XXXIII. A :95 166 grains. (?)Ahsanabad. x77. Mr. Fur- woe ll [AUG] ,,, abel In square -Aigglem || ,,,-8 dos, , CPM Ih soa ceed halts MR 1S lela 0, MATZID 944 VV ov oyy I [t Lov] Asutosh Gupta—Ruins and Antiquities of Rampal. [No. Mahmitd Shéh II., Bahmani. XXXIV. A) ‘70 146 erains. : wry || Syyelt rd! Il one rt" Il ones eae sss. | Ruins and Antiquities of Rémpai.*—By Asurosn Gupra, Esq., C. S. | Unlike Upper India, studded with monuments of ancient history, 1 the Delta of the Ganges presents few places of interest to the antiquarian. i | Lower Bengal is generally as devoid of picturesque scenery as of objects : | of antiquarian interest. We have all heard of Saptagrima and Suvarna- | karagrama and their once flourishing commerce with the West, but what remains to show their ancient greatness P No Colossus, no Forum, not , even a Hindi temple. Still there are a few places here and there, such \ as Gaur and Nadiya, which cannot fail to be of interest to the diligent antiquarian or the student of history, and Rampal is one of them. It ; | is not so widely known as it deserves to be. It is now a straggling hamlet, situated approximately in Lat. 23° 88’ and Long. 90° 32’ 10", being about four miles to the west of Munshiganj, the head-quarters of the subdivision of that name in the district of Dacca (Dhaka), corres- . ponding with the old fiscal division of Vikrampur. It was the seat of the j old Sen kings of Bengal, and notably of Ballél Sen, whose name has been handed down to posterity as the founder of Kulinism in Bengal. Such is the case with Rampal and the dynasty that reigned here. The ruins, as the sequel will show, are not so important and interesting as in Gaur and a few other places in Bengal. But there is abundant evidence to show that Rampal was once a royal city. The large Rampal Dighi or the artificial lake of Rampal, the huge mound, to which tradition points as the Bari or the palace of Ball4l Sen, the very broad roads and the existence of innumerable bricks which can { be found buried under the earth wherever you dig in Rampal and its environs, are unmistakeable indications of a ruined city of palaces. Old bricks of small size were found in such abundance in and around Rampal, that they were carried in vast quantities to Dacca for build- * [Compare with this paper General Sir A. Cunningham’s account of the same sites and legends, in his Archwological Survey Reports, vol. XV, pp. 1382—135, The two accounts differ in some minor details, Ep. | 1889.] Asutosh Gupta—Ruins and Antiquities of Rémpdl. 13 ing purposes. Such is still the case with Gaur, Many stone idols of Hindi gods and goddesses have been found buried under the earth, There is a huge stone idol of Vishnu near the temple of Siva in Atpard, about a mile west of Rampal, and I have seen many smaller idols col- lected by a Vaishnava in ’Abdulléhpur. Rampal appears to have been the only seat of the Sen kings up to the death of Ballél Sen, but the later kings of the dynasty lived at Suvarnakdéragrdma, Gaur and Nadiyd. Suvarnakdragrdéma, locally called Shondrgdon, is also in the district of Dacca, being about four miles from the existing Bandar of Baidya Bazar on the river Meghna, Lachhinan Sen, son of Ballal Sen, generally lived at Gaur, which, according to the Muhammadan historians, he greatly embellished, and called after his name Lakhnanti or Lakshmanavati. Nadiyd4 was the seat of the last Sen king of Bengal, when the Muhammadans conquered the country. It was in his time that Rampal attained the highest pinnacle of its glory. The principal works, the ruins of which still exist in some form or other, are attributed to him. Rampal seems to have been neglected, if not altogetber abandoned, after the death of Balldl Sen. Lachhman Sen, his son and heir, lived principally at Gaur. I now approach the solution of a problem which hag already evoked much animated discussion. I mean the question of the caste of the Sen Rajés of Bengal. Before submitting my own opinion on the subject, I will briefly examine the different theories that have been advanced, and the evidence on which they are based. I have obtained much assistance from the two articles of Raja Rajendraldla Mitra on the Sen Rajds of Bengal, and the Bengali work on the same subject by Kailish Chandra Sinha, to which Mr. Beveridge, one of the honoured members of the Asiatic Society, very kindly referred me, and also from the Bengali book by Mahimd Chandra Majumdar called ‘Gaude Brih- man’, Three theories have been advanced about the caste of the Sen Rajis:—(1) that they were Kayasthas, (2) that they were Vaidyas or of the medical caste and (3) that they were Kshatriyas. The first theory is that of Abu-l-Fazl and the Muhammadan historians, It is not supported by any evidence other than the statement of the Muham- madans, who are likely to hold erroneous views on the subject of Hindi castes. It was never seriously entertained by the Hindis and may be summarily rejected. The second theory is supported by tradition handed down from generation to generation not only in Vikrampur, the old seat of the Sen Rajis, but throughout Bengal, and was universally believed, till Raja Rajendraldla Mitra in 1865 tried to establish that the Senas were Kshatriyas. This third theory is the most recent one. Tt was first propounded by Rajé Rajendralila Mitra, a very high 14 Asutosh Gupta—Rwins and Antiquities of Rampdl. [No. 1, authority in matters antiquarian and supported by others. It is based on some epithets of the Sen kings found in the inscriptions discovered in Rajshahi, Dindjpur and Baqarganj, and also in the Sanskrit work Danasdgara of which Ball&l Sen himself is the reputed author. These I will consider in the two following paragraphs. Tradition must give place to reliable material evidence if the one is really inconsistent with the other ; but before discarding a uni- versal belief, the evidence should be most carefully interpreted. The evidence on which the theory of the Sen Rajis being Kshatriyas is based is the following. In the inscriptions, found in the districts of Dindjpur, Rajshahi and Baqarganj, the Sen Rajds are described as descendants of the lunar race, and as only the Kshatriyas have a right to trace their descent from that race, it is held that the Senas must be Kshatriyas. In the inscription discovered by Mr. Metcalfe in Rajshahi, Sdmanta Sen is described as a Brahma-Kshatriya. The original Sanskrit is # agufamumsata gefaciem waatay | Dr. Mitra’s rendering of s@afaatat gwiwtiera is ‘a garland for the head of the noblest Kshatriyas.’ According to him, the word 7@ therefore here means ‘noble’ or ‘exalted.’ With due deference to so great an authority, I am of opinion that this meaning is not the cor- rect one here. We have various Sanskrit words compounded with wa such as AMI, TAIT, TWAM, AWTS, AWE, and so forth, and in in all of these the word #@ retains its original radical meaning of Brahmad or Brahmana, I therefore see no reason why it should not haye the same or a similar meaning in the present instance. Dr. Mitra has not assigned any reason why he takes 3q@ to mean ‘noble,’ which is certainly not the commonly accepted meaning of the term, and cannot be found in the ordinary Sankrit dictionaries. Atany rate this meaning would be a far-fetched one. The word H@aa occurs in the Yajur Veda, and is explained by the annotator as meaning agHIa- aang or ‘knowledge of the Brahmanas or the Vedas and heroism of the Kshatriyas.’ Itis therefore not a caste epithet, and following the analogy, we can take sqafaaq to mean ‘a person who has the knowledge of the Bréhmanas or the Vedas and the heroism of the Kshatriyas,’ that is, one who combines both these qualifications ; and the clause in question may mean ‘a garland for the head of those who have the wisdom of the Brahmanas and the heroism of the Kshatriyas,’ without any reference to race or caste. The word saa also occurs in Adhyaya 21, part IV, of the Vishnu Purana, and is explained by the annotator Sridhara Swamin to mean ‘ that race from which Brahmanas and Kshatriyas sprung’. The meaning seems to be obscure. The word probably means a mixed race of Brahmanas and Kshatriyas—a race 1889.] Asutosh Gupta—Ruins and Antignities of Rampal. 15 sprung from Brdhmanas on the father’s side and Kshatriyas on the mother’s. We have it from the Mahabharata that when the Kshatriya race was being exterminated by Paragurima, the women of that caste began to marry Brahmanas, and Vasishtha himself is credited with having married Kshatriya women, From that time the race of pure Kshatriyas is said to have become extinct. In Adhyaya 24, part IV, of the Vishnu Purana, Mahainandi is said to be the last king of the Kshatriya race. His son Mahipadménanda was born of a Sidra mother, and from him began the reign of Varnasankara kings or ‘kings of mixed castes.’ The above will I think be sufficient to show that Dr. Mitra’s interpretation of the word Brahma-kshatriya is most probably not the correct one. I have now to consider the description of the Sen Rajis as descendants of the lunar race. It is a well-known fact that all the princes of India, whether real Kshatriyas or not, have tried to trace their descent from the solar or lunar race of that caste. Even the Rajas of Chutiyé Nagpur, whom Colonel Dalton very rightly thinks to be of the aboriginal Cole or Munda origin, claim to be real Rajptits, and following their lead, the inferior landholders, who are undoubtedly aboriginal Mundas, are gradually setting up claims to be Hindi Rajptits. I found this process in full operation when I was in Chutiyé Nagpur three years ago. If the Sen kings belonged to the Sankara race or any of the mixed castes, is it not very likely that they would aspire to be Kshatriyas and trace their descent from the lunar race, and their panegyrist Umapati Dhar, a poet and a famous adept in the art of ex- aggeration, would exalt them into members of the race of the moon ? Hiven now the Stdras of Bengal are looking up. Some time ago there ‘was a movement among the Kayasthas for taking the yajnropavita or * the sacred thread,’ on the assertion that they were originally Kshatriyas; and at the present moment there is a similar movement among the Suvarnavarnikas, who now claim to have been originally Vaigyas. In the Bagarganj plate, found by Mr. Prinsep, the title of Sankara GaudeSwara is repeatedly applied to the Sen Rajds. The word Gaudegwara, no doubt, means the king of Gaur or Bengal, but it is not easy to explain the real meaning of the word sankara here. It is said to be written with palatal ¢ Dr. Mitra takes it to mean ‘excellent,’ but he has not shown any reason for assuming this meaning, which cannot be found in the ordinary Sanskrit dictionaries and is certainly not the commonly accepted import of the term, Ac- cording to the dictionaries and the common usage of the word, it is, when a substantive, a synonym for Siva or Mahddeva, and when an adjective, it means ‘auspicious,’ I find Mr, Prinsep translating the 16 Asutosh Gupta—Ruins and Antiquities of Rémpal. —_[No. 1, phrase as ‘ the auspicious lord of Gour.’ It is well known that the Sen Rajis, at least some of them, were Swivas, or worshippers of Siva, and the phrase may mean ‘the lord of Gaur, a worshipper of Siva (Sankaia).’ Bnt none of these interpretations seem to me to be appro- priate. Lam of opinion that the word Sankara here is an euphuism for sankara, with a dental s, and then it must mean a mixed race, a sug- gestion which has been noticed in Dr. Mitra’s paper This meaning will be a very appropriate one. Mistakes of a palatal s for a dental one and vice versd are not uncommon in the old inscriptions, and when we remember that the inscription in question was written in the Tirhtit or Gaur type, which represents an intermediate stage of orthography between the Kutila and the modern Bengali character, the commission of such an error is all the more likely. Sridhara Swamin, the annotator of the Bhagayata, mentions the commencement of kings of the Varna- sankara or the mixed castes in India in his time. In his own work the Danasdgara,* Ballil Sen does not call the Sen dynasty Kshatriya, but applies the epithet waaifcaqay, which means ‘following the practices of Kshatriyas’. So in the 6th stanza of the inser iption in the copper-plate found in the Sundarbans, the epithet of TSN, which virtually means the same thing as wayiftaqay, is applied to Lachhman Sen. It therefore appears that the Sen Rajas are never distinctly described as Kshatriyas. Does not this show that they were not pure Kshatriyas but belonged to a mixed caste ? If they were Kshatriyas, why is it not so stated in unequivocal terms ? There is a legend current in Vikrimpur that Ballil Sen was born of a Brahmana father, the rivyer-god Brahmaputra, who visited his mother in a dream in the form of a Brihmana. Does not this indicate the mixed nature of the Sen race P I will now briefly consider the evidence on which the theory that the Sen Rajiés were Vaidyas is based. In the various Kulapanjikas or genealogies of the Ghataks as well as in the Laghubharata, Adisir, Ballal Sen, and other Rajas of the Sen family have been distinctly described as members of the Vaidya caste. It is very likely that Devati- vra Ghataka, Kavikanthahdra and other Ghatakas of the Varendra Braéhmanas, who lived about four centuries ago and composed the genealogies, knew the true caste of the Sen Rajis. My contention is that the inscriptions of the Sen Rajdés are not * [In his Book of Indian Eras, p.77, General Sir A. Cunningham ascribes this work to ‘‘ Halayudha, the spiritual adviser of Lakshmana Sena,” referring as his authority to Rajaé Rajendraldla Mitra, in his paper on the Sena king's, in the Journal A. §, B., vol. XXXIV (1865), p.187. But this is an error, Dr, Mitra thore quotes