218
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
ordinarily to use either his right hand or his trenchant blade: but was content upon common occasions to rely on the club in his left, with which he actually knocked down two men in the affray that caused his final apprehension. The matchlock is in common use throughout the Presidency, and, as far as I am aware, there
[AUGUST, 1873.
is no variety in its appearance or mechanism, although some barrels are made of Damascus twist, and some are rifled.
The bore is invari
ably small, and the bullets used are frequently of iron. The best I have seen belonged to the Rāja Ratansing Jādurao of Malegaum, near Baramati, and were said to be Rūmī.
INSCRIPTIONS ON A CANNON AT RANGPUR. BY G. H. DAMANT, B.C.S.
Amongst a number of old cannons lying in front of the kachari at Rangpur is one made of brass with a dragon's mouth carved at the muzzle; it bears two inscriptions, one in Persian and the other in Sanscrit, and has the word
‘Bundoola’ written on it in English characters. The Persian inscription is as follows:—
cºe/U; sū; eſta st-itº e-shl” ete 29
ey's cºre -=le rul 2 s;% s”sº jºke
Jahan gir nagar is either Gaur or Dhākā, most probably the latter. The figures given as the weight I cannot interpret, and should be glad of any information on the subject. The Sanskrit inscription is in Bengali charac ters of an old type, approaching the Devana gari, and is very much worn and difficult to make out, but Bābu Rajendralāla Mitra has kindly given me the following transliteration and translation :-
Sri Śri svarga Náráyana deva saubháre svara ex=1 ...” “J.L. 19% -"> 2 x <= 3×3 els ×
_j xº~
rº- *29's 3 × 3.4 × Gy;”
gadádhara sinhena yavanan jittá turáka hiryū
me iman sailpráptah Sake 1604:—
I, Sri Sri Svarga Nārāyana Deva, lord of sy" > **** * * * ~& ºl" cºol 3 jº rºle “t. x 26 tº 2-293& x C-1°ytº ºr
Saubhāra, Gadādhara Sinha, having conquered the Yavanas and destroyed the Turåks, obtain
this in the Śāk year 1604 = A.D. 1683. w}, x – rºle ºr * > *rēº 1. r1 >i- ed He says Svarga Nārāyana Deva is a com Jºs 2- . Afte mon title of the kings of Asām, and that Gadā e-2
- | ** Use je
| | |
• | | |e
ºf 3
slº 13 Lºy”
The meaning appears to be:—“During the reign of the king of kings, protector of the world,
dhara was reigning in A.D. 1683. The history of the gun appears to be—that it was made in Dhākā by the Musalmāns in the reign of Jahāngir and placed in one of their
frontier posts, Rangamatiya probably, from whence it was taken by the Asămese in A.D.
Nuruddin Jahāngir Bădshah Ghāzī, when the Khānzad Khān Firoz Jang was Subadār, and Akhand Moulana Murshid was Minister, and Hakim Haidar Ali Darogha, and Pir Muham
1683. Lastly the Burmese general Bundoola conquered Asām in 1822, and probably this gun
mad and Sri Harihardas Amins of Bengal, this
two hundred pieces of cannon from Rangpur,
cannon was made of Jahāngiri brass in Jahān girnagar by Surmanāth in the year 1021.
time that the word “Bundoola” was written
The weight of the cannon with its carriage, by Jahāngiri weight, is 619, 5113, rºr. The master of the ordnance was Sayyid Ahmad.”
was amongst his captures; and in 1825 Asām was recaptured by Colonel Richards, who took the capital of Asām; it must have been about this
on the gun. The gun was brought to the kachari in 1862, after the mutiny, when the zamindårs were disarmed.
THE NALADIYAR.
BY THE REV. F. J. LEEPER, TRANQUEBAR.
The Naladiyar is one of the few original works we have in Tamil. It contains altogether forty chapters, of ten stanzas each, on moral subjects.
The origin of the name is thus told in the introduction of Father Beschi's
Shen Tamil
Grammar –“Eight thousand poets visited the