213
1MISCELLANEA.
JULY, 1873.]
aham nian geham gamissan, it would be doubtful whose house was meant. With keraka it is very different; in many instances it is absolutely super fluous; as in kassa kerakaſh edah pavahanaſh, ‘whose is that carriage'? which is absolutely iden tical with kassa edah pavahanań. I am indebted to Dr. Pischel for pointing out the inaccuracy in the word bhramarkao, which of course ought to be bhamarako. It is inexplicable to me how it escaped me. Such slips will happen to
Who on King Nala’s neck let fall the wreath of victory— an appropriate reference to the Naishadha, which
most writers.
A Soni at Umreth, a town in the Kaira Zilla, was charged with receiving stolen property. The police in searching his house found four dies: two
DR. A. T. RUDOLF HoFRNLE.
Benares, May 1873.
concludes with the description of Damayanti's Svayamvara. F. S. GROWSE.
Mathurá, May 11, 1873.
DISCOVERY OF DIES.
of them Muhammadan, impressions alone of which ŠRI HARSHA, AUTHOR OF THE NAISHADHA. As a slight contribution to the discussion that
has arisen regarding the date of the poet Sri Harsha, it may be interesting to note the place assigned him by the Hindu bard Chand, writing at the end of the 12th century after Christ. At the commencement of his great epic poem, the Prithirdj Rāsa, he gives a list of the most eminent writers, his predecessors, with brief allusions to their principal works. The catalogue includes only eight names, which are evi dently arranged in what is intended to be chrono logical order. First comes is the great mythical
Totnrås, Šesh n ag, the author of the universe; second, W is h nu, who revealed the Veda; third, Vyāsa, the composer of the Mahābhārat; fourth,
have been forwarded to us. They are from 0.98
to 1 inch in diameter. The legend on the obverse one, as read by Professor Blochmann, is—
- 3° slas' ºte
3 Uº
Shāh ’Alam Pádishah i Ghāzī; on the one for the reverse is
J-330° -i-.” C-3's PA air ºxº Struck in the year 48 of the auspicious accession. As Prof. Blochmann remarks, they represent
“a coarse type of modern Shāh ’Alams as still struck by native princes, chiefly in Rajputana. As
Shāh ’Alam was the last (historical) Mughul em peror, his name is continued on coins.” The
other
two when first found were so
encrusted with rust and dirt, it was not clear
Śri Harsha, author of the Naishadha; sixth
there was any engraving on them, but a little washing and brushing revealed figures and le gends. We are enabled to print these directly
Kalid a sa, to whom is ascribed the popular
from the dies themselves.
Suka de va, who recited the Sri Bhāgavat; fifth, work, in mixed verse and prose, entitled the Bho japrabandha”; seventh, D and a m Ali, without reference to any special work, though doubtless the Dasa-Kumára-Charita is intended; and eighth and last, Jay a de va, who wrote the Gítá Govinda. From this it is clear that Ch and regarded the Naishadha as a poem of considerable antiquity; and writing in the twelfth century he is presum ably so far a better authority than Răja Šek hara, who wrote in the fourteenth. Mr. Beames
has attempted a translation of the passage to which I refer (reprinted in the Ind. Ant. vol. I. p. 318), but it is not very accurate; and he has omitted as
They represent clumsy imitations of the impress on Venetian sequins. The legend round the Madonna ought to be R E G IS - IST E - D W C A -
S IT - T - x . P E . D A T. Q - TV -
unintelligible the line in which Šri Harsha’s That down behind the Apostle on the other side name occurs, adding in a note that he does not know what the allusion is. The couplet is :
of genuine coins is S . M. W. E. NE T .
aſks T (fºrm ºf gº ºſt
- CPI # fºr aſa grº ll
which may be thus literally done into English:
Śri Harsha fifth, prečminent in arts of poesy,
And behind the ‘Doge' ought to be his name: one before us reads 'PET : GRIMANI.' Prof. Bloch
mann mentions a forged one in the Calcutta Mint cabinets reading I O AN : C or N E L and a genu
- No allusion to this work can be traced in Mr. Beames' translation, who renders the line meaning simply ‘who
composed the chronicle of King Bhoja' by ‘who firmly bound the dyke of threefold enjoyment.