a Sanskrit verse, ascribing the work to Ballil Sen. Ep. ] 1889, ] Asutosh Gupta—Ruins and Antiquities of Rampal: 17 inconsistent with the genealogies of the Ghatakas and are therefore not opposed to tradition. I think the inscriptions support the view that the Senas were of the Varna Sankara or mixed caste. Manu recognises three classes of mixed castes: (1) Mdérdhdvasikta, or those born of Brih- mana fathers and Kshatriya mothers, (2) Ambashtha, those of Brahmana fathers and Vaisya mothers, who are identical with the modern Vaidyas, and (3) Méhishya, born of Kshatriya fathers and Vaisya mothers. There was no practical difference between the Ambashthas and Mahishyas, and Vidyabhiishana, the author of Laghubharata, called the Mahishyas Vaidyas. He calls Vira Sen or Adistira, the founder of the Sen family, a Mahishya. Remembering that they were Kshatriyas on the father’s side, the Mahishya or Sen Rajds of Bengal naturally traced their descent from the lunar race of Kshatriyas, and this explains the epithets in the inscriptions recently discovered. Probably the Mahishyas and Vaidyas became gradually amalgamated, and the Sen Rajas came to be regarded as Vaidyas. I am finally of opinion that the Sen Rajas were never pure Kshatriyas, nor originally Vaidyas, but were Murdhavasiktas or Ma- hishyas, who were both allied to the Vaidyas. The distinction afterwards wore away, and the Senas became gradually amalgamated with the Vaidyas. I will now proceed to describe briefly the principal ruins aud objects of interest in Rampal. I have visited them several times during my incumbency as subdivisional officer of Munshiganj, and carefully collected all the traditions and legends by which they are enlivened. First of all, I will take the Masjid of Ba-Adam* or the mosque conse- crated to the Muhammadan fagir of that name. Itis a pretty large, strong, brick-built mosque with a high arched dome. The bricks are of the same small size which characterize old Muhammadan architecture, The mosque has two massive stone pillars which are apparently snatched from a Hindi temple, and which tradition identifies as the gadds or clubs of Ball4l Sen. It is in a dilapidated state, but is worth pre- serving. It has a stone tablet in front which bears an Arabic inserip- tion, a reduced facsimile of which is herewith published (see Plate V). Tt will be observed that it states that the mosque was built by Badshah Fath Shah bin Sultén Mahmud in 880 Hijri or 1475 A. D, It is there- fore 414 years old, The faqir to whose memory it is dedicated died, however, in 1106 A. D., (supposing Balldl Sen to have died after a reign of forty years) or 369 years before the mosque was erected.+ * [The real name of the faqir is Babi’ Adam, of which Ba-Adam is a mere vulgar corruption; another corruption, Babardam, is mentioned in Arch. Survey Rep., vol. XV, p. 134, Eo.] * There is a similar mosque with a somewhat similar inseription in Qazi Qay- 0 18 Asutosh Gupta—Ruins and Antiquities of Rampal. [No. 1, There is the following legend about the death of the faqir and the fate of Ballél Sen, There lived a Muhammadan family in Kanai Chang, a village south of ’Abdull4hpur and not far from Rampal. The master of the house had no children. One day a faqir came and begged alms of him, but he refused alms, saying, “ I will give no alms, when Allah has not given me the boon (child) for which I am praying so long.” The faqir predicted that he would beget a child and asked him to sacrifice a bull to the altar of Allth when his desire was fulfilled. He then went away without any alms. In course of time the man had a son born to him, but the Hindts would not allow him to sacrifice a bull. He there- fore repaired to the lonely jungle, south of Kanai Chang, and secretly sacrificed a bull, Taking as much meat of the bull as he and the members of his family would be able to consume, he buried the re- mainder under the ground and returned home. A kite, however, snatch- ed a morsel of the flesh from him, and another kite trying to snatch it the morsel fell down in front of Raja Ballal Sen’s palace. On enquiry the king learned the whole story and ordered the child, to comme- morate whose birth the bull was sacrificed, to be brought before him and killed the next day. The Muhammadan learned the king’s decree and at night escaped with his wife and child and as much property as he could carry. He fled to Arabia and, meeting Hazrat Adam, a faqir, at Mecca, told him all that had happened. Learning that there was a country in which there was no religious toleration, and people were not at liberty to practise their own religious rites, Hazrat Adam came to Rimpal with six or seven thousand followers, Ba-Adam is only another name for Hazrat Adam. He began to sacrifice bulls and cows on the spot where the mosque dedicated to him now stands. Raja Ballél Sen sent his ultimatum, asking him either to leave the country or fight with him. The faqir chose the latter alternative, and aprotracted warfare took place between his followers and the king’s army. The battles were indecisive for many days, and the loss of men on both sides was heavy. At last the faqir’s followers were reduced to only one hundred men. One day Raja Ballal Sen’s men, while going to the mar- ket, saw the faqir alone reading Namaj (saying his prayers). The king marched to kill the faqir at this juncture, but as he was diffident of success, he constructed, before leaving his palace, a large agnikunda or funeral pyre (literally ‘a pit of fire’), which still exists in the form of a large pit,- and asked the women of his household to kill themselves by throwing themselves into the fire, if he was vanquished and killed. He bah, two miles from Rimpal. It isdescribedin page 76 of Blochmann’s Contributions to the Geography and History of Bengal, (Jour. A, 8. B., vol. XLII, p. 284.) [See the note at the end of this article, Hp.] 1889. ] Asutosh Gupta—Ruins and Antiquities of Rampal. 