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MAY, 1874.]
MISCELLANEA AND CORRESPONDENCE.
151
after in heaven. Such is the legendary account of the foundation of Patna.
BASANTA KUMAR NIVGI, B.A.
Teacher, Patna College, Bankipur. Bankipore, 27th August 1873.
THE COUVADE OR "HATCHING." SIR, - In the districts in South India in which Teluga is spoken, there is a wandering tribe of people called the Erukalavandlu. They generally pitch their huts, for the time being, just outside a town or village. Their chief occupations are fortune-telling, rearing pigs, and making mats. Those in this part of the Telugu country observe the custom mentioned in Max Müller's Chips from a German Workshop, vol. II. pp. 277-284. Directly the woman feels the birth-pangr, she informs her husband, who immediately takes some of her clothes, puts them on, places on his forehead the mark which the women usually place on theirs, retires into a dark room where there is only a very dim lamp, and lies down on the bed, covering himself up with a long cloth. When the child is born, it is washed and placed on the cot beside the father. Assafætida, jaggery, and other articles are then given, not to the mother, but to the father. During the days of ceremonial uncleanness the man is treated as the other Hindus treat theír women on such occasions. He is not allowed to leave his bed, but has everything needful brought to him.
The Erakalavandlu marry when quite young. At the birth of a daughter the father of an unmarried little boy often brings a rupee and ties it in the cloth of the father of the newly born girl. When the girl is grown up, he can claim her for his son. For twenty-five rupees he can claim her much earlier.
Can any of your correspondents in other parts of South India, and more especially those in the Telugu-speaking districte, kindly tell me whether they have met with people observing these customs?
JOHN CAIN. Dumagudem, 31st March 1874.
him in the Indian Antiquary, vol. II. p. 157 (though unfortunately disfigured by typographic errors), are on the whole very fairly dono; and he deserves our hearty thanks for having already brought to light such valuable materials on Bo important a period in the history of Southern India. First, as regards the name of the dynasty of which an acconnt is given on these plates. A re-examination of the original will, I believe, show that the form Kodgani, which would certainly be a very near approach to Kodagu, the name of Coorg, does not really occur in it. The name of the first king, given at the end of the third line of the first plate (being the eighth king of the Chera line), I read distinctly as Kongani Varma, the conjunct letter being clearly identical with the ng in kritottamañgah in the second line of the second plate, and in other words. In an inscription of Hari Varman, or Ari Varman, the tenth king of the same line, of which excellent impressions were brought home and kindly placed at my disposal by Sir Walter Elliot, the name of the grantor's grandfather is likewise spelt Kongani Varman. The same form is used in the Merkara plates, according to Mr. Rice's transcription in the Indian Antiquary, vol. I. p. 363. It may not, therefore, seem hazardous to assume that this is the correct spelling, and that the form Kogani, which occurs twice in the Någa mangala grant, originally arose from an omission of the dot, which came to be so largely used for the nasals.
The first part of the term Avinitandman, which is applied to the seventh king, can here scarcely be taken as a proper noun, but is, I think, merely intended to explain the rather unpleasant name of the king, Durvinita (ill-mannered"). The compound word which precedes the latter name, Mr. Rice reads kirdntdjuniyapanchadasa(s)argadikonkaro, which is translated by him equal to Kiratarjuna, the mighty master of the fifteen creations and of the syllable om. For the last part of the compound we have, however, to read tikdkdro, and to translate the whole the author of a commentary on fifteen cantos (the fifteenth canto P) of the Kirdtárjuniya. This surely is rather an interesting literary item.
In the account of Sri Vikrama, Mr. Rice reads vibeshato navakoshasya nitidstrasya vaktsiprayoktrikusalo, 'an embodiment of the nine treasures, skilled among those who teach and practise the science of politics. For navakoshasya the grant has (a)navascshasya; we have to translate, accordingly, particularly skilled among those who teach and practise the entire science of polity.
THE NÅGAMANGALA COPPER-PLATES. SIR, -Having bad occasion to examine more carefully the Någa mangala inscription, whilst carrying the plates through the photolithographic process, as requested by you, I beg to offer a few remarks on one or two passages of this high- ly important document. Though unable to concur with Mr. Rice in some of his readings and inter pretations. I have no hesitation in stating that the transliterated text and the translation proposed by
• See vol. II., plates, pp. 156, 158.
