315

CHUDASAMA RAS.

November, 1873.]

with a force to Alidar Bodidhar and took with him Devait Bodar. Devait, seeing that resist ance would be useless, brought his own son

became a sati at Wadhwan after her husband's

defeat and subsequent death. In this bardic account of the rise of the Chu

Uga, who was of Noghan's age, to the Thănadár.

dāsamás the principal feature of interest is the

The Thănadār at once put him to death and re

extremely old Gujarāti of the poetry. The

turned to Junágadh. After the departure of the

translations are perhaps liable to correction,-indeed it is very difficult to make anything out of the first set of verses. I may here mention that the legend of Râ Dyås under different forms is extremely common throughout Gujarāt, Kathiawād, Kachh, and Sindh. The Sindhi ver sion of the legend will be found in Captain G.

Thănadār, Devait Bodar sent for his son-in-law

Sanstio, an inhabitant of Alidar, and confided to him the fact of Noghan being concealed at his house, and requested his advice as to the best

mode of seating him on the throne of Junágadh. Sanstio replied, “Let us collect Ahirs on the occasion of my marriage to your daughter, and let us then invite the Thănadár to the wedding,

and at that time proclaim Noghan king with the aid of our army.” This being determined on, a day was fixed for the nuptials, and the Thăna dār was invited. He came with his army to Alidar Bodidhar. His men were placed separ

ately in a large enclosure, and pretended prepar ations for the feast were made. Suddenly the Åhirs fell upon them and put them all to the sword. Rá Noghan was now proclaimed king, and seated on the throne of Junágadh. The following duho is said in praise of Devait:-

$ºl. 2A'ſ 2nula lé! ?133 ºiºsº art II {'ll a Raleſd Glºu Glouri ºil-alºid II

Júz.2% oilºu ºvº axiola ºl sº I

Glºu waſyſ 2Alſlål alial taqut alik II When none could give even a dokra in alms, Devait Bodar gave his son Ugo the grandson of Ugamsi. May ſame always attend on all the Bodardas, Who giving Ugá as a substitute saved Rae No ghan. Rá Noghan ascended the gdidi in Samvat 874. In Samvat 875 there was a terrible famine in

Sorath, and the

Åhirs went to Sindh to obtain

food, and Jāsal daughter of Devaitaccompanied them. Hamir Sumro, the king of Sindh, seeing her beauty, was enamoured of her, and carried her off by force. Heaving this, Rá Noghan collected

an army and went to Sindh and defeated Hamir and rescued Jāsal.

He then returned to Junā

gadh and reigned there till his death, in Samvat 916. Rá Noghan had four sons: 1, Bhim; 2, Sodo; 3, Kuvât; and 4, Khengår. Khengār, the youngest son, succeeded him, and it is this Khen

găr whose queen, the beautiful Ranik Devi,

Stack's Sindhi Grammar.

There is considerable difficulty in assigning a correct date to Rä Gário.

In one version

of the verses regarding Rā Gário's conquest of Kanauj the word Jayachandra occurs in stead of Rāj-Indra. Now if this were the Jaya chandra whose daughter was carried off by Prithirāja Chohān, Rā Gario's date would be about the end of the 12th century of the Chris tian era. Again, if the ballad quoted by Mr. Kinloch Forbes in the Rás Málá be accepted as correct, and as the year of the accession of Siddhrāja was A. D. 1094, and as only Rá Noghan intervened between Rā Dyās and Rā Khengår, it would be impossible to accept the date of Sam. 860-61 (A.D. 803-4) as the date of Râ Dyås. The following explanation may perhaps throw some light on the question. In the Sindhi version the king (of Pattan) is called Anerái. It is well known to all who have consulted bards

that though almost always correct in their main facts, they are almost always incorrect in details. Especially regarding the kingdom of Anhilwādā Pattan the greatest confusion prevails. To the kings of this capital are assigned almost all the famous deeds performed in Gujarāt, and among these kings Kumār Pāla and Siddhrāja Jesingh are the ones most frequently quoted. They are assigned by one legend to the 9th, by others to the 10th, 11th, even 12th centuries.

If then in

the case of Râ Dyås, his foe be simply made some mighty Rāja-possibly Anerái of Somnāth Pattan or of Dhank, known also as Preh Pattan

and Rehewäs Pattan—the difficulty vanishes, especially if in the case of Mr. Forbes's legend Siddhrāja's name be considered merely as a

synonym of some mighty king, and numerous instances might be given of Siddhrāja's name being used in this way. An instance occurs to me in the Jethvā chronicles where the name of