19 took a pigeon in his coat and proclaimed that the bird’s return to the palace without him would mean his death and serve as a signal for the females of the house to perish in the flames to save their caste and chastity. Ballal Sen came to the faqir and struck him with the sword, but the faqir was invulnerable and the sword would not cut his skin. After concluding his prayers, the faqir asked Ballal what brought him there. ‘To kill you,” replied the king. The faqir asked him whether he would embrace the Muhammadan faith or not. The king of course answered in the ne- gative. The fagir said: ‘It is so ordained that I shall die at your hands. But no sword other than my own will cut me. So take this sword and kill me.” Ballal took the sword thus offered and killed the faqir at one stroke. His body was cut into two parts. His head flew to Chittagong, where there is still a prayer-house consecrated to him. His body was buried at Rampal, and the mosque was subsequently erected over his remains by the Badshéh after the Muhammadan con- quest of Bengal. After the death of the faqir, Ballél went to the tank to bathe and purify himself. As he left, his gory clothes on the bank, the pigeon, unobserved, flew to the palace, and at this signal the females of the royal household threw themselves into the fire and perished. Soon finding that the pigeon had flown away, Ballal rode to his palace, but it was too late. Finding that all his family was killed and life was not worth living, he threw himself into the fire and perished in the flames, Such is the legendary account of the death of Ballil Sen and the fall of Rampal. The city appears to have been abandoned after his death, and I think there is a substratum of truth in the legend. It is a. historical fact that the Arabs were the first race of Muhammadans who invaded Hindtstan, and it is not unlikely that their missionary expeditions penetrated as far as Bengal in the eleventh century and fought the Sen kings who had no standing army. The Pal kings re- gained their ascendancy in this part of Bengal after the death of Ballal, It has been asserted, and not without some show of reason, that Laksh- maniya, after his flight from Nadiyé, took refuge in old Vikr4ampur, and he and some of his descendants lived in Rampal or Sundrgdon, and maintained their sway in this part of Bengal during the early years of Muhammadan rule. It is mentioned in the Bengali book on the Sen Rajis of Bengal by Kailash Chandra Sinha, that probably there was a second Ballal Sen who reigned after the Muhammadan conquest, It first struck me that if there was a second Ballél Sen, he must be the prince who reigned at Rampdl and killed the faqir Ba-Adam and atfter- wards himself perished in the funeral pyre, thereby putting an end to the Sen dynasty. But the theory is not based on any reliable evidence, while tradition distinctly says that the Balldl Sen who killed the faqir 20 Asutosh Gupta—Ruins and Antiquities of Rampal. [No. 1, was the founder of Kulinism and the most distinguished prince of the Sen dynasty. The next object of importance is the Rampal Dighi* or the artificial lake of Rampal. Formerly it was about a mile long and about 500 yards broad. It is now fast silting up and remains dry for nearly half the year. Cultivators have now broken up parts of the lake and grow boro paddy init. The following is the traditional account of the origin of the lake. Raja’ Ballal Sen once promised to excavate a lake, as long as his mother would be able to walk in one direction without stopping, and this he undertook to do in one night, namely, the night immediately following the pedestrian performance of his mother. So one afternoon the queen-mother walked out of the palace and proceeded towardsthe south. After she had walked some distance, the idea suddenly crossed the king’s mind, that if she walked much further, he would be unable to cut such a large lake in one night and keep his word, and if he once broke the promise he made to his mother, he would be doomed to eternal hell. After a short reflection he hit upon a dexterous device. He asked his servants to suddenly touch his mother’s feet and paint them with red pigment (alaktuka), giving out that a leech bit her and was sucking blood. The servants did so, and the stratagem had the desired effect. The queen-mother stopped, and the point whence she re- turned homewards became the southernmost boundary of the lake. On that very night the king collected innumerable men and excavated the whole lake. It was so large that one bank was not visible from the other, But for a long time the lake remained dry. Guided by a dream, Rampal, an intimate friend and, according to another account, maternal uncle of Ballal Sen, one day rode into the lake, and assembling a large number of men on its banks, asked them to call it after his name, when it was filled with water. As soon as he entered into the lake, water streamed up from beneath and filled it in a moment. But Rampal vanished. Hverybody cried: ‘Rampal, Rampal,’ but he could no more be seen. Since that time the lake is called Rampal Dighi. This explanation of the genesis of the lake’s name never satisfied me. Rampal is also the name of Balldl Sen’s city. Is it not very strange that Ballal’s city and the largest lake he excavated should be named after an obscure person unknown to history? Rampal is certain- ly the name of a person and is analogous to the names of Bhim PAl and other Pal kings of Bengal. I conjecture that he was a king of the Pal dynasty which reigned at Rampal after the death of Ballal Sen, and that it was he and not Ballal who excavated the lake, and the city and the lake have been named after him. To the north of the Birhi- * Rampal Dighi or the artificial lake of Rampal. 1889. ] Asutosh Gupta—Ruins and Antiquities of Rémpal. oT Ganga there are still many ruins to show that the Pal kings reigned in that part of Bengal, and it is a historical fact that they flourished both before and after the Sen dynasty. But as they were Buddhists ruling oyer a population, the mass of which were Hindus, their names have not been handed down to posterity with that halo of glory which surrounds the Sen kings, who were orthodox Hindiis and great patrons of Br4hmang and Brahmanical learning. Again, it is a well known fact that one of the characteristics of the Pal kings was to excavate large lakes and tanks wherever they lived. The Mahipal Dighi, still existing in Dindjpnr, is perhaps the largest lake they cut in Bengal. For all these reasons I am of opinion that the prince who gave his name to the city and lake of Rampal was a king of the Pal dynasty. There is another but smaller lake in Rampal. It is called the Kodal-dhoa (the spade-washing) Dighi. It is about 700 cubits by 500 cubits, and is still very deep. Tradition has it that when the excavation of the Rimpdl Dighi was over, each digger scooped out a spadeful of earth from a place close by, and thus the Kodal-dhoa Dighi was made. The story of course is fiction pure and simple, invented to show that myriads of men were engaged to excavate the Rampal Dighi. The next object of interest is Bari Ballél Sen or Ballél Sen’s palace. It isa very large and high mound of earth, surrounded by a deep moat, about 400 yards by 400 yards. No architectural re- mains are visible. The cicerones point to a large black pit inside the ruins as the Agnikunda or funeral pyre in which perished Ballal Sen and his family. Another object of interest in Rampal is the everlasting Gajariya tree, Tt is a large living tree standing on the north bank of Rémpél Dighi, It is about 100 cubits high and has two large straight stems. Trees of this species abound in this part of Bengal, and there is nothing’ peculiar in its appearance: only it shows no signs of age or decay, though it ig undoubtedly very old. It is said to be immortal and existing from the time of Ballil Sen. Respectable men of seventy and eighty years of age, whose testimony I am unable to disbelieve, have told me that they saw the tree in its present state of growth from their very boyhood, The tree is certainly a botanical curiosity. It is held in high veneration by the Hindis, and various stories are current about its virtues and sanctity. It is worshipped by the women, particularly by the barren ones, who besmear it witlr oil and vermilion in hopes of being cured of barrenness, A faqir is said to have violated its sanctity by cutting a root, but he instantly vomited blood and died. No one would now ven- ture to tear a leaf or lop off a branch. A. small fair is annually held under the sacred tree on the eighth day of the moon in the month of 22 Asutosh Gupta—Ruins and Antiquities of Rdmpal. [No. 1, Chaitra, when it is worshipped by pilgrims from various parts of the subdivision. The following legend explains the origin of the Gajariya tree’s im- mortality, It was at first in a decayed state and was used for tying Ballal Sen’s elephants. One morning some hermits (Rishis) presented themselves before Ballal Sen’s gate to confer a boon on the king as a reward for his piety. They sent their message to the king by his door- keeper. The man went in and returning said that the king was smoking and was unable to come out that instant. After awhile he was again sent in. This time he returned with the news that the king was besmearing his body with oil. The door-keeper was sent in again and again, but he always returned with some excuse or other for the king’s inability to come out and receive them. Once the man found the king bathing, and again taking his noontide meal, and the third time taking his siesta. He never communicated the message to the king, but only went in to observe whether he had leisure to come out. Disgusted with the king, the hermits left the palace, but at the time of departure they blessed the Gajariya tree and conferred on it the boon of immortality which was originally intended for the king. Instantly the tree showed signs of vitality. Leaves and blossoms sprouted forth in every direction, and the people were struck with awe. The king came out shortly afterwards and, being apprised of the news, immediately sent for the hermits. But it was too late. The hermits had vanished. There is a comparatively small tank in the south-west part of Rampal, which deserves a passing notice, It is called Raja Haris Chandra’s Dighi, It is overgrown with trees and shrubs which are flooded over with water for a week once a year at the time of the full moon in the month of Magh, Before and after this period the tank is dry. I have as yet received no. satisfactory explanation of the pheno- menon. The tank is said to have been excavated by Raja Haris Chandra, probably one of the kings of the Pal dynasty. There is a mosque called Qazi’s Masjid not far from Ba-Adam’s, Tt is an ordinary plain-looking prayer mosque, which was certainly erected after that of Ba-Adam: It boasts of no inscription, but has several stone idols of Hindi gods and goddesses in its verandah, which the proprietors have evidently preserved as trophies of Islim. The present Qazi of the mosque showed me a firman of the Kmperor ’Alameir, granting lands for the benefit of the institution; but I cannot vouch for its genuineness. There are two roads the construction of which is attributed to Ballal Sen. The one connects the river Dhaleswari on the north with the Padma on the south, and the other goes in a different direction from 4 1889. | Editor—Luins and Antiquities of Rampal. 23 Rampél right up to the Padma. The latter is called Kachki Dwarja. The roads are now overgrown with trees and shrubs, and have in many places been broken up by the cultivators’ plough, but what still remains clearly shows that they were once spacious roads as wide as thirty cubits. I once proposed to utilize the first mentioned road in constructiug one from Munshiganj to the Police outpost at Rajabari, a distance of about twelve miles, but it was found impracticable. The Kachki Dwarja is named after the fish of that name, The astrologers had predicted, so the story runs, that Raja Ballal Sen would die of bones of fish sticking in his throat. To avoid such an unnatural and painful death, the king refrained from eating any fish, except the kachki which was devoid of bones. He therefore constructed the road to the Padma, to enable fishermen to supply his table daily with the boneless fish. [Norn sy THE Eprror.—The inscription, of which a reduced facsi- mile, based on three ink impressions, is published in Plate V, reads as follows: Line 1: Sancho eS) JG fos pe on Ms - ale “ry UL Jj a) Je ne Ge Mail tS aaies ; 3 oss) jbo Gb di!) Us tyes a au Ui ueh.s jogo i wr prlssy Arle al} - Zz 7 y) MI is = Tine 2:—Jile pyle cyt pallu W}59 y931F Ello praeel} Elle} gol’) x bwos! ee eg cylaledt 8l so? Grp! leben} slid pbsttyt eel 5 ld) alain! wails 3 led Kies a) Tt is dated “in the middle of the month of Rajab in the year 888 A. H., during the reign of Jaldlu-d-din Fath Shah,” Mr. Gupta reads the date as “the 2nd day of Rajab 880,” on the authority of a Maulawi of Dacca, who deciphered the inscription for him. But this is certainly wrong. The date can be quite clearly read. It is expressed in words : above 4 sanat there is samd; by the side of sanat, to the left, there is Gwhs samdnin; above samdnin again is &44) samanamiyat (sic); below the latter word is one » waw, and below samdnén is the other » waw of the date. Thus the whole reads sanat samé wa samdnin wa samdnamiyat, t. e., eight and eighty and eight hundred. Nor does the date specify “ the 2nd day,” but simply says 5s! ausat or “ the middle.” On comparing this inscription with that published by Blochmann in this Journal for 1873, Vol. XLII, p. 284, there can be no doubt that the two inscriptions are identical. There are, indeed, three slight diver gences. In the date Mr. Blochmann reads ws but the inscription has only Ls (without the final nim). This is apparently a mere blunder 24 Editor—Ruins and Antiquities of Rampal. [No. 1, of the engraver, who seems to have forgotten to incise it. Possibly the wrong reading of the date as 880 may have been caused by this faulty legend. He also reads 4jlil whereas in the inser iption the word is really spelt &yleiss (without the first alif). Again Mr. Blechmann reads z S? ale af ay whereas the inscription really has s? 3 | was a) al, But there can be no doubt that these three divergences are the mere result of an oversight. As may be seen by referring to the numerous similar inscriptions, published by Blochmann in vol. XLII of the Journal, it is go the word yas (not lic) that is uniformly used in them; and there is no difficulty in recognising it on the facsimile of the present inscriptiou, Mr. Gupta, in his footnote (pp. 17, 18) says: “There is a similar mosque with a somewhat similar inscription in Qazi Qasbah, two miles from Rampal,” and he is disposed to identify this inscription with that published by Blochmann. This identification is quite untenable. I have obtained four impressions of this second inscription, three through Mr. Gupta, and one through Maulawi Abul Khair Muhammad Siddiq, the Superintendent of the Dacca Madrasah. Unfortunately the inserip- tion is too badly preserved to be wholly read, but luckily the date is sufficiently legible to show that the month is Zi-l-Qa’dah, and and that the year is expressed in figures as well as in words. The figures are 976. This is quite sufficient to preclude the identification of this inscription with that published by Blochmann. Moreover this inscription is incised in three lines, while that of the Adam Shahid mosque, published by Blochmann and now republished by Mr. Gupta, occupies only two lines. In fact, Mr. Gupta was misled by an error in Blochmann’s account, or rather by an error of Dr. Wise, whose account Blochmann quotes. Dr, Wise says that “the Masjid of Adam Shahid is in Bikrampur, at a village, called Qazi Qasbah, within two miles of Balilbari, the residence of Ballal Sen.” But this is quite wrong ; the mosque is not “ two miles from the Balalbari,” but only “ about half a mile to the north of it,” as General Sir A. Cunningham, from whom Blochmann received the inscription, distinctly states (see his Arch. Surv. Rep., Vol. XV, p. 184), It, therefore, ocenpies the precise position described by Mr. Gupta. Dr. Wise, in his account,—it is clear,—confused two mosques, one of Adam Shahid at Rampal, and another placed by him and Mr. Gupta at Qazi Qasbah. The exact locality of the latter mosque, however, would seem to be the Rikabi Bazar, to judge from Maulawi Abul Khair’s letter, quoted below. There are four mosques in or near Qazi Qasbah, and these four mosques seem to haye been more or less confused by the several writers on the subject: and the confusion probably arose from the circumstance that Qazi Qagbah is a name applied to a large area, apparently including the localities of all four mosques. ee 1889.] Editor—Ruins and Antiquities of Rampil. 25 In order to clear up the matter as much as possible, Maulawi Abul Khair, at my request, was good enough personally to visit the different localities and himself procure impressions of the two inscriptions. I subjoin the substance of his interesting letter. “‘ As arranged I went yesterday to Munshiganj to see the mosque at Qazi Qasbah. I took with me as my guide a man who proved to be not so well acquainted with the locality as T expected. He had informed me that there was another old mosque at Rikaébibazir [No. I] which was close to the ghét where we were to land from the steamer. We landed at about 110’Cl. and proceeded to the latter mosque. We found it to be in a dilapidated condition, though there were signs of its being used as a prayer-house. It appeared to have been an edifice of elegant structure with a floor, 15 cubits square,andone dome. Lhe bricks are all polished and carved, and the cornera and edges are so neat that from a distance they seem to be stones. The cement used is a whitish substance, not ordinary stirkhi and lime, but perhaps powdered stone and lime, or something else. There was no inscription in the mosque, but on enquiry we learnt that the stone was removed and placed in another mosque [No. II] in the neighbourhood recently built. There we repaired and found the inscription. The stone not being good many of the letters are corroded, and are not decipherable. I have taken an impres- sion, however, which I send to you in a separate cover for whatever use you may think fit to make of it, It is dated seven hundred and odd, which I could not read. The name of the month is Zi-1-Qa’dah. “We then proceeded towards Qazi Qasbah,and after a tedious journey reached the mosque [No. III]. My disappointment was preat when found that the mosque, though old, did not present any interesting feature, the construction being of an ordinary type, no ornamentation or elegance having been attempted. Besides there was no inscription; the stone [I was informed had been removed by the Collector of Dacca, during the proceeding of a lawsuit between rival claimants to some land belonging to the mosque. The only interesting thing that we fouud there was a Hindu idol, carved out of a block of stone, lying with the face down- ward and forming a step to the verandah of the mosque. I had become so fatigued that I feared I would not be able to return to the ghat without some sort of conveyance. But none was available. I was, however, informed that the route we had taken was a circuitous one, and that the ghat would not be very far from that place by a short-cut through Rampal. I further learnt that we would pass by the mosque of Baba Adam [No. TV]. This news somewhat enlivened me, and I was on my legs again. We passed by the famous Ballalbari, of which I saw the ditch about a hundred yards wide, The Ballalbirt or palace of dD 26 Editor—Ruins and Antiquities of Rampal. [No, 1, Ballél Sen seems to have been an entrenched fortress of which only the trench and some ruins now remain as a memorial. Not far from this [found the tomb of Adam Shahid or Baéb&é Adam and the mosque [No.1V]. This edifice is also in ruins, but presents an interesting view to the archwologist or antiquary. The structure is of the some style as that of the mosque at Rikdbibazdr [No. I], but more exquisite and ornamental. The cement is of the same nature, the bricks polished and carved. The roof consists of six domes supported by two stone pillars in the middle of the hall. One of the domes does not exist, and another has partly fallen down. The pillars are monoliths of a whitish stone, which always “ perspire,” and lead ignorant people to associate superstitious ideas with them, as they see water flow down on their surface, and feel them very cold. I saw marks of red pigment on the pillars, which I heard were put there by Hindi women, (and I believe by Musalmin women too, though the IKhddim denied this) on making: vows for the attainment of some object. The stone bearing the inscrip- tion is placed very high, so that it could not be distinctly read, I dis- covered, however, that the copy I have sent to you was only of one line, there being another line above it of which no impression was sent to me, As it was already very late in the afternoon and I could not wait for a scaffolding being put up, I could not obtain animpression. The inscrip- tion published by Blochmann is, I believe, of this mosque, and he was not very wrong in giving the name of the place as Qazi Qagbah ; for Qazi Qasbah extends over a large area, and the place where this mosque stands is also included within it, This fact decides the dispute as to the name of the place being given by Blochmann as Qizi Qagbah and by Baba Asutosh Gupta as Rampal. It may be called by four different names, viz., Qazi Qasbah, Rampal, Ballalbéri and Durgébari. The inscription is quite legible, no letters have been destroyed or mutilated, the stone being jet black and well polished, not liable tocorrosion. The Khadims showed me twelve places in the interior of the mosque, where, they said, lay twelve stones of great value which were removed by Mags during an in- ceursion into Bengal in remote ages. These stones, they said, shone in the darkness of the night and illuminated the hall! Some things have been dug out of the walls, no doubt, but whether they were stones of great value which shone in darkness I cannot vouch, This mosque at any rate is an object of interest to the antiquarian,” From another letter of his, I may quote the following passages ; “The mosque at Qazi Qasbah [No. IIT] is not known as the mosque of Baba Adam or Adam Shahid. It is called Qazi Bari mosque. Ballal. bari is situated near the mosque [No. IT] of Adam Shahid and not near Qazi Qasbah ; and Ballal Bari and Rampal are only two names of the 1889. ] Bditor—Ruins and Antiquities of Rampal. 27 same place. There is no one’s tomb near the mosque of Qazi Qasbah. As for the inseription, no one can say what it contained. The other mosque, of course, is called after Baba Adam or Adam Shahid and is situated in Durgdbdri, which is close to Rampal or Ballalbari, ata distance of about half a mile. And Ballalbdéri and Duredbéri both stand at a distance of a mile from Qazi Qasbah. The tomb and the mosque are lying unrepaired. Some religious man has the charge of the mosque, and prayers are said therein, The mosque has two domes between which there are two stone pillars one on each side. There is no court- yard outside the mosque, The mosque of Qazi Qasbah [ No. IIT] also has two domes but no courtyard and pillars. There are stones at the threshold carved into images and placed overturned.” I have numbered the mosques in the above quoted extracts by corresponding numerals. No. I, Mosque of Rikaébi Bazar; a beautiful structure, similar to the mosque of Adam Shahid at Rampal (No. IV); with only one dome ; its inscription, dated in the month Zi-l-Qa’dah 976 A, H., removed to mosque No. II. It is the mosque referred to in Mr. Gupta’s footnote (p. 17), as situated “in Q4ézi Qasbah, two miles from Ram- pal;” it is also apparently the mosque, said by Dr. White to be “within two miles of Ballalbari at a village called Qazi Qasbah” and erroneously called by him the Adam Shahid mosque (No. IV). No. II. A mosque recently built near mosque No. I; contains the inscription belonging to No. I. No. III, An ordinary plain mosque, with domes, but with no pillars, also with Hindi carved images in the floor of the verandah; its inscription removed to Dacca; referred to by Mr. Gupta towards the end of his paper (p. 22). No. 1V. Mosque of Adam Shahid, close to Rampal, at the dis- tance of about half a mile; a highly ornamental structure, resembling the Rikabi Baz4r mosque (No. 1) ; with the inscription (Plate V) dated “in the middle of Rajab, 888 A. H., in the reign of Jaldlu-d-din Fath Shah ;” described by Dr. White (quoted by Blochmann) in Journal A. §. B., Vol. XLII, p. 285, General Sir A. Cunningham in Arch. Survey Reports, Vol. XV, p. 135, and Maulawi Abul Khair, as possessing siz domes, of which,according to Dr.White, three, but according to Maulawi Abul Khair only fwo have fallen in, while General Sir A. Cunningham does not notice the destruction of any of them. On the other hand, Mr. Gupta, who describes it as a “ brick built mosque witha high arched dome,” would seem to allow it only one dome. In that case, he would seem to have confused it with the mosque (No. I) at Rikabi Bazar, which Manlawi Abul Khair states to have only one dome. | 28 Charles R. Lanman—The Namuchi-myth. [No. 1, The Namuchi-myth ; or an attempt to explain the teat of Rigveda viii. 14, 13.—By Cuarnus R. Lanmay, Professor in Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., U. 8. A. The fact has been recognized, ever since the earliest days of Vedic study, that the myths of the Veda are the poetic outgrowth of certain natural phenomena. The fact appears, for example, from the work of Yaska, when he quotes the opinion of his predecessors. And the na- tural basis of any given myth is usually not difficult to ascertain. Such, however, is not the case with the one now in question. The text cited above reads : Bat Waa aay: fax sgizaas: | fag qesry Gy: ti It is commonly understood and rendered as follows: ‘With the foam of the waters, Namuchi’s head, O Indra, thou didst cut off, when thou wast conquering all thy foes.’ There is no doubt about the incorrectness of this interpretation. Nevertheless it is an exceedingly ancient one, as appears from the legends into which this brief allusion of the Vedic Samhita is expanded in the Bréhmanas. From the Bréhmana-passages* and from the ex- plicit language of Sayanat, it is clear that the water-foam was conceived as the actual weapon with which Indra cut off the demon’s head. The fable says that Indra used this most remarkable weapon because he had sworn to Namuchi, saying, “Neither by day nor by night will I slay thee, neither with the mace nor with the bow, ... neither with the dry nor with the wet.” And go, in order to slay him, without perjuring himself, Indra smote the demon at twilight, which was neither day nor night, and with the foam of the water, which was neither dry nor wet. ‘He cast the water-foam into (the shape of) a thunderbolt ’—syt $a aaataaa—literally, ‘The water-foam he made by pouring or founding (as molten metal) to be a bolt.’ All this is quite in keeping with the style of the Brdhmanas; and it follows naturally enough from the text of the Samhita, provided we misunderstand it as did the authors of the Brahmanas. But to my mind there is no conceivable natural phenomenon of which this may be re- * See Catapatha Br., xii. 7.3; Taittirfya Br.,i.7.1. These passages, with one from the Mahabharata, are conveniently assembled by Muir, in his Sanskrit Teats, iv’. 261. + oie ce fiche, sot Bq aaa —~y rt : 1889. | Charles R. Lanman—The Namuchi-myth. 29 earded as the mythical reflex, We are therefore led to inquire, did not the words of the sacred text mean something different from what even the ancients themselves supposed them to mean? I believe that they did and that the misunderstanding can be accounted for. I suggest that the Vedic text be translated: ‘With water-foam Namuchi’s head, O Indra, thou didst cause to fly asunder, when thou wast conquering all thy foes.’ This appears to me intelligible if we assume that the natural phenomenon to which it refers is a waterspout (‘trombe’) on an inland lake. How, now, does this view accord with the natural facts in question and with a strict verbal exegesis of the text? Major Sherwill has given a description of Bengal waterspouts in the Journal of this Society for 1860, volume XXIX., p. 366 f., along with some excellent pictures. And in a German work of Th. Reye, entitled Die Wirbelstiirme, p. 17 £., further information and pictorial illustration may be found. The waterspout is of course an object of terror, and it is most natural that it should be personified as a demon. The verb aatagqa means ‘ cause to rotate,’ and the motion is qualified as upward and outward motion by the preposition ve. The compound weane: means accordingly, ‘thou didst cause to move upward and outward or to fly asunder with a gyratory or centrifugal motion.’ It is not possible to express by one simple English phrase the ideas involved in the com- pound; but they seem to me to be quite simple in themselves and to follow unforced from the Sanskrit and to be thoroughly suitable for the not infrequent phenomenon of a waterspout as seen by unscientific eyes. The head of the column is twisted and made to burst asunder and scatter itself ‘ with foam’ (4, as an instrumental of accompaniment), i.e, in abundant foamy masses. Then, with the dispersion of the column, often comes (see Sherwill, p. 370, Reye, p. 32) a heavy rain. This is all in entire accord with the usual representations of gracious Indra’s deeds of prowess. In particular, also, it accords most strikingly with the quite differ- ently expressed idea of Rigveda v. 30, 8b (= vi. 20. 6b), where Indra is spoken of as ‘ twirling (like a stick of attrition or like a churning-stick) the head of the demon Namuchi,’ fad eee AHF AaT IT \ and that, immediately after the couplet in stanza 7, sar say was: fact ae waa al HAs nga \ This explanation of the stanza in question, moreover, harmonizes well with the sueceeding stanza, Rigveda, vill. 14. 14, 30 Dr, Hoernle—New or rare Muhammadan and Hindi: Coins. [ No. 1, wagers Le GARI AA: | WT SACHFT It in which Indra is praised for hurling down the demons that were striy- ing with magie wiles to creep up and to scale the heights of heaven. To the poetic fancy, nothing would suggest more naturally the idea of demons trying to scale the heavens than the sight of this strange magi- cal ladder betwixt earth and sky. In this connection, the discussion of Bergaigne, La religion védique, ii, 846-7, should be compared. The language of the gloka at Maha. bharata, v. 10, 37 = 328 seems also to favor my view. The whole epic passage is a reminiscence of the Namuchi-story. The false interpretation of the ancients, finally, rests simply upon the ambiguity of the instrumental case form @##. The case might denote the relation of accompaniment—as it really does here; or it might denote the relation of means—as the authors of the Brahmanas supposed it to do. ~——~~ —_ On some new or rare Muhammadan and Hindi Coins.—By Dr. A. F. Rupotr Horrnur. In July and September last I received from the Deputy Commis- sioner of Hoshangabad, in two instalments, a hoard of 477 gold coins, which had been found in a field in the Sohdgpur Tahsil of the Hoshan- gibid District, by some ploughmen while ploughing their field. This hoard was carefully examined by me, and a detailed report published in the Proceedings of the Society for December 1887. Among the 477 coins, there were 451 belonging to different (so-called) ‘“Pathin ? emperors of Dehli; 4 belonging to the Mughal emperors Aurangzib and Farrukh Siyar, 1 belonging to the Bengal king Sikandar bin Ilyas, and 21 silver-gilt forgeries. The “ Pathin” emperors of whom there were coins, are Ghiyagu-d- din Balban (1 specimen), Muizzu-d-din Kaiqobad (1), Jaldlu-d-din Firiz (1), ’Aléu-d-dfn Muhammad (391), Ghiydgu-d-Tughlag I. (3), Muhammad bin Tughlaq (24), Firiz Shh (19), Firtiz Shah and Fath Khan (2), Firtz Shah and Zafar (2), Ghiydgu-d-din Tughlaq II. (2), Abi Bakr bin Zafar (1), Muhammad bin Firiz (1), Mahmtid bin Muhammad bin Firtz (1), and Mahmtd bin Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1). Most of these coins belong to more or less well-known types, which have been already published in Thomas’ Chronicles of the Pathan Kings = \ 1889.] Dr, Hoernle—New or rare Muhammadan and Hindi: Coins. 81 of Dehli. See details in the report above referred to. It will be seen from that report, that in the present hoard there are several types of coins which were still noted as “unique” in Thomas’ book; e, g., the coin of Jalilu-d-din Firtz (Chron. No. 120), several of Muhammad bin Tughlaq (Chron. Nos. 172, 179), one of Firfiz Shah (Chron. No 226), one of Firiz Shah and Zafar (Chron. No. 245). There are in it also some coins, which are not to be found in Thomas’ Chronicles, though they have been published elsewhere: thus two of Mahmiid bin Muham- mad bin Firtz (with Abu-l-Mugaffar, as published by myself, in this Journal, vol. LII, p. 213, for 1883), and one of Mahmid bin Muham- mad bin Tughlaq (published by Mr. Delmerick in this Journal, vol. XLII, p. 97, for 1874). The most important in this collection of ‘‘ Pathdn ” coins, however, are five, which, to the best of my knowledge, are unique, or at least have never been noticed or published. These are the following (see Plate IV): 1, One coin of Muhammad bin Tughlaq (Plate IV, No 1). It reads as follows : Oby. Rey. A) oly Sle deat Culinll gi! The reverse seems to bear a date, consisting of two numerals. One of them, 5, is distinctly seen by the side of abé&; but the other above the s of ’Abbds is obscure. As the Khalif Abu-l-Abbds Ahmad reigned from 741-753, the date of the coin can only be 745. This coin has some similarity with Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s copper coin, No. 218 in Thomas’ Chronicles. 2, Two coins of Ghiydsu-d-din Tughlaq II. He is mentioned in Thomas’ Chronicles, as the twenty-first king (A. H. 790-791— A. D. 1388). He reigned only a few months, as the rival of Muhammad bin Virtiz and Abu Bakr. Thomas’ Chronicles only notice “silver and copper” coins of his (p. 302). The present collection contains two gold coins of his, of two different types. The first (Plate IV, No. 2) reads as follows : Oby. Rey. bed wihledh obey we} Y) I wit} s Giott &ls wphayad pat Bld gas aione coi illaledt aE Wald Margin: on reverse: [ ¥ | 41 gsite Andy he: 32 Dr. Hoernle—New or rare Muhammadan and Hindi: Coins. [No. 1, Tt was struck at Delhi, in the year 791. The mint is distinct on the margin, but the date is only partially preserved. There can be no doubt, however, of its being a coin of Tughlag IT., and not of Tughlag L., on account of the mention of the Khalif Abi ’Abdull4h. This Khalif only ascended the throne in 763 A. H., while Tughlaq I. died already in 725 A. H. Abi ’Abdulléh’s Khalifat lasted, with interruptions, down to 808 A. H. This identification I owe to Mr. Chas. J. Rodgers, of the Archeological Survey, to whom I showed the coin. The second (Pl. IV, No. 8) reads as follows : Oby. Rey. lial abe ele Syialt ye wir 9 hha ot kJ wrdd